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School Board candidate must do more homework

Cathi Compton should do a little more homework. The former Zephyrhills City Council member and candidate for District 1 School Board seat authorized hundreds of people to make telephone solicitation calls on behalf of her campaign.

Just one little problem: Some of the people didn't know their names were on the list. They're supporting other candidates. Or they're staying out of the race. Some are even waging campaigns of their own and don't need the grief of being identified with Compton's campaign.

That was the case with Assistant County Attorney Anthony Salzano, who is running for a seat on the Pasco County Court bench, a nonpartisan race, as is Compton's School Board contest. But Salzano was one of more than 320 names (including a few duplicates) forwarded by Compton to Elections Supervisor Kurt Browning identifying them as "the Pasco Republican Executive Committee and following people are authorized to make phones calls on my behalf."

Salzano rightly had his name expunged. Compton filed an amendment earlier this week removing his name from the prospective callers.

Interjecting partisan politics into a judicial race should be the last thing anyone affiliated with the Pasco Republican Executive Committee would want to do considering the fine slapped on the committee for laundering campaign contributions during the 2002 campaign for the doomed judgeship of John Renke III.

"She (Compton) needs to be more careful," said Browning. We agree and imagine others do, too.

School Board candidate Frank Parker, who is seeking the District 5 seat, and county Commissioner Jack Mariano weren't aware their names had become tied to Compton's campaign. The list also includes east Pasco businessman Wilton Simpson. He, his wife and his two companies donated a total of $2,000 to the campaign of one of Compton's opponents, Allen Altman, for whom Simpson is serving as fundraising chairman. Compton filed yet another amendment Tuesday removing their names from her list.

The would-be solicitors also include Karen and Peter Hanzel of Wesley Chapel, who were on the host committee for Altman's central Pasco campaign kickoff, plus Altman supporters Dorothy Wood, Carol Cruz and Richard Hunt.

We suspect Compton took the list from someone affiliated with the party and posted it unabridged. Under state law, candidates must give prior written authorization to telephone solicitors before the calls begin and present that documented permission to the Supervisor of Elections Office. The law came in the aftermath of the highly publicized scare-tactic telephone calls in the waning days of the 1994 gubernatorial campaign between Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush.

Compton's chief backer, GOP Executive Committee chairman Bill Bunting, said he had no problem with the list. Bunting also told St. Petersburg Times staff writer Mary Spicuzza he was seeking greater accountability from the School Board.

Accountable to whom? The public or to the party's executive committee, which endorsed Compton's candidacy?

Credit Compton for trying to follow the law, but next time she should do a little more research before publicly identifying her campaign supporters. Such inattention to detail will not serve her or the public well if she joins the Pasco School Board.

[Last modified August 17, 2006, 06:39:03]