GOP Senate hopeful Carlos Beruff touts business, bureaucracy busting skills
SARASOTA -- It was a campaign against President Barack Obama and wasteful government spending at the Sarasota Republican Club dinner Thursday evening.
There were numerous politicians and political candidates at the dinner at Marina Jack in Sarasota, with Manatee developer Carlos Beruff seeking the highest office of them all at U.S. senator. He hopes to fill Sen. Marco Rubio's junior Florida senator position and has an upward battle against a slew of Republican candidates with more name recognition throughout the state.
Florida CFO Jeff Atwater encouraged the group of about 100 Sarasota Republicans to fall in line behind a Republican presidential candidate -- whoever that may be -- because he said it would be better than eight more years of Obama policies.
Other Senate campaigns have puzzled over the tim
ing of Beruff's late entry -- he officially announced Feb. 29 with the primary in August -- which Beruff attributed to preferring "sprints." He said he started thinking about entering the race at 8:10 p.m. Oct. 8.
"It was a phone call from a friend who said, 'Hey, we need a businessman in Washington, because politicians are ruining our country,'" Beruff said. "So I started thinking about it."
His strategy to climb the hill includes painting himself as the outsider candidate a la Donald Trump -- though he's far from the only candidate in the race to attempt that label -- and he is running against two easy Republican targets: Obama and government waste.
"We can't continue to throw money out at the rate that we do that. In health care alone, we're throwing away over $300 billion per year," Beruff said. "Now, $300 billion when you have a $493 billion deficit is a long way to closing your deficit. That, and uncollected taxes of $275 billion, and all of a sudden you turn a negative into a positive."
He wasn't the only one to target waste and Obama. Atwater, the main speaker, spent the majority of his speech lamenting the Obama administration's waste compared with Florida's thrifty spending.
Atwater also told an audience member he doesn't know what is next for him when his term ends with Gov. Rick Scott in 2018.
"This year, our federal government will spend close to $500 billion more than it takes in. Which means today, we borrowed $1.5 billion to get through the day. On interest alone this year, it will be about $225 billion," Atwater said. "So today, we made $660 million in interest payments. That's what we did today. We borrowed $1.5 billion, we paid interest of $660 million, and none of that created any value or prosperity for any one of us in this room."
Atwater said, though he is disappointed with the rhetoric that has taken over the Republican race, the Republican options are much better than a continuation of current policies.
"In the end, 13 years away from entitlements taking all revenue is something to concern every one of us," Atwater said. "We have decisions to make and we better start making them now."
Beruff's record for fighting government waste is substantial and controversial. During appointments to several boards in Southwest Florida over the years, Beruff has led moves against Transportation Security Administration unions for private security at airports, against tenure for faculty at State College of Florida and dropping Swiftmud's annual budget dramatically.
Beruff is fully aware his decisions were not popular and doesn't seem concerned with that issue.
"I made a mess out of some of these bureaucracies, which were used to just existing and taking the taxpayer's money and not being held accountable," Beruff said. "And I became somewhat unpopular, but I did the right thing. And I believe the results are the taxpayers of Florida are better for it."
Now he wants to take that attitude to Congress, along with what he calls a needed business mindset. When asked about the GOP presidential front-runner, businessman Donald Trump, Beruff said he would support whoever the nominee is. He said he disagrees with some things Trump has said but declined to specify.
"There's only one Donald Trump. And he has a way of being able to say things, and some things I don't agree with, but I don't agree with everybody, so what's the difference?" Beruff said. "I agree with everybody about 80 percent of the time."
Like Trump, Beruff also says he plans to mainly self-fund his campaign, and won't take money from special interests though he is taking individual donations.
Unlike Trump, Beruff lacks name recognition among the people he hopes will vote for him. That, too, he knows.
"We're focused on trying to get people to know who Carlos Beruff is," Beruff said with a laugh.
Kate Irby, Herald online/political reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7055. You can follow her on Twitter @KateIrby
This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "GOP Senate hopeful Carlos Beruff touts business, bureaucracy busting skills."