1639-41 Politics THU OCT 28 1993 ED: FINAL
SECTION: NEIGHBORS MB PAGE: 3 LENGTH: 19 . 39" MEDIUM
ILLUST: photo: Mike Karpel, Nancy LIEBMAN
SOURCE: FRAN BRENNAN Herald Staff Writer
DATELINE:
MEMO:
ALLEGATIONS OF SMEAR TACTICS
SURFACE IN COMMISSION RACE
With less than a week until the election, the unusually tame Miami Beach
Commission race has heated up with allegations of smear tactics resounding
across the city. But front-runners Mike Karpel and Nancy Liebman both say they
have kept their campaigns dirt-free.
"All of those kinds of things are just silliness that go on in
campaigns, " said Liebman, a former teacher promoting "new ideas, old values. "
"I will not be part of such a campaign. I don't need to. I 've heard that
things happen in the last week. And I 'm just trying to move forward and hope
the voters will follow the issues. "
Both Liebman and Karpel, an accountant and community activist who wants
to improve the Beach economy and quality of life, are newcomers to the
campaign trail. Neither has run before. Karpel, at least, is surprised a
campaign could be so quiet in the city that spawned Alex Daoud and Abe
Hirschfeld.
"But on the other hand, I 'm not surprised because there is not any dirt
to be dug up, " he said. "And maybe it ' s because we have kept our campaign 100
percent clean. "
Hotel auditor Eva Kaplan and theatrical producer Frederick Von Langen
also are running for the seat left open by Commissioner Abe Resnick' s
retirement. But as Karpel and Liebman gained momentum, the mud-slinging seems
to have revolved around them.
Karpel campaign consultant Ric Katz said his team planned to use in ads
a 1992 Miami Herald article reporting Liebman' s resignation as director of the
Miami Design Preservation League. Katz said the article supported his
candidate ' s position that Liebman lacks business acumen.
According to Katz, a Liebman campaign strategist threatened to "do all
sorts of stuff to us, print all sorts of allegations" if the Karpel campaign
used the article.
Liebman denied the charge and said she and her staff were not worried
about the Herald article because it "in no way suggests" she left her post
because of financial incompetence.
"We ' re not saying anything now that we haven't been saying all along, "
Katz said. "But people are paying attention. The voter doesn' t pay attention
to elections until they' re right there. In a situation where you 're not
dominated by a throw-the- rascals-out mentality, things don' t heat up until
the last weeks. "
Bob Goodman, Liebman' s campaign coordinator, said things aren't heating
up at all. He said any hostility that may exist is being created by Liebman' s
opponent.
"There haven't been any allegations or anything that have emanated from
Nancy Liebman ' s camp that have been anything but positive, " Goodman said.
"It ' s typical when somebody in politics -- certainly candidates -- finds they
don ' t have the public support, they throw rocks and throw mud at the person
who is perceived to be leading the election. "
ADDED TERMS:
END OF DOCUMENT.