Bradenton Herald: Dist. 13 Candidates Find Common Ground

News Article

By DUANE MARSTELLER

Three of the four candidates for the 13th Congressional District seat agreed Thursday that oil drilling off Florida's coast is not a good thing. Candidates Christine Jennings, Rep. Vern Buchanan and Jan Schneider found some common ground on the issue during a televised forum.

Unlike on the campaign trail and on the airwaves, the candidates stuck largely to the issues as they sat side by side in BLAB-TV's cramped studio.

Jennings, a Democrat, said she "was absolutely opposed to oil drilling" because clean beaches are key to Florida's quality of life.

Buchanan, R-Sarasota, and Schneider agreed, both saying the U.S. must put more emphasis on developing renewable energy sources and lessen its dependence on foreign oil.

Candidate Don Baldauf, however, advocated drilling as close as 25 miles from shore and building a local oil refinery. Drilling is a safe way of boosting the local economy, he argued.

"The way I look at it, there's a pretty big money tree out there and we need to shake it," said Baldauf, who owns an alarm company in Bradenton and is running without party affiliation.

The foursome also split on the recently enacted $700 billion financial rescue package and whether the federal government should buy distressed mortgages at face value.

Buchanan and Jennings, a retired Sarasota banker, said the bailout package was necessary to prevent an even greater economic meltdown.

"We had to do something," said Buchanan, a businessman who helped defeat the package's first version but voted for a revised version that passed. "To do nothing would have been worse."

Schneider disagreed, calling it "a bipartisan mistake" that ballooned the national debt past $10 trillion. "I don't think this country can afford this bailout," said Schneider, a Sarasota lawyer who ran for the seat three times as a Democrat but is mounting an unaffiliated bid this year.

Another point of disagreement: When U.S. troops should leave Iraq. Schneider's reply: Immediately. Buchanan said he favored a gradual withdrawal but without a set timetable. Baldauf said the decision should be left up to military leaders.

"I believe we have done what we can do," Jennings said. "It is time to begin withdrawing our troops."

The candidates also took different tacks when asked about taxes.

Buchanan advocated more tax breaks for the middle-class and small businesses. "If you raise taxes, more jobs will be lost," he said.

Jennings also supported tax relief for those groups, saying they haven't gotten much of that from the Bush administration. She also said capital-gains tax rates should stay the same, while Buchanan argued for cutting or eliminating them.

Schneider called for reforming bankruptcy laws, repealing the alternative-minimum tax and closing loopholes. She also called for a national health care system.

For Baldauf, simplicity is key.

"We need to simplify our tax code so we can understand it and close some loopholes," he said.

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