Queen of the Recount

Carol Roberts may not beat Clay Shaw, but don't count her out

A A A Comments By Susan Eastman Thursday, Sep 26 2002

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"Pharmaceutical companies have gouged us for too long," she says. "If we lived in Michigan instead of Florida, I would take a busload of you over the border to buy prescriptions. But we can't do that from down here. So I found the next-best thing."

Roberts was at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Boca Raton to accept a "Woman of Courage Award" from a chapter of the National Organization for Women. When she introduced Roberts, NOW President Gonzalee Ford commented, "We need more disobedient women," to the crowd's cheers.

Colby Katz

Congressional candidate Carol Roberts shops for art and stumps for votes at the Las Olas Labor Day Art Fair in Fort Lauderdale

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A couple of days before, on August 23, the Sun-Sentinel ran an editorial on 866-RX-CAROL counseling that if Roberts continued to advocate breaking the law, "voters should question the judgment and principles of someone who aspires to one of the highest offices in the land."

But for a public fed up with the pharmaceutical industry, Roberts's stance struck a nerve. Every time there was an article about RX-CAROL -- and there have been nine in the past month -- or a television news report aired, calls to her campaign headquarters poured in, communications director Gaskill says. One thousand calls have supported Roberts's stance, Gaskill says, and two criticized her. "I can assure you, those were nonpartisan calls," Roberts says.

The controversy let voters know where she stands, Roberts says. "I consider myself an independent thinker," she says. "I am more than willing to step out and say what I believe. I think I have shown that as a county commissioner, city commissioner, and as mayor."