If there is a pawn of insurers in this state Senate race, it isn't Justice.
A Times Editorial
Published October 12, 2006
Before the race even officially began, voters in a state Senate district that spans Tampa Bay were given the goods on Charlie Justice. Justice, a 38-year-old three-term House member and University of South Florida academic adviser, found himself with this label: "Wrong for children. Wrong for families. Wrong for us."
The Republican mailer lacked explanation, of course, and its message presumably came as a surprise to Justice's wife and two young daughters. But be forewarned, District 16 voters. This is only the beginning of a ground and air assault that may employ weapons of mass distortion.
Justice's opponent, 35-year-old advertising consultant and three-term House member Kim Berfield, has had plenty of practice. In a nasty Republican primary with Frank Farkas, she and Farkas did everything but throw spitwads. Farkas tried to tar her as a Scientologist, which she is not, and pictured her wearing a beauty queen's sash labeled: "Ms. Insurance Industry Friend of the Year." Berfield superimposed Farkas' face on a dog, as in lapdog, and portrayed him as reaching into a cookie jar: "As a boy, 'lil Frankie Farkas developed a bad habit."
Now the stakes are raised, and both parties think they have a shot at winning this seat. That means big money, maybe as much as $7-million, could be poured into this matchup. Unfortunately, that also means voters are likely to be treated to many more sophomoric stunts that have no relationship to reality.
The claim that Justice is "wrong for children" is so witless as to be comical, but a new commercial casting Justice as a tool of the insurance industry suffers from a bizarre identity crisis.
In the primary, Farkas may have exaggerated Berfield's close relationship with the insurance industry. And Democrats already have wrongly attributed the source of a description of her as the "darling of the insurance industry." But Berfield is in fact chairwoman of a House insurance committee that has failed miserably to bring homeowners' insurance rates under control. She in fact was named representative of the year in 2004 by the Florida Insurance Council. She in fact, as of last month, had received $73,000 in campaign contributions from the insurance industry - 15 times as much as Justice.
If there is a pawn of the insurance industry in this race, Charlie Justice is not it. Maybe Berfield thinks the best defense is a good offense, but these attacks are simply out of bounds.
