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Charlie Justice: For a better state Senate

Voters in the District 16 Senate race need to keep something in mind as allegations fly over which candidate is more beholden to the insurance industry. Only one candidate was in a unique position to act decisively, but didn't, on the insurance crisis. As a majority-party member of the House Insurance Committee, Republican Kim Berfield and her colleagues managed only weak legislation that fails to bring insurers back to the state or reduce premiums.

While a solution for scarce and costly homeowners insurance will be difficult, Berfield had her chance and failed to deliver. Rep. Charlie Justice touts a Democratic plan that would replace state-run Citizens Property Insurance with a state fund to underwrite all initial hurricane losses. While there are concerns about the proposal's financial viability and risk, it is at least an ambitious attempt to solve the problem.

Both Justice, 38, and Berfield, 35, have six years' legislative experience in the House. Both have worked their way up through the ranks. But Justice offers a more independent voice for residents of the district, which wraps around the bay from north St. Petersburg to Tampa. Berfield, a part-time advertising consultant, has been too much a follower of conservative House leaders who are outside the mainstream.

Justice, an academic adviser at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, would make education reform less punitive by using the FCAT test as a diagnostic tool for teachers and students. He would slow the mindless urge to privatize government services and fight to bring more balance to taxation. In state Senate District 16, the Times recommends Charlie Justice.

[Last modified October 20, 2006, 05:57:18]