2007 House Showdown: Ford v. Campbell

House Showdown: Campbell and Clay Vie for House District 3

by Duwayne Escobedo

Independent News Editor Duwayne Escobedo recently interviewed Democratic House District 3 candidate Elizabeth “Liz” Campbell, after she started waving at sunup to commuters on U.S. Highway 98 in Gulf Breeze for nearly two hours.

He also talked to Republican House District 3 candidate Clay Ford, while he campaigned door-to-door in a neighborhood off Scenic Highway, with incoming House Speaker Ray Sansom (R-Destin).

Campbell and Ford, both newcomers to state politics, are in a hotly contested showdown over the seat that is highly coveted by both parties.

Democrats in the state House want to add to the seven-person gain it earned in November’s general election and take back a seat it last held in 2000 when Democrat DeeDee Ritchie served the district.

The GOP wants to keep the Pensacola district, which includes the Gulf Breeze city limits and was held the past six years by Republican Holly Benson. She vacated the post, after defeating Campbell in November, to accept an appointment by Gov. Charlie Crist to head the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

If you think this is just another inconsequential race unworthy of attention, think again. State party leaders certainly are interested in the outcome.

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Karen Thurman blasted an e-mail to thousands of Democrats statewide recently, asking for $25 to $500 donations and support for Campbell.

“Our internal party analysis shows that if Elizabeth has enough money to communicate her message, and enough volunteers to turn out the vote, she can win this race,” Thurman writes in bold letters for emphasis. “We can’t let an opportunity like this slip away. Let’s lock up Republican-held seats like this now, so we can keep expanding the playing field in 2008. Elizabeth is a great candidate, and she deserves our help.”

Meanwhile, Samson donned red running shoes to walk Pensacola neighborhoods for Ford on a recent Saturday afternoon and insists Ford is just the kind of representative conservatives need right now in Tallahassee.

“The fact he came on top against three tough opponents (in the Republican primary Feb. 6) speaks for itself,” Sansom says. “Because he has served Gulf Breeze as a city councilman, he’s not new to growth issues, transportation issues, tax issues, insurance issues and other tough issues we need to work together on. His local perspective is beneficial and needed in Tallahassee to help us proceed.”

Mark your calendars. The election showdown goes off Tuesday, Feb. 27.

ELIZABETH CAMPBELL, DEMOCRAT

After spending 22 years enlisted in the U.S. Navy and rising to the rank of Chief, Liz Campbell developed an interest in politics.

Campbell, who already has bachelor’s and master’s degrees, began working on a master’s degree in political science at the University of West Florida before her March 2006 retirement.

Campbell, who has a soft spot for animals, taking in two stray dogs, even attended a Washington, D.C., seminar put on by a national animals’ rights group about communicating effectively with lawmakers and becoming a successful activist. Five dogs and four cats live with her in her Brownsville home.

“All animals should die of old age,” she says.

During her first foray into politics as a Democratic candidate running against a three-term Republican incumbent this past year, the 46-year-old admits it was a learning experience and winning would have been a “miracle.” Campbell won 39 percent of the vote against Holly Benson in November.

She recalls one of her most embarrassing moments being thrown off by a question on water purification during a League of Women Voters’ debate with Benson.

“I was like, huh? I tried not too look stupid,” says a confident Campbell, who’s not afraid of making fun of herself. “We don’t need old-school politics. People are tired of that. We need new thinking, fresh ideas.”

Campbell says there was no doubt in her mind that she would run for the seat once Benson accepted a governor’s appointment. In the Democratic primary Feb. 6, she defeated John Wyche, an African-American businessman who nearly unseated Ritchie and Benson in the past, by earning 51 percent of the vote in the district.

Although she may not have political experience, she points out she does have leadership experience.

During her last assignment, she was responsible for 1,200 sailors and their training at Corry Field. When terrorists flew into New York City’s World Trade Towers, she was among the first air crews up in a Navy reconnaissance plane over the East Coast. “Because she was female, she was often one of the first women to do this or that,” she says.

“Because of the Navy, I don’t know any limitations. I don,t know any roadblocks,” says Campbell, whose New York accent is still discernable after residing in Pensacola for 10 years and Florida for 20.

She joined the Navy at 24 because her late father, Robert, was a Senior Chief and she had a brother, sister and niece all serving in the military at the time. Plus, she says, as the youngest of four children, any college funds that were saved up had long run out.

Her father died five years before she made Chief in 2002.

“He would have busted all of his buttons, he would have been so glad,” she says.

Her 83-year-old mother, who lives in Tampa and is still a big fan of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, has pulled on Campbell’s campaign T-shirt and waved campaign signs in Pensacola.

Campbell says she plans to represent the working class, poor and elderly on issues such as health insurance, education and property taxes. They’re groups she charges Benson and Republican lawmakers have ignored.

Her commitment was only strengthened after campaigning in District 3 the first time around and coming across a family that lived in a car, including a young girl. Campbell’s eyes tear up, as she recalls the memory.

“For the last six to eight years, we have not paid attention to the have nots,” says Campbell, who recently attended a local African-American AIDs awareness conference. “For We still have people out there with blue roofs that have not been repaired. We have Baptist Hospital’s ER always full with people, who do not have insurance.

We have kids who are hungry and homeless, worrying about the FCAT. It bothers me a lot.”

CLAY FORD, REPUBLICAN

Clay and Carol Ann Ford recall the last time they campaigned door-to-door together for a state Legislature seat. It was in Little Rock in 1975 and a local TV news station’s camera crew interviewed them, while they pushed their son, Clay Jr., in a stroller down the sidewalk.

Eventually, the TV reporter asked their almost 2-year-old son, who he would vote for in the race. His dad, Clay, was challenging a 10-year incumbent, Paul Mears, and needed all the help he could get in the runoff, after earning just 28 percent to Mears’s 45 percent.

“He gave our opponent’s name,” Carol Ann Ford says, laughing.

No matter, the 36-year-old Ford creamed his opponent in the runoff, earning 67 percent of the vote.

“I was young and stupid but we knocked on 15,000 doors,” Ford says. “All we had were bumper stickers, flyers and some buttons. Looks have never been an advantage for me. I’ve always thought I’ve had these little beady eyes. But I can always work harder, put more hours in and balance things out.”

Ever since, Ford, who served in the U.S. Army actively for 15 years and in the reserves for 23, has felt a calling to public service, he says. After a two-year stint in the Arkansas Legislature, he won election to the school board of the largest public school district in the state, and served as board president. He was a legal adviser to the Arkansas Secretary of State and held other top-level posts.

But in 1979, Ford returned to active duty. When he finally decided to retire to Gulf Breeze in 1988 from the Army as a colonel, he was serving in the Cold War as a senior adviser to the Chief of the U.S. Army in Europe. Ford was responsible for preparing Reserve troops for war.

Ford immediately ran for Gulf Breeze City Council and lost by 100 votes. He ran again in 1990 and has served on the council ever since. He became the Florida League of Cities president for two years in 2004.

Before you label him a career politician, Ford is quick to point out he earned $1,200 a year in the Arkansas Legislature and $1 a year on the Gulf Breeze City Council.

“None of my public service jobs ever paid,” he says, chuckling. “I do it because I have a desire to better my community.”

A strong work ethic was instilled in him by his grandparents, who raised him from the age of 5 when his parents divorced. Ford was expected to pick cotton and peaches on his mother’s parents’ farm and pack groceries at his grandfather’s general store. By the age of 15, he says, he was doing the store’s taxes.

Ford recalls money was always scarce and he traded his trombone in high school for a 1954 Chevy convertible.

“I had absolutely no musical talent,” he says. “It was a good deal for me and the band.”

Although his grandparents wanted him to get a college education, there was no money for one, so he joined the military. Through the War College it took him 11 years, but he earned a bachelor’s in finance and master’s in public administration. He spent another five years earning his law degree.

“I was working days and going to school at nights,” says Ford, who has spent the past 16 years prosecuting child abuse cases for the Florida Department of Children and Families and providing free legal help to the area’s poor and elderly. “When everyone else was out playing golf, I was studying. I’ve spent a lot of my life going to school. I’ll be a big advocate for education.”

But Ford almost didn’t complete his initial Army training and stick in the military, when he broke his wrist, he says. There was no sympathy from superiors, so for two weeks he did all his pushups with one arm.

Now, 68-years-old and both hips replaced, you’ll still find Ford doing his own home repairs and up on his roof, even though he fell off a three-story house one time and broke his wrist again.

“I don’t like heights,” he admits. “But I still have a lot of energy and I haven’t slowed down much. I always enjoyed my experience in Arkansas and I feel I can be effective in Tallahassee.”