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Papers' endorsements were claimed in error
By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published October 5, 2006
TAMPA - Democratic candidate Lisa Rodriguez said she mistakenly mailed about 5,000 fliers to voters this week claiming both local newspapers recommended her for the Hillsborough County Commission. Both the St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune did recommend Rodriguez in the District 4 commission primary against opponent James Rowell. But neither paper has published endorsements yet for the Nov. 7 general election, in which she faces Republican Al Higginbotham. "I take full responsibility for it," Rodriguez said Wednesday. "We were trying to get something out to the absentee voters. It was an oversight. Once we realized what happened, we stopped it and fixed it." Mary Figg, a Rodriguez volunteer, said the campaign simply reprinted fliers used in the primary without carefully proofreading them. "We didn't do it deliberately," Figg said. She said when they realized the error, she called both newspapers to apologize. "I've had to grovel twice this week," Figg said. Rodriguez said new fliers won't cite the prior recommendations. The Times considers the primary election and the general election as two different races and makes separate recommendations for each. "Just because we endorse you in the primary doesn't mean we're going to endorse you in the general," said Philip Gailey, the newspaper's editor of editorials.
[Last modified October 5, 2006, 01:15:08]
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