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Highlands Today

Support Tom Rooney For U.S. House Seat In District 16

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 17, 2008

If voters in the 16th Congressional district were struggling to decide whom to vote for in our district's U.S. House of Representative race, the process got a lot easier this week. Rep. Tim Mahoney's troubles concerning an affair, and now allegations of another affair, are enough to knock him from consideration. Besides all that, his Republican challenger, Tom Rooney, is a quality candidate whom we endorse for the position.

Rooney, who served in the Army and taught at West Point, is a staunch conservative who also has some maverick in him when it comes to the Iraq War. He served there, and has disagreed with the president on issues pertaining to the war, especially concerning torture and our need to get out of there. We like that he thinks for himself and isn't bought and paid for by special interests. If elected, voters must demand that he continues working for the people, not lobbyists.

He liked the Senate version of the bailout bill passed a few weeks ago, and wants to make sure the root causes of our nation's financial woes are addressed, not pushed aside in an attempt at a quick fix that is temporary. He wants predatory lenders banned and more oversight.

We endorsed Rooney in the Republican Primary because he seemed to have fresh ideas and the intelligence and determination to change Washington, D.C. In some ways he reminds us of a young John McCain.

We agreed in many ways with Mahoney's stand on issues. His lack of interest in his own party's convention was puzzling, but his "Blue Dog" Democratic leanings were appreciated. He was a moderate to conservative Democrat, but his demons ruined it, and voters should not again bestow the honor of representing them in Congress.

Mahoney replaced Mark Foley, whose despicable acts of texting lewd messages to underage Congressional pages cost him his House seat. Mahoney ran on restoring trust, family, etc. After having this affair, paying his mistress off and then giving her a job, his own staffers are saying he had yet another affair. And we don't think his story is over.

Mahoney doesn't deserve voters' support. Tom Rooney does.

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