Feeney, Kosmas race toward finishing line

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Nov 2, 2008 - 9:31:14am

Oct. 17 polls released by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee show Democratic challenger Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach ahead of Republican Tom Feeney of Oviedo, by 58 percent to 35 percent.

Earlier, the race for Congressional District 24 was neck and neck.

The district includes parts of the Orlando-Daytona Beach corridor and portions of the Space Coast region. Feeney has been its representative since 2003.

As Election Day, Nov. 4, draws nearer, Kosmas and Feeney are hitting events and pounding parking lots at early-voting sites, each looking to tip more voters in his or her direction.

Talking points center on the war in Iraq, ethics and education.

War and veterans

Feeney described himself as a champion of the military enlistee, someone who fights for veterans, and who fought for the new veterans hospital in Orlando.

"The VFW political committee reviewed my records, and the Veterans PAC endorsed me," he said.

Feeney said he is excited about the hospital, the first new veterans facility in 30 years.

Kosmas points out Feeney voted against funding for the hospital.

"In most cases, where veterans issues are concerned, he voted against them," as part of his no-government-spending policy, she said.

Kosmas favors withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and has been speaking out against the war before the first troops were sent there.

Feeney favors the administration's position of a slow withdrawal. He believes in letting Iraqis rebuild Iraq.

Scandal and ethics

Kosmas ads are going after Feeney for his association with Jack Abramoff, a high-powered lobbyist who went to jail for defrauding his clients.

The FBI interviewed Feeney about his ties to the former lobbyist.

Feeney took a golfing trip to Scotland with Abramoff in 2003. Other House members, including former Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican later convicted of corruption related to the Abramoff case, and former House Republican leader Tom DeLay, who was indicted in Texas for alleged improper fundraising, also took such golf trips.

Feeney campaign communications director Pepper Pennington noted Feeney wasn't on the same golf trip as Ney or DeLay.

Feeney told The Beacon, "For three years, I've said this: I didn't sneak off and go on this trip."

He said he was lied to about who paid for the trip. When Feeney found out the truth, he notified the Ethics Committee, then paid the U.S. Treasury more than $5,000 for the trip.

The entire junket cost around $160,000, according to a Sarasota Herald-Tribune article in April 2007. Feeney said he paid a lot of his own way, including greens fees, and left the trip early.

Feeney pointed out he's never been charged with anything related to Abramoff. Last month, he ran a television ad apologizing for the trip.

Accomplishments

Feeney counts among his accomplishments the new veterans hospital, and a "medical city" that will surround it, along with helping create the Interstate 4 technical corridor, working with heads of Daytona State College, NASA and others. These efforts helped create 135,000 jobs, he said, including 25,000 at the medical city.

Feeney said he was instrumental in getting funding to clean up Rose Bay on the east side of Volusia County, and helped get funding to dredge the Intracoastal Waterway at Ponce Inlet, as well as helping coordinate efforts to develop a fish hatchery at the site of the old New Smyrna Beach High School.

Kosmas was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1996 and was re-elected three times, serving four consecutive terms, before reaching term limits.

She said Feeney's criticism that she did nothing but establish a wildflower commission is wrong.

Kosmas reached hands across the aisle in a bipartisan way to get important legislation passed, such as funding for schools and improved health care for seniors, and she worked effectively on children's issues, she said.

She describes herself as a fiscal conservative who voted to eliminate taxes on investments and helped quash a proposed tax on services when she served in the Florida Legislature.

Future accomplishments

Kosmas wants to work toward solving the economic crisis in a way that helps taxpayers, she said.

Bringing down housing costs, such as insurance, will also help taxpayers, and she plans to work toward reducing insurance rates, creating a national catastrophic plan and increase protection for borrowers in the lending process.

Health care and education are continuing concerns, Kosmas said.

She puts a priority on energy, particularly developing alternative and renewable energy sources that will not only solve the energy crisis, but help the environment.

"Our national-security issues will be different if we can remove our dependence on foreign oil, and ultimately, our own oil," Kosmas said.

She also wants ethics reform in Congress.

Kosmas would like to see funding for the Kennedy Space Center, NASA space exploration, and a transition from the space-shuttle program to the Constellation program.

That's where the two candidates are in substantial agreement.

Sustaining NASA and the Space Center are also on Feeney's list of priorities. He serves as a ranking member on the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee.

Feeney, too, said he is committed to attacking waste and fraud in Washington, D.C., and co-founded the Washington Waste Watchers, a congressional group working toward that purpose.

Obtaining affordable health care and helping education also rank among Feeney's priorities, he said.

He said he is "pro-family" and supports the traditional definition of marriage.

Fundraising

Incumbent Feeney maintains a small lead in fundraising, according to Federal Election Commission reports as of Oct. 30.

Feeney raised $1.99 million, while Kosmas raised $1.7 million.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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