Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Politics

Manners missing in U.S. House race

The two candidates and their supporters employ schoolyard rhetoric in the campaign.

By ELENA LESLEY
Published October 24, 2006

U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite and her Democratic challenger, John Russell, have forgotten basic playground etiquette this election season.

She has suggested that her opponent needs a jolt of pepper spray and has slyly mocked his height. Russell says the congresswoman's only positive trait is that she's a snappy dresser.

Their supporters' high jinks have been no more civil.

"I call Russell 'roach' because they're the lowest form of life," said Brown-Waite supporter Mike Pitts Jr., who hand-drew the critter on a sign at a recent political rally.

But political analysts have consistently labeled Brown-Waite's seat safe, so what's all the fuss about? The Republican representative's campaign has raked in nearly $700,000, while Russell's grass roots effort has drawn $63,000.

In a year that many predict will usher Democrats into formerly Republican seats, Russell has failed to draw significant funds from the national party.

But his campaign manager, Suzan Franks, said people need to look past the numbers and toward the district's political atmosphere. Voters want change, she said.

Local Republicans "are hostile bordering on rage because they're desperate," she said. "They can see that John is gaining momentum."

Numbers on Russell's Web site, taken from a poll commissioned by his campaign, show him and the representative neck-and-neck. And that was before the Mark Foley scandal broke, Russell likes to point out.

A self-proclaimed "progressive" candidate, Russell, 50, is an acute care nurse practitioner. He favors a single-payer health care system, aggressive development of alternative forms of energy and crackdowns on those who employ illegal immigrants.

A longtime opponent of the war in Iraq, he thinks the United States needs to devise a plan for starting to withdraw troops.

Though Brown-Waite, 63, once vocally supported the war, she has now expressed misgivings about the U.S. role in Iraq. This spring she wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, highlighting her concern about the level of corruption among Iraqi officials.

The U.S. needs to make the Iraqis "step up and take responsibility for their government," she said recently.

A deadline should be imposed on the Iraqi government for adequate training of military and domestic police, she said. If they fail to meet the deadline, she continued, the United States should begin withdrawing troops.

Brown-Waite said she would give the Iraqi government no more than a year.

On other hot issues, the congresswoman's views contrast more sharply with those of Russell. While he wants to repeal Medicare Part D, she says the program only needs some reworking.

Brown-Waite supports building a fence along the border with Mexico and blasts Spanish-speaking immigrants for making her "feel like a stranger in my own country."

But more than her stance on national issues, it's Brown-Waite's reputation for constituent service that has made a mark on voters - and made her a formidable incumbent.

"When Karen Thurman was our representative, I never got a response from her office," said veteran Jay Conti Sr., a registered Democrat supporting the congresswoman. Brown-Waite and her staff "have helped me with two veterans issues and one involving Social Security."

A hit with military men, Brown-Waite likes to brag about the high density of war heroes in her district. She spends many days pinning lost medals on aging veterans as their wives and families watch proudly.

"I went to Russell's Web site and it was all antiwar propaganda," Conti said. "There was nothing about veterans issues."

While Russell claims his opponent hasn't done nearly as much for veterans as she claims, whether he can prompt her fans to question Brown-Waite's reputation for service is another matter.

"Ginny Brown-Waite really stands up for vets," supporter Pitts said, "and that means a lot."

Elena Lesley can be reached at elesley@sptimes.com or 564-3627.

[Last modified October 24, 2006, 01:31:08]