TALLAHASSEE - There's a new, last-minute congressional candidate in South Florida: Robin Rorapaugh, onetime campaign manager for 2002 gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, signed on Tuesday to challenge U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale.
Rorapaugh, picked by local Democratic leaders, replaces Democratic nominee and former Wilton Manors Mayor Jim Stork in the 22nd District. Her last campaign position was as a strategist for U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch's unsuccessful bid to become the Democratic nominee to replace U.S. Sen. Bob Graham.
Her candidacy became possible after a state judge in Tallahassee ruled last week that Secretary of State Glenda Hood erred when she refused last month to accept Stork's withdrawal from the ballot.
Hood appealed that ruling Monday, triggering an automatic stay. But Leon Circuit Judge Janet Ferris vacated the stay Tuesday, allowing Rorapaugh's appointment.
Democrats had looked to Deutsch as a possible replacement for Stork, but Aaron Albright, a Deutsch spokesman, said the congressman ruled it out.
No date has not been set for hearing Hood's appeal.
Union coalition sues state, counties over voter forms
MIAMI - A coalition of unions sued Secretary of State Glenda Hood and elections officials from five counties Tuesday, arguing that thousands of voters have been disenfranchised by the rejection of their voter registration forms.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court is similar to one filed by state Democrats last week. It accuses Hood of violating federal law by advising the 67 elections supervisors to reject forms on which applicants failed to check a box confirming they're U.S. citizens, even if they signed an oath on the same form swearing they are.
The suit also takes issue with requirements that applicants provide driver's license, identification or Social Security numbers and check a box saying they are not felons or mentally incapacitated.
Besides Hood, supervisors of elections for Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade, Orange and Palm Beach counties are defendants.
Pilot in crash killing self, family was inexperienced
PENSACOLA - A pilot who died with his wife and two children when their small plane crashed as they fled Hurricane Ivan was a student pilot unqualified to carry passengers and had less than four hours of night flying experience, a preliminary report says.
The National Transportation Safety Board report gives no indication what caused the twin-engine Cessna 336 Skymaster flown by Kevin Bomback of Molino to crash near Magee, Miss., about 3 a.m. Sept. 15. But the NTSB said Bomback's student license did not allow him to have passengers.
"During the ... investigation a relative revealed that (the) pilot had been frantically searching for an airport where he could move his airplane, in order to avoid Hurricane Ivan, since the airplane had not been insured," the report says.
The wreckage and bodies were found in a wooded area Oct. 4. Killed along with Bomback, 46, were his wife, Sherri, 45, daughter Alicia, 17, and son Brent, 12.
