Contest escalates to billboards

House District 44 candidate Sabato DeVito is challenging incumbent David Russell with messages on billboards in Spring Hill.

By DAN DeWITT

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 28, 2000

The messages that went up on three billboards in Spring Hill last week are both cryptic and challenging.

"Hey Dave, still "wet behind the ears?' " asks one on U.S. 19; in smaller letters it informs passers-by that it was paid for by Sabato DeVito, who is running against incumbent state Rep. David Russell Jr. in the District 44 Republican primary.

Another, on State Road 50, reads: "Hey Dave, No Helmet + $10,000 PIP = Taxpayers pay." On the opposite side of this billboard, DeVito promises to read bills before he votes.

The first, DeVito said, refers to a statement Russell made shortly after his first session. The second is a criticism of a Russell-sponsored law that allows motorcyclists to ride helmetless as long as they have $10,000 personal injury insurance. In the last one, DeVito said, he is responding to lawmakers who admitted they couldn't keep up with the crush of bills passed in the last hours of the session.

Russell and his supporters say this represents a negative beginning to the Republican primary. DeVito and his backers say they are only holding Russell responsible for his record.

In any case, the billboards have established this race as something of a rarity, featuring a challenger who is not only willing to attack an incumbent in a primary, but one who has the support of local party leaders.

"It's going to be an interesting race," said Russell, who said he won't use the same tone to respond to DeVito.

"I haven't said or done anything against Mr. DeVito. It's never been my style to resort to negative campaigning because I don't think people appreciate that."

Russell has said he backed the helmet bill because some studies have shown it is no more dangerous to ride without a helmet than with one -- and because riders should be able to choose. Though other legislators might have failed to read all the bills, he wasn't one of them, he said.

And, he said, "I've never referred to myself as wet behind the ears."

"And I'm not wet behind the ears anymore and anyone going into the Legislature for the first time is going to be, and I don't care who they are."

DeVito said the statement was made at a legislative forum shortly after the 1999 session, when state Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, explained that she was unable to pass one of her bills because no one in the House had introduced a companion measure.

"Dave took the microphone and launched into a meandering five-minute explanation and he said it about three times: "It was my first session, and I was wet behind he ears,' " DeVito said.

Treating the kind of head injuries caused by motorcycle crashes, DeVito said, typically cost several hundred thousand dollars. That any lawmakers voted without reading the billshows a serious breakdown in the way the Legislature operates.

"It turns the whole process into a joke," DeVito said.

Russell said that challenging incumbents so aggressively is hardly unheard of. Russell defeated incumbent Jeff Stabins -- who did not have the support of the local party -- in a primary two years ago. But even Sheriff Tom Mylander had to hold off several challengers after his first term in 1988.

"And now Mylander is probably the most beloved public official in the county," Russell said.

"Some people think primaries are good, but I don't because it causes the candidates to spend a lot of money," said Mary Ann Hogan, a former state Republican committee member and a longtime party leader.

"And sometimes they can be pretty divisive within the party, though I don't think this one will be because Dave has pretty much support in the party."

DeVito, she said, "is not a favorite of people I know."

Even if most of the party leaders are behind Russell, and DeVito is not convinced they are, it should not discourage a challenger.

"I think this goes to the heart of the democratic process. When I, as a citizen, feel that my representation is lacking, then I have not only the right but the duty to offer myself as a candidate."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.