STUART — Voters deciding this year’s race for the Stuart City Commission Group II seat will choose between a political newcomer promising fresh ideas and an incumbent with some 20 years of commission experience.

Jeffrey Callahan, a Martin County marine safety officer/emergency medical technician entered the political arena this year to challenge incumbent Jeffrey Krauskopf, who will be seeking his 13th term as a city commissioner.

Voters head to the polls for this year’s general election on Tuesday, but early voting and mail-in ballots already have been cast. Early voting for city residents continues until 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Martin County Supervisor of Elections Office, 135 S.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Stuart.

A six-year Stuart resident, Callahan, 41, said he entered this year’s race for the at-large seat to offer voters a fresh look at city government and to offer new ideas.

“The campaign is going fine,” Callahan said. “I’ve been saying the same thing to every group I speak to. We need affordable housing, environmentally sound decisions and more high-tech and green jobs.”

Krauskopf said resident feedback has been generally happy and appreciative, but he is working to see that sentiment does not translate into complacency at the polls, he said.

A 31-year city resident, Krauskopf first joined the city commission in 1984, holding that seat until he was elected to the Martin County Board of County Commissioners in 1990. He has been re-elected to the city commission continuously since returning there in 1995.

In addition to maintaining a balanced city budget and holding the line on taxes, key issues for the 59-year-old Realtor and property manager include finding incentives to support existing businesses and attracting new ones to the city. He also thinks continued efforts in conservation and cost-cutting are crucial.

Krauskopf said local businesses need relief from increasing taxes and insurance rates that “are putting the pinch” on shop owners.

“I keep telling people, taxes affect everything,” he said.

Martin County Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis said turnout for early voting, which began Oct. 26, has been “quiet” for the week, with 49 early ballots cast by city voters as of Wednesday afternoon.

JEFFREY KRAUSKOPF

Age: 59

How long city resident: 31 years

Occupation: Realtor/property manager

Key issue: Balanced city budget without tax increase, incentives to support and attract local business, continued environmental conservation

JEFFREY CALLAHAN

Age: 41

How long city resident: 6 years

Occupation: Martin County Marine Safety Officer/EMT

Key issue: Attraction of high-tech and green jobs, creation of more affordable housing, environmental conservation

STUART — From development approvals to spending on roads to airport management, Lee Weberman and Sarah Heard disagreed on just about every controversial issue that arose during the six years they served together on the Martin County Commission.

But there is one thing Heard and Weberman agree on: If no one else enters the Aug. 24, 2010, Republican primary in Commission District 4, voters will have a clear choice between two candidates with dramatically different views.

Weberman, who represented District 3 from 2000 until his defeat in the 2008 election, set the stage for a 10-month long debate on Monday by filing his statement of candidacy in the Republican primary in District 4 with the Supervisor of Elections. Heard, who first won office in 2002, officially started her campaign for a third four-year term in March.

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SEBASTIAN — City Council candidate Joseph Scozzari is trying to avoid any last-minute surprises by explaining why, 31 years ago, he became a convicted felon.

Scozzari said he was a 17-year-old single father who owned and operated pony rides in New York. He and a group of four others decided to take nine saddles from a vacant barn. The saddles belonged to some judges and attorneys and the young Scozzari and the others ended up arrested.

Scozzari said the others could afford lawyers, but he had a public defender who told me he was facing some time in prison if convicted of burglary.
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A former Jupiter Island Town Commissioner died Monday in Rhode Island in what police there are investigating as a possible suicide.

Finn Caspersen, 67, was found dead Monday at the Shelter Harbor Golf Club in Westerly, R.I. from what police believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Westerly police Capt. Edward St. Clair.
Caspersen a philanthropist, was first elected as town commissioner in Jupiter Island in 2005. He resigned on Aug. 4. Caspersen also had a home in the Shelter Harbor Golf Club where he died.

“As a public servant, policy-maker and overall gentleman, Finn Caspersen exceeded every standard of good measure,” said Jupiter Island Mayor Charles Falcone. “Stoic and soft-spoken, he did a lot of listening during town meetings before carefully weighing in with insight and informed expertise.”

An assistant reached at Knickerbocker, LLC said the family did not want to comment. No funeral information was available.

Caspersen served as the chief executive officer for the Beneficial Corp., a major financial holding company, from 1976 to 1998. More recently he was serving as the chairman of Knickerbocker, a private management company that oversaw numerous trusts and foundations. Caspersen personally donated money to Harvard Law School in Massachusetts as well as the Morristown Memorial Hospital, and schools such as the Peddie School and the Drew University Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, all in New Jersey

Longtime friend Tom McNicholas described Caspersen as “approachable and genuine” and said: “Each time I would refer to him as Mr. Caspersen he would peer over his glasses, softly chuckle and say, ‘Call me Finn.’ He was a friend and always fair to everyone.”

As a town commissioner, Caspersen was pushed for a town referendum on whether to bury power lines on the island underground. He also got involved in Martin County’s contentious debate over real estate development, paying $17,000 out of his own pocket in 2006 to bankroll a phone survey of 500 Martin County residents about their views of population growth. He also created a political action committee, Keep Martin green, that ran advertisements opposing rapid growth in the county.

“Finn had strong convictions towards protecting our environment and he invested a lot of his own money and time to support local causes like Keep Martin Green which focused on smart growth and environmental protection,” McNicholas said.

This is the second longtime Jupiter Island official to die in recent months. Town Manager Joe Connolly, a friend of Caspersen, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease just days after Caspersen resigned from the town commission in August. Deputy Town Manager Gene Rauth said the town is considering a memorial to Caspersen.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Opponents of the school superintendent’s decision not to let students see President Barack Obama’s nationally televised back-to-school speech live, lashed out at him Tuesday night.

“You have chosen to put politics in front of good citizenship and good patriotism,” Vero Beach resident Peter Hyatt said during a public comment period at the beginning of a school board meeting.

Hyatt called for Schools Superintendent Harry La Cava’s resignation.

Board members took no action following speeches by about 10 people.
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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Local ministers, NAACP officials and Democrats say they will go to school board offices early Tuesday in an attempt to persuade officials to reverse a decision to not allow students to hear President Barack Obama’s live noon speech on education.

The Indian River County Democratic Executive Committee announced it plans for a “large group” of pehaps more than 50 people to gather outside School Board offices to protest the decision.

“How is it that the Indian River County School District can take it upon itself to censor the president of the United States of America?” said the Rev. Vernon Reason, a member of the Indian River County Pastor’s Association.

Reason said leaders for the group of about 18 churches met Sunday after learning that Indian River County schools would not air the program live.

School officials announced Thursday that School Board policy requires the broadcast be first taped and reviewed to determine if the material is educationally relevant.

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