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Senate race heats up early

Two GOP legislators vying for Jim Sebesta's seat are trading barbs more than a year and a half before the election.

By ADAM C. SMITH
Published March 15, 2005

If it seems way too early for a new round of bare-knuckled politics, you haven't checked out Florida's most-watched state Senate race.

More than a year and a half before Pinellas and Hillsborough County voters elect a successor to state Sen. Jim Sebesta, the attacks already are starting against state Rep. Frank Farkas of St. Petersburg, who faces a potentially tough primary contest against Republican state Rep. Kim Berfield of Clearwater. Democrats, meanwhile, are talking up the race as their best opportunity to pick off a Republican Senate seat.

Senate District 16 in Pinellas includes parts of northeast St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park, Kenneth City, Safety Harbor and Oldsmar. In Hillsborough, it stretches from south Tampa to Westchase. George Bush won the district in 2000 and 2004, but Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Bill Nelson and Betty Castor won it in 2000 and 2004.

"That is our top priority," said state Sen. Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, who leads the Democrats' Senate campaign efforts. "If we need to put in $1-million, we'll do that, and if the Republicans need to put in $2-million, they'll do that."

State Rep. Charlie Justice of St. Petersburg is the only Democrat in the race so far, and party strategists expect he'll benefit from a particularly bruising primary between two of Pinellas County's toughest Republicans.

Berfield is a 33-year-old consultant who in 2000 stunned observers by winning her legislative seat against a sitting Clearwater commissioner who vastly outspent her. A onetime beauty pageant contestant with an independent streak in the Legislature, she is viewed as a dogged campaigner never to be underestimated.

Front-runner Farkas is the most battle-tested - and scarred - campaigner in Pinellas County. The 48-year-old chiropractor is a champion fundraiser who has run five competitive legislative races, but lately he has won by surprisingly narrow margins for a well-financed incumbent.

"I consider myself the Rodney Dangerfield of Pinellas politics," Farkas said in his Tallahassee office last week. "If you're always running scared, you never stop."

The latest reminder that Farkas needs to keep up his guard: www.fedupwithfarkas.com a blistering anti-Farkas Web site that popped up recently.

"Now he's running for the Florida Senate and he must be stopped. Otherwise, (Farkas) will continue to vote against the interests of his constituents and for the special interests to which he is beholden. He will continue to side with Big Business and against Florida's citizens," states the site, which was created by a political action committee, Take Back Tampa Bay.

Heading the PAC is a controversial political consultant, Peter Schorsch, who once worked to elect Farkas but now is aiming to use the PAC to win back several competitive Pinellas legislative seats for Democrats.

Farkas said he "always had a good relationship" with Schorsch, but others steer clear.

"Let's just say he took me for a ride, and I wouldn't rehire him," said Andy Steingold, who recently hired Schorsch to help him win a Safety Harbor City Commission seat.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in both parties are watching closely for signs of the budding rivalry between Farkas and Berfield. By some accounts, tensions between the two go back several years, to when they squared off during redistricting over whose House district would pull in more Republican voters in the Feather Sound area.

Both downplayed the tensions, but didn't hesitate to knock each other.

Berfield ticked off controversial Farkas votes, including supporting a proposal for polluted stormwater to be pumped into the aquifer and a controversial bill that raised residential phone rates.

"You've got to step back and look at both our voting records. My record truly represents what my constituents want," said Berfield, noting that Farkas last year beat political newcomer Liz McCallum by only 5 percentage points, after dramatically outspending her and receiving a last-minute infusion of state party money.

"The party's pulled him out for two election cycles. Are they going to have to continue to do that?" asked Berfield, maintaining that she would make a much stronger general election candidate.

Farkas noted that his district is simply closely divided between Democrats and Republicans, and that it covers much more of the Senate district than hers. He stressed his business experience and noted that Berfield lacked "real life experience" because she is single and has no children and had lived with her parents until recently.

"Those are issues that people have to deal with - raising kids, getting them to school, buying groceries," he said, questioning her ability to fully understand many of the voters in the district.

Does Farkas think Attorney General Charlie Crist and Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, both Republican gubernatorial contenders, can't relate to voters because they are single without children? asked Berfield, who recently rented an apartment within the Senate district.

Sebesta must leave the Senate because of term limits and said he will stay neutral even though Berfield's mother works for him. He expects more candidates to jump into the race, and like many other observers, he sees potential for a shakeup by a Tampa candidate.

About one third of the district's voters live in Hillsborough, so a Hillsborough candidate could be well positioned if several Pinellas candidates divide the rest of the vote.

"I have looked at it, and I have to answer this question several times a week," said state Rep. Faye Culp, R-Tampa, whose House district heavily overlaps Sebesta's. "I, at this point, am not going to run for that Senate seat."

Then there's Democrat Charlie Justice, an amiable academic adviser and former legislative aide who contends that no one will work the grass roots harder. He's perfectly content to let Berfield and Sebesta slug it out while he plods forward.

"It will be interesting to watch them. It looks like they're going to have a very vigorous campaign," Justice said with a smile. "We run boring campaigns. We simply run our grass roots and talk to as many people as possible."

--Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 15, 2005, 01:06:08]