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Democrat calls war, Medicare the key issues

By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published February 10, 2006

INVERNESS - Congressional candidate John Russell said he is not the political novice he was two years ago when he finished a close second in the Democratic primary for the 5th Congressional District.

With issues such as the war in Iraq and Medicare to campaign on, he said he is confident that voters will usher in a change in the November elections.

"I'm running because I'm upset with the way our government is being run," Russell said during a gathering Wednesday. "It's being run right into the ground."

Russell wants to represent the 5th Congressional District, which includes all of Citrus, Hernando, Levy and Sumter counties and parts of Pasco, Marion, Lake and Polk counties.

In 2004, Russell finished second in the four-candidate Democratic primary. Robert Whittel prevailed, then lost in the general election to incumbent Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville.

Russell isn't the only Democrat from 2004 who is trying again: Richard J. Penberthy and David Werder also are running. Whittel has not filed campaign paperwork.

Brown-Waite so far does not face a GOP challenger in the election.

Wednesday evening, Russell spoke to and then took questions from a group of about two dozen at a downtown Inverness art gallery.

"Ginny Brown-Waite is marching in lockstep with President Bush every step of the way," Russell said. "On Medicare, on Iraq, she's right there with the administration."

Russell said he thinks the new Medicare drug benefit plan is really the first step toward eliminating the program.

"That's the ulterior motive," he said. "After they sign up the last person, then all of a sudden, it will be "Hey, why do we even need Medicare?"' he said. "The same ulterior motive will be behind privatizing Social Security accounts, if that ever happens."

That way, he said, "the administration won't have to pay back all the money they borrowed from Social Security."

Regarding the Iraq war, Russell criticized Brown-Waite's views, detailed in a guest column printed this week in the Citrus Times.

"She said anyone who disagrees with her views is unpatriotic," Russell said. "No, we're not. That's Ginny Brown-Waite. That's her arrogance. That's her envelope of corruption.

Brown-Waite addressed that general claim in her column. "I defy the editor of this paper or any paper to show where I questioned anyone's patriotism," she wrote. "I don't know of any Republican, from the president to the county chairman, who has done so."

Jorge Sanchez can be reached at 860-7313 or e-mail at sanchez@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 10, 2006, 01:11:18]