Republican Nancy Argenziano for State Senate District 3
Published October 18, 2004
Nancy Argenziano arrived in the state Senate two years ago with a reputation for headline-grabbing antics and brash opinions that she earned during her six eventful years in the state House. She also carried a growing list of legislative accomplishments and an impressive record of constituent service.
After defeating incumbent state Sen. Richard Mitchell in 2002, the Dunnellon Republican picked up where she left off, championing issues important to her constituents and stepping on some toes along the way.
Argenziano has been a vocal opponent of the telephone rate increase measure and continues to press the issue. She took on Gov. Jeb Bush and his advisory Council of 100 over a controversial water-transfer scheme, which is in line with her consistent efforts to protect local water sources. She has fought to improve nursing home care, to reduce prescription drug costs and to help the agricultural interests within her district.
Constituent service is vital to Argenziano, a challenge in a 13-county district that sprawls from Citrus County north to the Georgia border and includes state workers in Tallahassee, retirees in Citrus and ranching families in between. When the summer's hurricanes struck the state, Argenziano worked tirelessly to ensure that needed supplies of ice, food and water made it to her affected communities.
Showing that she has not shed her combativeness by being part of the more collegial state Senate, Argenziano lashed out last year at House members who "drank the Kool-Aid" and blindly followed Speaker Johnny Byrd, whom she called "a lunatic."
Proud to be anything but "politics as usual," Argenziano has a reputation for being blunt and forceful, which has at times irritated colleagues and lobbyists but wins the respect of her constituents. Incoming Senate President Tom Lee noted, "No one has done a better job remembering where she came from and who elected her than Nancy Argenziano."
Her opponent, Democrat Barry Brooks of Tallahassee, is the chief deputy tax collector in Leon County. Brooks is seeking his first elective office after having held a variety of governmental staff positions in Tallahassee over the past 15 years, including working in the Florida House and with Gov. Lawton Chiles as an analyst.
If some of his positions - such as protecting water resources, enhancing the state's eco-tourism base, opposing unfunded state mandates and defending the state's trust funds from raids - sound familiar, it is because they echo stands that Argenziano has taken in the Legislature.
Argenziano's tireless efforts on behalf of Floridians in District 3 and throughout the state have earned her a return to the Senate, and the Times recommends that voters choose her on Nov. 2.
MIKE FASANO, Republican, State Senate District 11
We find much of freshman Sen. Mike Fasano's legislative record disagreeable. How do you represent your constituents adequately when you get kicked off the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee for being closed-minded on tax reform? Likewise, pushing for American flag displays in school classrooms and creating a local board to allow Pasco's private water and sewer customers to vent are feel-good measures with little substance.
Yet, Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has carved a niche with his strong constituent service work and as a consumer advocate. Fasano voted against the telephone rate increase bill, lobbied the governor to veto it and said that if re-elected, he will introduce legislation to repeal the rate hike if a court challenge is unsuccessful. That alone merits his re-election.
His Democratic opponent, Steve Mattingly, a retired auto worker in Shady Hills, spends much of his campaign walking and speaking to business owners along the U.S. 19 corridor in northern Pinellas and western Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties. He is sincere, yet many of his concerns about code enforcement and local regulation of businesses should be addressed by county commissioners, not by legislators in Tallahassee.
The Times recommends Fasano.
PAULA DOCKERY, Republican State Senate District 15
Six years as a state representative and two years as a state senator provide Paula Dockery with the experience and insight she needs to be reelected to another term in the Senate.
The conservative Republican from Lakeland, whose District 15 includes most of Hernando County east of Mariner Boulevard, is on the verge of seeing her considerable influence grow even more.
As majority whip and a senior member of several key Senate committees, including appropriations, Dockery is in a key position. No legislation of consequence makes it to the floor without crossing Dockery's desk. If re-elected, she will return to Tallahassee with the goal of becoming Senate president in 2008.
We sometimes are disappointed with the agenda Dockery pursues. Her vote earlier this year to raise local telephone rates, and her co-sponsorship of a House bill in 2000 that would have been one of the biggest land grabs in state history, are examples of misguided priorities set by lobbyists, not citizens.
However, Dockery also has championed the environment by consistently opposing attempts by the Legislature to raid trust funds that were set aside for land preservation. She also sponsored legislation that slows growth and promotes farming in rural areas by allowing landowners to sell to the government the conservation easements on their agricultural property.
As Dockery, 43, coasts toward almost certain re-election, she generously declines to categorize her opponent, Carol Castagnero, as the one-issue candidate she mostly is.
Castagnero, a 66-year-old Democrat and retired teacher, has declared war on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. She is a sincere, concerned woman who is passionate about confronting the FCAT's inherent flaws, but Castagnero is not a contender in this race against an experienced, popular and well-financed lawmaker.
We recommend voters in District 15 return Dockery to the Senate.
