Beaches district battle heats up
The GOP rivals in the House District 54 race are featured in fliers that are less than flattering.
By PAUL SWIDER
Published September 1, 2006
The flier wars moved onto the Pinellas beaches Thursday with a mailing from a political committee calling a Republican candidate for the state House District 54 seat inept.
"It's pretty brutal," Jim Frishe said of a flier that cites the Miami Herald as saying he was the most ineffective legislator when he served in 1991. The flier equates ineffectiveness with inability and says voters "won't stand for his incompetence."
The flier was produced by HealthWatch Florida, which has also sent fliers in the District 16 state Senate race. The group is led by Donald Krippendorf, a St. Petersburg chiropractor.
Frishe said Krippendorf's profession is no surprise because his main opponent is Rod Jones, the chiropractor son of Sen. Dennis Jones, also a chiropractor.
"I find it amusing Dennis is using the Miami Herald as the standard in a Republican primary," said Frishe of what he described as a Democrat-leaning newspaper.
Frishe said he expected such fliers as the campaign winds down to Tuesday's primary. He said he has received a recorded message by phone echoing the flier.
Jones said there also was a flier knocking him. In a piece paid for by People for a Better Florida, a group heavily backed by the Florida Medical Association and physicians, Jones is criticized for not voting in the 2000 presidential election. He said he recalls voting absentee while on a cycling trip around the world.
Jones said mailings by another political committee, All Children Matter, support Frishe. He said such fliers amount to a stealth campaign because Frishe could not raise enough money directly. Frishe has said Dennis Jones raised the $170,000 his son has collected. Frishe has raised $41,000.