![]() It says in 1982 I'm running for Governor and it asks that people vote for a change.'' It's very factual and totally documented. ''It says Carter and Graham stood idly by. ''That ad says that Castro unloaded his jails and his mental institutions, along with a lot of good people,'' Mr. The Governor's office has responded with a nine-page document called ''A Summary of Events Concerning Caribbean Refugees in Florida,'' a chronology of the Governor's actions. Graham slept serenely while 125,000 Cuban refugees, some with criminal intent, reached Florida's shores. Bafalis's entire television advertising campaign is a reminder of the Cuban boatlift in the spring of 1980, conveying the strong impression that Mr. Bafalis, he will be beaten on just these points. Bob Graham, a Democrat, is beaten in his re-election attempt by his Republican challenger, Representative L.A. The crime rate has risen not only with the population increase - 200,000 to 300,000 families move here each year from the North and the Middle West -but also with the waves of transients who drift into the state with the onset of winter and with the waves of impoverished refugees. A finite water supply has been threatened. Signs of overdevelopment are everywhere, especially on the beaches - if one can find the beaches for the condominiums. The state's population has quadrupled since 1950, to a little more than 10 million today. In the 1970's, Florida was the second fastest-growing state in the nation, after Nevada. But in Florida, these concerns seem overridden by a nagging perception that paradise has been destroyed in some regions and is seriously threatened in others. In August, the latest figures available, Florida's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, while the nation's was 9.8 percent. ![]() ![]() Unemployment is high, even though it is lower than the national average. It costs as much to borrow money here as elsewhere in the nation, and there are not enough housing starts to even go into the matter. It is Florida's distinction this election year to have as its principal issues three topics that were around long before the recession colored all political talk: crime, refugees and the environment. A gubernatorial race is in many ways a handy primer on a state's current events, for politicians tend to restrict themselves to those issues uppermost on everyone's mind. ![]()
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