Freshman GOP Rep. Trey Radel may have resigned his seat in January after his arrest for purchasing cocaine from an undercover officer, but the circus didn't end there. Twelve days out from the all-important April 22 GOP primary to fill the remainder of his term, three Republicans are locked in a scorched-earth and volatile race for the safely GOP Southwest Florida seat: state Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, businessman Curt Clawson, and former state Rep. Paige Kreegel.
Yesterday, a truly bizarre scene unfolded in Naples when Benacquisto, Kreegel, and lower-tier candidate Michael Dreikorn staged a press conference questioning Clawson's ties to Glen Borst, a childhood friend and renter of a Clawson-owned home in Utah who was convicted in 2004 of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Clawson showed up and took the microphone in his own defense, telling reporters he had been out of touch with Borst for decades.
It would take a labyrinthine flow chart to keep track of the attacks, Super PACs, and shifting alliances at play here. Florida has no runoff, so the April 22 election will determine
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