Aug 30, 2:55 PM EDT
St. Petersburg Times withdraws Senate endorsement of Martinez
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- The St. Petersburg Times rescinded its endorsement of Mel Martinez in Tuesday's Republican Senate primary, accusing him of "hateful and dishonest attacks" on fellow Republican Bill McCollum.
In an editorial published Monday, the newspaper said it made "an almost unprecedented step" of withdrawing an endorsement because the former Bush Cabinet member "took his campaign into the gutter with hateful and dishonest attacks" over McCollum's support of a hate crimes bill and expanded embryonic stem cell research.
"The Times is not willing to be associated with bigotry," the editorial said. The newspaper said it was now recommending McCollum, the former Orlando-area congressman who was defeated by Bill Nelson in the 2000 Senate race.
The newspaper cited a Martinez campaign mailer that called McCollum "the new darling of the homosexual extremists" because he supported a hate crime bill that included protection of gays. It also criticized a conference call of social conservatives arranged by the campaign in which McCollum was labeled "antifamily."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_SENATE_EDITORIAL_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
