CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 24, 2008 – 12:03 a.m.
Republicans in Florida Race Try to Move Past Foley Scandal
By Rachel Kapochunas, CQ Staff
It has been nearly two years since six-term Republican Mark Foley resigned as representative of Florida’s 16th District, after revelations that he had sent sexually explicit online messages to House pages. Three Republicans, all potentially strong general election candidates in the usually Republican-leaning south Florida district, have entered the Aug. 26 primary for the nomination to challenge freshman Democrat Tim Mahoney — who, GOP partisans argue, won the seat in 2006 only because of Foley’s downfall.
But the Foley incident is still making waves in the generally GOP-leaning south Florida district, and threatens to hinder the Republicans’ targeted effort to oust the well-funded Mahoney.
Among those who think this is a problem for the GOP is the Republican who knows best the difficulty of dispersing the cloud caused by the Foley scandal: Joe Negron, who just weeks before the 2006 election was plucked from the state House by Republican officials as their nominee to replace the resigned incumbent.
“I think the memory of Mark Foley is a significant obstacle that the Republican nominee will have to overcome,” said Negron in an interview with CQ Politics.
Foley’s unethical behavior was first widely reported in late September 2006. Though he quickly resigned his seat and dropped his bid for re-election, the events came too late for his name to be removed from that November’s ballot. Despite an expensive information campaign emphasizing that any votes cast for Foley’s name would accrue to replacement nominee Negron, Mahoney narrowly eked out a win by 49.5 percent to 47.7 percent.
National Democrats had all but ignored Mahoney’s campaign before the scandal. Foley was a popular congressman who won with 68 percent of the vote in 2004, the same year that 55 percent of 16th District voters favored re-electing President Bush. But the scandal jolted Democratic officials into viewing the seat as a strong pickup opportunity, and they put in extensive money and energy to support Mahoney in the campaign’s final weeks.
Circumstances will be different for the Republicans this year, with a new nominee on the campaign trail and — this time — actually on the ballot. Voters are ready to put the Foley troubles behind them, say Republican candidates in this year’s 16th District race. “He’s not going to be on the ballot this year. People don’t talk about him,” lawyer Tom Rooney said during an interview with CQ Politics.
But Negron and others say the district is still not a slam-dunk for the GOP, in a contest that CQ Politics rates as No Clear Favorite.
“I definitely think the district is in play and I think it could go either way,” Negron said, though he added, “I think the Republican nominee has a good chance.”
The three Republicans vying for the nomination are Rooney, an Army veteran and member of the family that owns the Pittsburgh Steelers football team; state Rep. Gayle Harrell; and Palm Beach Gardens City Councilman Hal Valeche, a former Navy fighter pilot.
Rooney is focused on portraying himself as a political “outsider,” since his opponents have experience in elected office. Rooney has also gained traction by promoting his military background.
Rooney says he has a positive message about the future, and that it is resonating with voters. “But we need new leadership to get us there,” he added, “and I think that’s what our campaign more than anybody else provides.”
All Republicans in the race are touting their conservative credentials and are contrasting themselves with Mahoney. The Democratic incumbent, a wealthy investment banking firm owner, crafted an image as a moderate in 2006 that he has strived to maintain in office, but the Republicans are determined to cast him as a liberal.
Republicans in Florida Race Try to Move Past Foley Scandal
“This is a district that has Republican and conservative values, and we’re being represented by someone who doesn’t share our values,” said Anthony Bonna, Harrell’s campaign manager.
Harrell, the only woman among the major party candidates, believes she has a support base among women voters that will enable her to win both the primary and general elections. She is known from her eight-year tenure in the state capital of Tallahassee, especially in St. Lucie County, located on the Atlantic coast side of the 16th Congressional District, which cuts all the way across to the Gulf of Mexico. She touts a legislative record which she says includes working to lower taxes, secure the nation’s borders and improve health care.
Bonna added that Harrell, whose daughter and husband have military backgrounds, also touts “very in-depth knowledge of security issues” derived from six years on the state House Homeland Security & Public Safety Committee.
Many local political observers regard Rooney and Harrell as the front-runners in the primary race, but do not discount Valeche — in part because the wealthy candidate has shown himself able and willing to fund his own campaign. The Republican candidates’ most recent reports to the Federal Election Commission, for activity through March 31, showed Valeche with the most receipts — $738,000, a total that included $250,000 in personal funds — and the most remaining cash on hand with $589,000.
But the other contenders were hardly strapped for funds. Rooney reported $693,000 raised, including $25,000 in personal funds, and $446,000 on hand through March 31. Harrell raised $547,000 including, $30,000 in personal funds, and reported $256,000 on hand.
None of these Republicans, however, held a candle to Mahoney on the fundraising front as of that date. He already was well on his way to exceeding the formidable $2.8 million he raised as a non-incumbent in 2006. Mahoney’s more than $2 million in receipts as of March 31 made him one of the 10 best-funded House freshmen across the nation, and he reported more than $1 million on hand even after substantial expenditures.
He has received strong support from his Democratic House colleagues, who gave him a plum seat on the Financial Services Committee as well as a seat on Agriculture. He has also authored two bills that Bush signed into law, one to protect businesses from class action lawsuits after they inadvertently left credit card expiration information on receipts, and another to designate a museum in Fort Pierce, Fla., as the official National Museum of Navy SEALs and Their Predecessors.
Mahoney, who has pushed a “pro-business” agenda, is a member of the Blue Dogs, a coalition of Democrats who consider themselves fiscal conservatives, and the New Democrat Coalition, made up of party members who tout themselves as moderate, pro-business lawmakers.
Mahoney voted with most House Republicans against most members of his own party on 15 percent of the mainly party-line votes held in 2007, according to a Congressional Quarterly vote study. That opposition score put Mahoney among the 15 Democrats who broke with their party most often that year.
“I think the voters see Tim for what he is,” contended Charles Halloran, Mahoney’s chief of staff. “He’s real, he’s independent, he’s bipartisan and he’s effective. He gets things done and he doesn’t always pay attention to party politics.”
View a video interview with GOP candidate Gayle Farrell.
Comments
Rachel, you are very much incorrect about an assertion: "National Democrats had all but ignored Mahoney's campaign before the scandal." Democrat Dave Lutrin was in the face against Foley but as soon as Emanuel found out that Foley was molesting young pages-- the "naughty e-mails" is just how the media like to term what really happened-- he persuaded Mahoney to switch his party registration from Republican to Democrat and jump into the race. Emanuel, then head of the DCCC, brought tremendous pressure to bear on Lutrin, an anti-war progressive, to force him out of the race and give Mahoney a clear path.
Mahooney had been in the race months before September, and had already raised one million dollars. The Democratic Primary, and the filing deadline both came way before the allegations against Foley were made known. Are you saying the Emmanuel knew well before everyone else found out, and put another candidate in?
Mahoney decided to enter the race race in late July of 2005. That coincides with the Foley emails becoming known to both Hastert and Emanuel. The emails only became public in the fall of 2006. Both parties knew what Foley was doing way before it became public. Emanuel,and the Mahoney campaign(allegedly) didn't leak the story until it was close enough to the election to ensure a victory for Mahoney. However, what Emanuel did not count on was that the Democrats in the district disliked and distrusted Mahoney so much, it was closer than they had anticipated.
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