For those not paying attention to the race to replace Jim Sebesta in the Florida Senate (and who can blame you, honestly), things are heating up between a pair of Republicans — Kim Berfield (a darling of the insurance industry) and Frank Farkas (a darling of the chiropractic, development and gambling industries, for starters.)
On Thursday, my voice mail captured the first of what will surely be lots of nasty robo-calls. This one attacked Farkas for his highly suspect trip to Toronto paid for by gambling interests who wanted to expand their business in Florida. Farkas, a state representative and chiropracter from St. Petersburg, tap-danced around the ethics of such a gift. The recorded phone call this week didn't.
"Frankly, it's an outrage."
… is how the call started. It then instructed voters to ask Farkas about why he accepted the "foreign trip." (Canada is only technically a foreign trip.) Behind the calls was the virtual political arm of the Florida Medical Assocation, a shadow committee called People for a Better Florida. Farkas and the medical community have been at war for years. Docs mostly hate chiropracters, and vice versa.
For more on this pissing match, check out Curtis Krueger's story today with Farkas on the attack.
(Disclosure time: As a consultant, I represented clients who ran against both Berfield and Farkas.)
