By Kevin Bakewell

>Traffic Trap Towns
>Traffic Photo Devices
>Senior Safety and Mobility; Driving at 95?
>Motor Fuel Tax Trust Fund
>Standard Enforcement For Safety Belts

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>Florida
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Republicans

CHARLIE CRIST, Current  Florida  Attorney General : 50, the son of a family physician, grew up in Pinellas County and was class president and starting quarterback at St. Pete High. He went on to Wake Forest University, transferred to Florida State University, and then earned a law degree at Cumberland College of Law in Alabama. After practicing law, he won a seat in the Florida Senate, ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate against incumbent Bob Graham, then went to work at a state agency. He served briefly as Florida Education Commissioner, and then ran successfully for Attorney General. He is single.

TOM GALLAGHER, Current Florida Chief Financial Officer : 62, was a champion high school swimmer in his native Delaware and moved to Florida in 1961 to attend the University of Miami on a swimming scholarship. After graduation, he served in the Third Infantry's "Old Guard" in Washington, DC. He returned to Miami and was elected to the Florida House, serving from 1974 to 1987. He briefly served as a state agency chief, and then was elected state Treasurer & Insurance Commissioner. He later served briefly as elected Education Commissioner, and in 2002 won a Cabinet seat as the newly created state Chief Financial Officer. He and his wife Laura have a seven-year-old son.

Democrats

JIM DAVIS, Current Florida U.S. Representative : 48, was born in Tampa and is a graduate of Jesuit High School. He went on to earn his bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University in 1979, and received his J.D. at the University of Florida. He practiced law in Tampa where he became a partner in the law firm of Bush, Ross, Gardner, Warren and Rudy in 1988. That same year he was elected to the Florida House, where he served until 1996, rising to the rank of majority leader. He was elected to Congress in 1996 and is serving his fifth term. Jim and his wife, Peggy Bessent Davis, have two teenage sons, Peter and William.

ROD SMITH, Current Florida State Senator : 56, grew up in Palm Beach County, where he attended public schools and worked on the family's vegetable "truck farm." He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Tulsa and his law degree from the University of Florida. He practiced law in Gainesville, specializing in the area of labor relations, was elected state attorney, and eventually ran for the Florida Senate. Rod lives on a farm in the rural town of Alachua north of Gainesville with his wife Dee Dee. They have three daughters.

AAA AUTO CLUB SOUTH IS HIGHLIGHTING THE CANDIDATES' VIEWS ON A SERIES OF TRANSPORTATION AND SAFETY ISSUES TO BETTER INFORM VOTERS WHO WILL CHOOSE THEIR NOMINEE IN THE SEPT. 5 PARTY PRIMARIES. One of the four will replace outgoing Florida Governor Jeb Bush in January 2007. We will endorse no candidate; that decision is yours. The two nominees will face voters in the general election on Nov. 7. Study the issues, learn all you can about the candidates and vote. The future of Florida and our governor for the next four years is in your hands.

Go to aaa.com/vote to read the full text of the interviews, view video clips on selected questions, find information on other races and candidates, and register to vote for the general election.

Traffic Trap Towns

Some small towns in Florida issue high numbers of traffic citations (far in excess of their population, in fact) to fund a significant portion of their operations, according to a Legislative study.  AAA has received many complaints from members living in Florida as well as visitors. If elected governor, would you allow this tickets-for-revenue trend to continue or oppose its spread? 

GALLAGHER: If drivers are breaking the law, regardless of where they are driving, they ought to be ticketed. But counties and cities should not look to traffic citations as a revenue source that must be filled through a quota system.

CRIST: My record as Attorney General demonstrates a commitment to work with groups like AAA to address tickets-for-revenue trends in various parts of the state. As governor, I will support current laws that prohibit law enforcement officers from establishing traffic citation quotas, and will discourage tickets-for-revenue practices.

SMITH: It is not our job to go in and tell people how to enforce. No one likes—and our tourism industry is not helped by—undue ticketing. Ticketing is supposed to be a public safety measure. It is not supposed to be a measure solely aimed at revenue generation. I have trust in our public safety officers, and I hope we reach that balance and not have a governor come in and impose restrictions or divert dollars away. That could happen if we create speed traps that are unjustifiable.

DAVIS: I personally have driven through some of the towns which have succumbed to the temptation to charge very large fines to fund local government. That's wrong. I cannot, as governor, tell a mayor how to run his or her city, but I can remind everybody in this state that we depend heavily upon tourism, and we want to preserve our reputation of being a friendly place and a safe place to visit. We should not treat our tourists unfairly, as they are ultimately the victims in many of these situations because they don't drive through these towns on a regular basis. 

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Traffic Photo Devices

For a number of years, manufacturers of traffic photo devices and even some local governments have been trying to get the state to allow ticketing by photo, "photo radar" or camera devices at intersections. An alleged infraction would result in a photo and a ticket being mailed to the person owning the license plate on the vehicle. Still, others call this an invasion of privacy and "Big Brother" thinking. Would you support or oppose these efforts?

DAVIS: I'm open to doing this. I think it is critical that the technology works and that it is reliable. I am stunned at the number of people that just disregard traffic lights right now. It has changed over the years. And so I think any valuable tool we can find that reliably shows when someone is breaking the law should be available to law enforcement.   

SMITH: My views have changed. We are having more and more wrecks where people are running red lights. They are T-boning because people didn't stop at stop signs. These are the most serious and dangerous kinds of wrecks. We can't police intersections all the time, so I am willing to look at using the cameras. We have used them at toll booths for years. I always said that is pretty intrusive. But I am willing to have a little more intrusion if we can save lives and prevent injuries. 

CRIST: I believe that law enforcement officers on the scene should be responsible for enforcing traffic laws. 

GALLAGHER: The idea of government cameras recording our actions is troubling. A stepped-up enforcement presence at intersections would do the same job and likely be more reliable.

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Senior Safety and Mobility;
Driving at 95?

Florida has many elderly citizens who depend on their cars for basics like grocery shopping and doctor visits. With few alternatives, some continue to drive into their 80s and 90s, even when their hearing, vision, reflexes and cognitive thinking have deteriorated. What policies or initiatives would you propose for the safety and mobility of our growing number of seniors?

CRIST: For Floridians of all ages, the privilege of driving means independence and freedom. Recent changes in Florida law increased eligibility requirements for drivers over the age of 79 for both initial licensure and renewals. I believe Florida must continue to take a balanced approach so that public safety and every individual's personal freedoms may co-exist on Florida's roads.

GALLAGHER: If our senior drivers are no longer physically fit, we should not allow them to drive. I would support working with our transit officials from across the state to help make mass transit more available and accessible to our seniors who can no longer drive.

DAVIS: Our seniors jealously cherish their independence, including my mom. They not only want to drive, but they need to drive. Now, safety comes first. And I think we should make certain that we issue licenses to people who are qualified to drive, but we should not deny a license to someone solely based on their age.

SMITH: It's a real big step in someone's life when they no longer can drive themselves. The tragedy is that it's hard to find out where that line is. I think there should be some additional testing. There are things we can do to make sure we have safe drivers on the roads, but it is a very difficult thing to take away someone's license. We should not be picking on seniors. We essentially recruited the senior population into Florida.

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Motor Fuel Tax Trust Fund

For many years, the people of Florida have paid motor fuel taxes with the understanding that their money would go into a "trust fund" to be used for transportation only. At times, the fund was raided for other priorities. If elected, would you maintain the trust fund for transportation only, or be more inclined to use the trust fund for other needs as they arise?

SMITH: The only time you should ever go into a trust fund, for a purpose other than that for which it was established, is in an extraordinary emergency such as hurricanes and revenue emergencies like 9/11. I went along with some sweeps; after 9/11 we had to. We had over a billion dollars for immediate school needs. I think we have dropped the trust out of trust fund. People are giving us this money in trust for a specific purpose...to use for transportation, and that's what we should do.

DAVIS: Unfortunately, in Tallahassee there have actually been attempts to take money out of the trust fund where state gas tax dollars go. As a Floridian, as a motorist, I was shocked this was even going on. I will put an end to that as governor. I will put the trust back in that trust fund.

GALLAGHER: I have pledged to stop any raids on the transportation trust fund as governor. We will never get where we need to be on transportation in Florida if we do not protect our transportation dollars.

CRIST: The Crist Administration will work to ensure that the State Transportation Trust Fund is not raided so that money in that fund remains dedicated to road construction, maintenance and other transportation improvements in Florida.

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Standard Enforcement
For Safety Belts

Hundreds of people die and thousands are seriously hurt each year in Florida because they do not wear their safety belts. And yet our safety belt statute prevents police from enforcing it. As governor, would you support changing Florida's weak safety belt law to allow standard enforcement? 

CRIST: Florida's roads should be the safest in the nation, and I encourage all Floridians to buckle up. Wearing seat belts and using child safety seats save lives. Furthermore, Florida has increased requirements for safety belt use. For example, current law allows officers to stop cars and ticket drivers when they observe minor drivers or passengers without seat belts. I believe Florida's safety belt laws should continue to strike a balance between public safety and an individual's right to privacy.

DAVIS: I think Florida ought to join other states that have a law that says if you are not wearing a safety belt, and a law enforcement officer sees that, they can pull you over and issue a citation. I have a son who is 16, and I shudder to think of him driving out on the roads by himself. As governor, I will enforce the law, and I will remind citizens that one of the best ways we can save lives is to wear safety belts.

SMITH: Seat belts save lives, particularly in these SUVs that are rollover accident prone. We ought to allow officers to enforce seat belt laws and trust the courts to deal with any profiling or other abuses.

GALLAGHER: I would not make not wearing a seat belt a primary offense. I think that would lead to a tremendous number of drivers being stopped by police just to see if you are wearing your seat belt or not. To me, that's something we don't need. If someone is involved in an accident or speeding and they get stopped, and they are not wearing a seat belt, then fine.

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