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SHAW TARGETS
ROBERTS' TELEVISION ADS Congressional candidate Carol
Roberts says she stands up to developers. Her opponent, incumbent
Congressman Clay Shaw, says she stands up for them. Roberts'
new television ad, airing now on broadcast TV in Palm Beach County and on cable
in Broward, says she "isn't shy about taking a stand, to manage our growth
and protect our kids." It touts her vote for school concurrency, a
policy tying classroom growth to residential development. But Shaw's campaign says
the ad is insincere and that Roberts' record on growth is nothing to brag
about. Roberts, the Democratic
candidate in the race, accepted at least $55,000 in campaign contributions
through June from the development community. Updated contribution lists were
due at midnight Tuesday. Shaw's campaign,
pointing to a recent housing development vote, says Roberts does developers'
bidding from her seat on the Palm Beach County Commission. The candidates are
battling to represent about 640,000 people in Congressional District 22, which
cuts a swath up eastern Broward and Palm Beach counties and pulls in some
western communities as well. Roberts ( www.CarolRobertsForCongress.com
), Fort Lauderdale Republican Shaw ( www.ClayShaw.com
), Independent candidate Juan Xuna of Hillsboro Beach ( www.Gr8St8.com
) and write-in candidate Stan Smilan of Lake Worth ( www.StanSmilan.com
) face off Nov. 5 for the two-year term. Much of the campaign
advertising has been geared toward senior issues, particularly the price of
prescription drugs, with Roberts urging voters to call her hotline and learn how
to buy their prescriptions illegally from Canada. She has
embraced a new nickname for herself: "Robin Hood." But both major
candidates have touched on land issues. Shaw ran an Everglades ad. And in
Roberts' new "Bigfoot" commercial, airing now in both counties, she
is described as tough on developers. The ad says she would, likewise, stand up
in Congress to big drug companies and "greedy" executives.
"Carol Roberts will put her foot down," the narrator says, "and
they're gonna feel it." The camera pans to Roberts' feet; she is wearing
combat boots. Shaw's campaign manager says Roberts' development ad is
disingenuous. Larry Casey
accused her of "selling off commission votes for campaign
contributions" and said the ad belies her spotty development record. The
March 2001 concurrency vote she touts in the ad was brought forward by another
commissioner and was supported unanimously. He pointed to Roberts'
push in recent months to allow GL Homes to build a
1,500-unit development in Palm Beach County's Agricultural Reserve. The company,
which contributed $5,000 to Roberts' congressional campaign, needed a change
in the county's comprehensive plan to spill its main entrance traffic onto Acme
Dairy Road instead of Boynton Beach Boulevard. Roberts
pushed to get that approved. Her campaign said the deal worked well for the
county, which received park and school land in return. "What
she did was to bring GL Homes and the environmentalists to the table to discuss
the issues, and the environmentalists will tell you they got everything they
wanted out of the deal she brokered," said Stephen Gaskill,
Roberts' spokesman. "It's
only because we did all the work," counters Joanne Davis, community
planner for the environmental group 1,000 Friends of Florida, who said
Roberts' environmental record has been "awful" lately. "The
commissioners were ready to roll over on it." Roberts also recently
jumped in to aid Catalfumo Construction, when it was second-ranked on a
$35 million county contract. In July, she supported giving the contract to
Catalfumo, whose president, Daniel Catalfumo, had given her $1,000 in
June. She
rejected the top-ranked firm, Centex Rooney Construction Co., whose
officials had given $1,500 to Shaw this year. Roberts
has assailed Shaw for taking more than $72,000 in campaign contributions from
pharmaceutical companies over two election cycles. She contends that Shaw
is benefiting from an ad campaign, which Roberts says
cost $1.3 million, by United Seniors Association, a conservative group partly
bankrolled by drug companies. She's also railed against his acceptance of
money from Enron Corp. and other troubled corporations before their
problems surfaced, and from the Arthur Andersen accounting firm in
elections dating to 1989. She says the
contributions show Shaw is in the pocket of those
who gave the money. The same can be said of her and developers,
Casey said. "I would say if she
thinks she's Robin Hood, then if the Sherwood Forest were in Palm Beach County
she would pave over it and turn it into a parking lot," he said. Brittany Wallman can be reached at BWallman@Sun-Sentinel.com or 954-356-4541.
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New Address:
Stuart, FL
34997 "LEGACY WEBSITE": Will remain unaltered for foreseeable future. |
