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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (6821)	10/3/1998 1:12:00 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 67261

ASSOCIATED PRESS --- Fla. Candidate Calls Opponent Fake CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) _ Embarrassing her own party, a Democrat running for the state House is claiming that her GOP opponent is not who he says he is, but an impostor who has assumed the identity of a dead man. Diane Ellis, 39, said the real Gus Bilirakis is dead and that the man running against her was hired by Bilirakis' congressman-father, Rep. Michael Bilirakis, to impersonate his son. Gus Bilirakis countered: ''I'm here and my name is Gus Bilirakis. I've been in this community for many years and a lot of people know me.'' Ellis made the claim in a Sept. 23 letter to a Pinellas County good-goverment group. She offered no proof but said the real Gus Bilirakis died in 1995 and the candidate is actually a man named Danny Divito from New York and Washington. ''This does not give me confidence in her candidacy,'' said Nancy Whitman, Pinellas County Democratic chairwoman. ''If I saw this, this is not someone I'd want going through very tough decision-making processes in the state House.'' Pressed for an explanation for her claims, Ellis said she got the information from a private investigator, but refused to give his name. ''I'm putting my whole self out on this because I believe it and I know it,'' said the self-employed legal assistant. ''He is not Gus Bilirakis.'' Paul Bedinghaus, chairman of the Pinellas County Republican Party, said the Democrats should do a better job of screening candidates. ''It would be comical if we weren't talking about such a serious topic,'' said Bedinghaus, who has known Gus Bilirakis for years.