FL Gubernatorial candidates explaining messy divorces and short marriage

[seafan]

On common ground of divorce



Charlie Crist-R, FL Attorney General


Jim Davis-D, U. S. House of Representatives


Tom Gallagher-R, FL Chief Financial Officer


Rod Smith-D, FL State Senator



ADAM C. SMITH and JONI JAMES
June 21, 2006

If you want Florida's next governor to have no messy divorce or short-lived marriage in his past, your pickings are slim.

Of the four major candidates for governor, only Democratic Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa has never been divorced. And while failed marriages are hardly unusual in this era of baby boomer politicians, most of Florida's gubernatorial candidates face sticky personal questions about their prior marriages:

- Republican Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, 62, campaigning as the most socially conservative, family-values candidate, this week acknowledged committing adultery in his first marriage after court documents from his divorce 27 years ago were revealed.

- Democratic state Sen. Rod Smith, 56, in every campaign he has run, has had to explain why courts in the late 1980s ordered him to pay nearly $18,000 in unpaid child support and found him in contempt for being $92 short on one child support check.

- Republican Attorney General Charlie Crist, 49, was forced to deny he's gay after a woman at a public forum pointedly asked him about his six-month marriage in 1979.

"Even by post-(Monica) Lewinsky standards, the Florida primary seems especially focused on candidates' private lives,'' noted the Hotline political newsletter Tuesday as stories about Gallagher's divorce records appeared on front pages across the state.

In an era when the Republican Party has dominated Florida politics in part by selling its version of family values, how much might these messy marriages matter at the ballot box?
"Voters these days are looking for leaders that share their values, and for many of them that means family values,'' said Debra DeShong Reed, a Democratic consultant in Panama City. She suspects that Davis, approaching his 20th anniversary, stands to benefit when his family history is compared to others.

snip

[Demit]

1. The Repubs will now reap what they have sown.

Haha! Wait'll we get to the "Three Amigos"--McCain, Guliani and Gingrich. Their messy marital histories will make for very interesting reading come the presidential primaries.

[jedicord]

2. Is it as obvious to everyone else that Dems look so much more...

like real people, and not car salesmen?

Or am I just biased?

[msongs]

3. repubs sell out their expendable christian family values, like judas....

all if forgiven by republicans for republicans when it comes to immoral, illegal, and unethical behavior. jesus is expendable for
political gain.

our local prostitute loving congressman was relected handily, because he was consorting with a prostitute because he was "lonely".


republicans only have one family value and that is winning at all costs using any method necessary.


Msongs

can you sing?
www.msongs.com/vocalistwanted.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. hahahahaha! What will we tell the Christian Right?