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When Les is Less, it's a big mistakeBy ALICIA CALDWELL © St. Petersburg Times, published October 28, 2000 More than 60,000 campaign fliers had come off the presses before Les Miller saw the mistake. There was an extra "s," which made his first name Less. As opposed to more. The cost of printing being what it is, the candidate for the state Senate seat representing parts of Tampa and St. Petersburg had to figure out a way to salvage the mailing. So, Miller and the printer came up with a compromise: A hole punch would be employed to obliterate the offending item. "The only way they could straighten it out was to punch out the last "s,' " said Miller, who is being forced by term limits from his position as state House minority leader. Punch it out they did to save the $2,870 cost of reprinting. Then, they saw the second mistake. Sometimes when things go wrong, they go way wrong. The campaign mailer left off the disclaimer -- the tag line that says it's a paid political ad from a candidate. "It was inadvertently left off, but I accept full responsibility for it as the candidate," said Miller, a Tampa Democrat who is facing Republican Rudy Bradley and no-party candidate Kim Coljohn. "We noticed it after it went out." The mailing lists Miller's priorities and the endorsements Miller has received, including a half-dozen unions. Yet, the black and green mailer doesn't have the ubiquitous union "bug," the logo signifying the work was done in a union shop -- standard procedure for Democratic candidates who have long counted union support as a stalwart of their campaigns. Another mistake? No, Miller said. While other campaign printing jobs have been done in union shops, he spread the work to other important constituents. "Being a minority, we wanted to use a minority printer," said Miller, who said the work was done by a printer in the Senate 21 district. "I've gotten union endorsements, and they know I will be there for them when I am in the Senate as I have been since I was first elected." How green is the vote?If you're wondering what's on the minds of Pinellas County voters, the League of Women Voters of St. Petersburg just might have the answer. Last month, the group conducted a telephone survey of 183 people -- most of them registered voters -- asking them to rank issues most important to them. Those surveyed said the environment was an important countywide issue. You might have guessed that a strong interest in green issues would have hurt County Commission candidate John Morroni. After all, as a state representative, he voted to eliminate emissions testing in Pinellas, Hillsborough and four other Florida counties. It was inconvenient, he said, to spend a half-day getting his two cars inspected and tags renewed. Yet, Morroni managed to beat former Redington Beach mayor Ramona Updegraff, despite her interest and experience in preserving the environment and the region's water supply, in the Republican primary for the District 6 seat. Don Crane, a former state legislator who remains active in environmental issues, said Pinellas voters might not consider air pollution a big problem. "If you ask people in Pinellas, they're going to be more interested in water pollution and development of open land," said Crane, of St. Petersburg. The survey, which was conducted with the help of the University of South Florida and St. Petersburg Junior College, isn't weighted to account for the demographic makeup of the county. And the phone numbers called were all published numbers, leaving out people who are unlisted. While the survey isn't exactly what statisticians would call pure, it is still an interesting look at what people are thinking about. All we can hope is that politicians are listening.
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