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Teacher has political ideas

Carl Zimmermann has education high on his priority list as the Democratic nominee for House District 48.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published September 24, 2006

CLEARWATER - In the classroom, Countryside High School journalism teacher Carl Zimmermann gets to ask the questions.

"Who hasn't turned in their last news story yet?" he asked his third period TV Production II class one day last week. This was after reviewing a news story about the school cafeteria (prices up, french fry portions down). "When am I getting them?"

Outside the classroom, political candidate Carl Zimmermann has to answer the questions, and they are tough.

Like, "what's your solution to the insurance crisis."

Tackle that.

He does. Zimmermann, 55, is a Democrat running for state House District 48. He claims to have solid solutions to the area's major problems and boasts of having cross-party support.

His slogan is, "Had Enough?"

"My experience has been people have had enough, and they're looking for a moderate person with ideas," Zimmermann said.

Zimmermann, a Palm Harbor resident with a used car business and a teacher at Countryside High since 1985, has never held public office. In 1992, he ran for the same seat he seeks now but as a Republican. He lost in the primary.

Since Jeb and George W. Bush were elected, Zimmermann said, the Republican party changed in a way that doesn't make room for moderates. So three years ago, he switched parties.

Now he's running as a Democrat in a heavily Republican district. He faces the Republican nominee, Tarpon Springs City Commissioner Peter Nehr, in the Nov. 7 general election.

The two candidates have spoken to each other on several occasions, Nehr said, and have pledged to run a clean campaign.

And although Nehr has raised enough money to buy a modest home in Pinellas County (but maybe not the insurance policy), Nehr said the two are battling on an even playing field.

"He has a lot more opportunity since he had no one to run against him (in the primary)," said Nehr who ran against three other Republicans in a close primary election.

Nehr may have raised more than $170,000, according to the latest campaign finance report for the period ending Sept. 15, but he's spent about $161,000 of that.

Zimmermann has raised $16,000 according to the latest report for the period ending Aug. 31 and has spent $8,000 of that.

"We Democrats just have to deal with bread crumbs and just be happy," Zimmermann joked.

Zimmermann is a friend, said Jack Latvala, the former Republican state senator, but he also said the Democrat is "swimming upstream."

"It's a solidly Republican district both in registration and performance," Latvala said. "I just think it would take something really major to win that seat."

But Zimmermann said there are a lot of Republicans looking for "a good, sensible, moderate voice."

Here is his voice on several major issues:

- Education - As a teacher, he said he can say educators are being destroyed by the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. At the very most, the FCAT should be one of multiple assessment tools, he said.

Ultimately, Zimmermann said he'd like to see education evolve to an academy style of teaching, where learning comes through application, not lecture.

That's how Zimmermann says he teaches.

"Because that's how you learn," he said.

- Property taxes - The Save Our Homes cap on property assessments is land-locking people, he said. He supports making the 3 percent cap portable.

Also - and this idea really excites the Realtors, he said - when a house is being purchased, instead of being assessed at the current value, the home should be assessed at a five-year average.

The five-year average serves as a shock absorber, which slows down the rise and fall of property taxes, he said.

- And now, the problem plaguing the state and stumping politicians: property insurance.

"We need fundamental change," Zimmermann said. "Not just a Band-Aid."

For starters, Zimmermann proposes to combine coverage for wind damage with coverage for sinkholes.

Here, in brief, is how he says it would work: First, the state would rescind a requirement that sinkhole coverage be included in homeowners' insurance. Then, coverage for sinkhole and wind damage could be sold in a combined policy that could be sold statewide, but separately from homeowners' insurance.

That, he said, would broaden and reduce the risk, foster competition by attracting insurance companies back to Florida and reduce rates.

And if his latest venture into politics doesn't pan out, Zimmermann has still more goals. They include having his students create a piece to submit to the Sundance Film Festival, which he's attended for the past four years.

More than 500 journalism awards won by his students clutter the walls of his classroom. Zimmermann has a few of his own, including 2003 state journalism teacher of the year from the Florida Scholastic Press Association.

He even has an idea for Katie Couric. When the bell rings he yells out the suggested sign-off he e-mailed to the new CBS anchor: "Thanks for today, see you tomorrow."

He thinks he's found a solid solution to her problem, too.

[Last modified September 24, 2006, 09:23:54]