My tarp? Your tarp?
Everywhere, a tarp, tarp.
State Senator Rod Smith, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Representative Randy Johnson, a Republican running for Chief Financial Officer, are singing the Blue Tarp Blues.
I caught the July 19 Cocoa stop of the "Rod Show", Smith's "Straight Talk, Real Change" three day bus tour across Florida. The huge thunderstorm greeting the candidate provided the perfect set-up for his stump speech on windstorm insurance, a huge issue for Floridians still smarting-and still waiting-payoffs from insurers post-Hurricane Season 2005.
Smith proclaimed he cut off a piece of blue tarp from the home of one such Floridian, who still waits roof repairs from damages sustained by Hurricane Ivan. Smith vowed to carry the blue tarp as a symbolic reminder of the financial hit insurance companies have delivered to Florida home owners, many who consider themselves lucky that their homeowner policies simply skyrocketed, and were not cancelled.
Woops.
The bus stops here, according to Randy Johnson.
His "Blue Tarp Tour" takes exception. As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, "It is clear that my use of the blue tarp as a symbol of our state's insurance crisis is catching on," Johnson said. (July 19, 2006).
Apparently, Johnson was the first candidate to "raise the blue tarp" and criticize the issue of insurance rates raised through the roof.
To which many Floridians would reply, "What roof?"