Green Party Watch

The Tampa Tribune does a little digging on one of the mysterious “Florida Five” Greens, Sarah Roman, who filed as a Green Party Candidate for State House District 44:

…But even the greenest of political novices should figure that media attention and support from the party are two of the most effective tools a candidate should use to win, Green Party officials say.

After numerous attempts during the last several weeks, Roman finally returned a phone call Tuesday to Hernando Today, leaving a voicemail message. Roman said on the message that she preferred to respond to media queries through e-mail, and left an e-mail address.

Another phone message and an e-mail went unanswered Tuesday.

More confounding, however, is that Roman hasn’t corresponded with the Florida Green Party, said spokeswoman Julia Aires. The party has sent certified mail to Roman with a questionnaire and request to get in touch. No response.

“It’s puzzling,” Aires said. “It really is difficult to understand how a candidate motivated to run for office does not want any attention to campaign or win votes or to have an opportunity to make their voice heard.”

Jennifer Sullivan, a lead organizer and spokeswoman for the Hernando County Green Party, also has left phone messages and even gone hunting for Roman at her last known address and at the Salvation Army in Port Richey, where she supposedly volunteers.

“It’s illogical,” Sullivan said. “If you were running for something, wouldn’t you want publicity?”

“What concerns me,” Sullivan said, “is we’re running a candidate we don’t know.”

Roman has intelligence and social skills, according to news stories about her scholastic performance published in recent years.

She was one of five teenagers to earn a scholarship from the Pasco Pediatric in 2003 while a student at Ridgewood High School in New Port Richey. She had a 3.6 grade-point average, according to a story published in The Pasco Tribune about the scholarship winners in October 2003.

Roman said then that her mother died when Roman was 4 and that she’d had to find ways to make money since the age of 12 to help her father pay the bills. She lived with her grandparents for a while, and also spent time in a homeless shelter, the story states. When her father had “problems,” Roman went to live with a friend’s family in the summer of 2007.

Roman said then that education “is the only way I know I’ll succeed in life.”

“I’ve never had a stable family,” she said. “Getting an education was the only way I know where I’ll be able to have a stable family.”

Last year, Roman was selected as a student ambassador for Pasco-Hernando Community College’s west campus in New Port Richey, according to a story that ran in The Pasco Tribune last October. Roman was pursuing her associate’s degree at PHCC after transferring from the University of Central Florida, and planned to pursue a degree in public relations or education.

When she filed in June, Roman listed the Port Richey address of Allan and Regina Weilbacker. Roman was a friend of the couple’s daughter, and she stayed with the Weilbackers during high school, Allan Weilbacker said Tuesday.

But Weilbacker said Roman hadn’t lived there for “a couple of years.” He said she lives in Holiday now, but he didn’t have her new address.

Read the entire piece here.

I just have to add that this person sounds like she could be a good Green Party candidate. Sarah Roman, shoot us an email and let’s talk!

Tags: Florida, Sarah Roman

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 11:54 am and is filed under State Party News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.