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Werder Hopes 5th Time Is Charm

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 11, 2008

SPRING HILL - He hasn't raised a penny in contributions, doesn't have a campaign manager and knows that most Democratic Party officials don't take him seriously.

But that hasn't stopped H. David Werder from running his fifth race for Congress.

Werder, 52, who vied unsuccessfully for the 5th District seat as a write-in candidate in 1982, 2002 and '04, and in 2006 as a balloted contender, once again is vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge GOP stalwart Ginny Brown-Waite.

"I'm giving it another shot," he said Thursday. "Maybe the fifth time will be the charm."

So far, the disabled truck driver has gathered more than 1,300 of the 5,554 signatures required to get on the Aug. 26 primary ballot.

If he makes it on the ballot, Werder will face Carol Castagnero, a retired educator from Lakeland who failed in her 2006 bid for the Democratic nomination for governor.

As of this week, no other Democrats had filed paperwork for the 5th District primary.

If elected, Werder would devote half of the $165,200 salary to help seniors pay for prescription medicine, a pledge he has made in previous races.

Werder moved to Florida from New Jersey in 1978. For a while, he attended Orange County Community College and worked as a truck driver. He has driven everything on wheels, from concrete haulers to tractor-trailers to biohazardous material transporters.

He supports reforming the health care industry and Social Security, and enforcing immigration laws. He opposes oil drilling off Florida and the war in Iraq.

His first bid for Congress earned him special notoriety: He camped atop a flagpole along a busy Clearwater roadway for a world-record 439 days.

"I was protesting the high price of gas," he said. "It hasn't gotten any cheaper."

Three-term incumbent Brown-Waite, of Brooksville, was elected to the 5th District job in 2002, narrowly defeating five-term Democratic incumbent Karen Thurman.

It was a victory that followed the state Legislature's contentious redrawing of the district's boundaries, which gave the GOP a slight majority in the former Democratic stronghold.

Brown-Waite was re-elected by wide margins in 2004 and '06.

This year, Florida Democrats are vying once again to unseat the Republican in the sprawling district, which includes parts of eight Gulf Coast counties - from fast-growing Pasco to rural Levy, where farm animals outnumber people.

Werder isn't deceived about his chances.

"It's hard to beat an incumbent," he said. "Maybe, if she gets hit by lightning ..."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

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