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Suit says ads maligned legislator

By wire services
Published May 7, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - A Republican legislator has sued an influential lobbying group and a leading political strategist, accusing them of "malicious character attacks" in his 2004 campaign.

Rep. Paige Kreegel, R-Punta Gorda, accuses the Florida Home Builders Association and consultant Randy State Nielsen, owner of the West Palm Beach consulting firm Public Concepts. The builders, working with some independent political groups, paid for campaign mailings for or against various candidates.

Kreegel, a doctor, said mailings paid for by the home builders and produced by Nielsen's firm falsely accused him of being arrested for criminal mischief.

The allegation stemmed from a 1989 subpoena. A former patient of Kreegel's who had an extensive psychiatric history had called police claiming Kreegel kicked the door of her car. Police issued a summons for him to come in for a deposition, but it was never delivered.

Charlotte County court records of the complaint show an undelivered 1989 subpoena, and that the case was dismissed in 1996.

MIAMI - Rafael L. Diaz-Balart, a Cuban exile politician who fervently opposed Cuban President Fidel Castro and was the father of two U.S. congressmen, died Friday after a long battle with leukemia. He was 79.

Diaz-Balart died at his home in Key Biscayne with his four sons - Rafael, Jose and U.S. Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart - wife, Mercedes, and her daughter, Belen, by his side, a family spokesman said. The elder Diaz-Balart was an attorney and Cuban legislator before Castro seized power in the 1959 Communist revolution. After leaving Cuba, he founded the White Rose Party that was dedicated to fighting the Castro regime.

[Last modified May 7, 2005, 01:01:10]