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This year, candidate Mattingly says, is his year

By C.T. BOWEN
Published August 14, 2006

Steve Mattingly perseveres.

On this day, he is in khaki shorts, a pressed white short-sleeved dress shirt, white socks and loafers. It is the uniform for someone campaigning door to door in 90-degree heat.

He walks. He drives. He rides an electric scooter to go neighborhood to neighborhood. He figures he's talked to 15,000 people, plus one dog, across state House of Representatives District 44. People listen. The canine bit him.

In Pasco County, the district covers a largely rural land mass north of State Road 52 between U.S. 41 and Interstate 75. It is a piece of land that is home to just 1,810 registered voters, a Tampa Bay Water well field, working ranches and the Traveler's Rest mobile home park. The heart of District 44 is Hernando County, but it also stretches to Sumter and Lake counties.

Getting around takes some effort, and the scooter is in the shop right now. So, Mattingly is driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck carrying a simple message on a rear placard.

"Steve Mattingly 2006."

And, no, the sign does not have "2004" and "2002" crossed out beside his name.

Mattingly, a Ford Motor Co. retiree, is running for state office for the third consecutive election. Four years ago, as a Democrat, he lost the primary for an open state Senate seat now held by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, though Mattingly, surprisingly, carried Hernando County.

He was back in 2004. This time he was the party's nominee because nobody else believed Fasano could be defeated. The incumbent senator couldn't.

Mattingly now confesses that he, too, knew the outcome in advance: "I didn't have a chance, I knew that." Ditto for 2002, he said.

Now, he's trying to be the Brooklyn Dodgers. "Wait till next year" was the familiar battle cry for Brooklyn fans in the 1950s. Mattingly believes this is his year. His optimism is based on his conversations with the voters and their general disdain toward those in office.

It's an open seat because term limits preclude state Rep. David Russell, R-Brooksville, from seeking re-election, but Mattingly's primary opponent, Robert Schenck, has the aura of near incumbency from his name recognition as a Hernando County commissioner. Democrat Glenn Claytor awaits the winner in the general election.

Mattingly said this candidacy will close his political career if he is not elected. He knows he is considered a long shot. He knows people have made fun of him.

He is running his familiar shoestring campaign. The issues haven't changed much. He still worries about health insurance and prescription drugs, a concern honed by his efforts with AARP and as a volunteer tax preparer for seniors.

But Mattingly's allegiance has altered. He is running as a Republican. The Democratic Party didn't help financially two years ago when he ran against Fasano, and, most notably, he said he was heckled at a meeting of the West Pasco Democratic Club because he did not oppose the war in Iraq. You think they would heckle John Kerry and Hillary Clinton for their war votes?

Republicans aren't the morally superior party, Mattingly said, they just know how to better market their platform.

One issue new to the 2006 campaign that is crossing party lines is the lack of affordable homeowners insurance. Mattingly's familiarity with the issue comes from close to home. His daughter works at a $10-per-hour job and planned to purchase a modest house in Hudson. She could swing the mortgage payment until the insurance premium pushed the required escrow beyond her means.

If elected, he says, he will call for a special session of the Legislature to deal with homeowners insurance. He also said he will knock on doors of congressional representatives to take up the health care concerns that are beyond the state's reach.

Ask him what bill he will introduce first and he can tick off five, including his plan that businesses should shut down at 2 p.m. on Election Day so workers have a greater opportunity to vote.

Ask Schenck for his maiden bill and he comes up empty, at least initially. After too long a pause, he picks portability of the Save Our Homes amendment as his first bill. In other words, a tax break.

At 31, Schenck has more experience in elected office than Mattingly, who turns 61 this week. He also has significantly more campaign money. Schenck had raised more than $67,000 through late July; Mattingly had a single $500 contribution, plus $900 of his own money.

But, in this race, PAC money and passion are separate qualities.

C.T. Bowen is the editor of editorials for the Pasco Times. He can be reached at bowen@sptimes.com or 727 869-6239.

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[Last modified August 14, 2006, 05:42:07]