By Brendan Farrington | The Associated Press

TITUSVILLE

Republican Congressman Tom Feeney wants voters in his district to know about his work on space issues. Democrats want them to know about his golfing with a criminal lobbyist.

In the first serious challenge since carving out his own district six years ago, Feeney thinks he will win re-election based on issues; Democrats are reminding voters he is linked to a Washington corruption scandal.

Democrats are sending out almost daily reminders that Feeney went to Scotland with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff on the same 2003 golf junket that led to former Ohio Rep. Bob Ney's prison sentence on corruption charges.

Feeney dismisses the attacks. He says he has the experience and knowledge needed to protect the space industry that is so vital to the district stretching from Orlando's sprawling eastern suburbs to the Kennedy Space Center.

Democrats are making Feeney their top Florida target, giving their backing to Suzanne Kosmas, 68, a former state representative from New Smyrna Beach who owns a real estate business. She knows Feeney well, having served with him in Tallahassee when he was House speaker.

"People don't change their stripes," Kosmas said. She said Feeney's time as speaker was marked by deep partisanship and described him as a "radical" ideologue.

Feeney's response to being a top target? "That's an honor." He thinks voters will not pay attention to the attacks.

"I know my district inside and out. There are issues in my district that nobody pays more attention to," Feeney said during an interview in his Washington office, where he displays models of several rockets and the space shuttle.

The shuttle program is scheduled to end in 2010, eliminating thousands of jobs from the area.

"Space is a very critical issue, and that's not a community you just bounce into one day and say, 'I want to be your congressman' and get accepted. You have to work hard to do that," Feeney said.

Feeney, 49, should know his Republican-leaning district well. After all, he helped map it. As House speaker, he oversaw redrawing district maps when Florida gained two seats in Congress. He was elected in a landslide later that year, and Democrats didn't even bother putting up a candidate the first time he was up for re-election.

This year, though, will be a fight. Kosmas raised $665,000 through the first three months of this year. Feeney raised $982,000. The Florida Democratic Party is calling him one of the most corrupt congressmen in the country, and the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee regularly mentions Feeney's golfing trip.

Feeney was among seven people who joined Abramoff on the $160,000 junket. Feeney reimbursed the government $5,643 for the trip, but the Justice Department last year asked him for more travel information.

Feeney calls the trip an embarrassing mistake.

"We checked with the ethics committee before I went, and when we found the legitimate group that we were told would fund the trip in fact did not fund the trip, I went to the ethics committee and said, 'How do I fix this?'" Feeney said. "They can make all the hay they want to with that. If this were a new issue, or a serious finding of an ethical or legal breach, that would be one thing, but it's neither."

He talks issues instead, such as the importance of space and the need for the United States to continue its leadership there. He says the Chinese are developing satellites that can attach themselves to other orbiting devices. They shot down one of their own satellites last year. They are also developing high-powered lasers that can blind satellites, he said.

"Every military strategist in the U.S. and China and around the world knows what that means - that they theoretically will be capable of making our entire military go deaf, dumb and blind and our guided weapons disappear if they could incapacitate our satellites," Feeney said.

The United States is working on similar technology and Feeney said both countries tell their generals that controlling space is the key to being a dominant military power.

Many voters, like Brian Miles of Titusville, are not focused on the congressional race. But the Republican construction worker who recently had to change jobs because of the weak housing market said the space industry will be a factor in his decision.

"If that slumps, people won't buy any houses. That directly affects what I do," said Miles, 42. "That just trickles down to everybody."

Terri Mangini, a Democrat who cuts hair at the Bent Pole Barber Shop, agreed, lamenting the shuttle's demise.

"It's going to kill this town," said Mangini, 58. "This town pretty much lives for the space shuttle."

Kosmas points out that Feeney voted against expanding a health insurance program for children. Feeney also voted against an override of a massive water bill that included money for Everglades restoration. He opposed increasing the minimum wage, a $50 billion global AIDS program and removing tax breaks for oil companies.

"I can't change the world by myself, I can change one seat in Congress," she said. "I can move us toward, in my way, what I think will be a healthier and stronger America based on the ideals that we all cherish. Not on partisanship, not on polarization, not on name-calling, labeling or blaming."

Feeney, about as conservative as they come and an avid history buff, said he votes on core principles. He accuses Democrats of pandering, and says their policies may feel good in the short term, but are bad for the economy in the long run. He said Kosmas was "hand-picked" by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

He said he plans to tell voters that if they're hurting now, it will be worse if Democrats get rid of President Bush's tax breaks. He will also remind them he helped win a sales tax deduction on federal tax returns for Florida and other states that don't tax income, but Democrats are letting it lapse. He argues Democrats are to blame for higher gas prices.

"Every time they stop at the pump, they need to think about Nancy Pelosi's policies," he said. "I think much of the problem we have with exorbitant gas prices can be laid right at the feet of high-taxing, high-regulating Democrats."

Kosmas laughed at that.

"All of that was created by the administration under which he had operated," she said. "Does it help your life for him to accuse her [Pelosi] of being the one making the problem? It doesn't."

Copyright © 2008, South Florida Sun-Sentinel [2]