Charges Fly as Ex-Judge Seeks Seat in Congress

MIAMI —  In Florida, never before has there been a 23rd Congressional District, never before an election to chose its representative, and rarely a political campaign so deeply shadowed by issues of race and integrity.

Of course, never before has there been a candidate quite like Alcee L. Hastings.

Charismatic and outspoken, Hastings is back on the front pages of southern Florida newspapers, and not simply because he is an impeached federal judge and the only black contender to represent a congressional district newly drawn to take in minority neighborhoods in seven counties.

He faces a runoff primary Thursday against fellow Democrat Lois Frankel, a state representative; the winner will be favored to win the general election.

“This is a tough, close race, and I feel we’re going to win it,” Hastings said.

Frankel outpolled him in the Sept. 1 primary, 35% to 28%. But Hastings’ chances improved markedly when U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin recently ruled that the ex-judge’s removal from the bench was improper because he was not given a trial by the full Senate but rather by a special 12-member Senate committee. The case is now headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Well before the high court renders a verdict, however, the voters will. And Hastings is confident that he will soon be a member of the same body that four years ago voted to impeach him. Sporkin’s decision, he says, “gives me the bounce I need to bounce past my opponent. It has energized my campaign and defused some of my opponent’s negativism.”

Still, there is no shortage of negativism. Recently, a campaign watchdog group urged both candidates to tone it down after Frankel complained about a remark by Hastings, in which he said of his foe: “The bitch is a racist.”

Hastings admitted the slur and said he regretted it.

Frankel accuses Hastings of making race an issue simply because she is not black. “I have a proven record on health care, children, reproductive rights for women, and jobs,” she said. “Rhetoric isn’t going to make it.”

Hastings, 55, saves everything that is written about him, and his scrapbook is full. Born in poverty, the son of a hotel maid, Hastings graduated from Florida A&M; University Law School and practiced in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for 13 years before being elected circuit judge in 1977. In 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter named him Florida’s first black U.S. district judge.

Hastings’ troubles began in 1981, when he was indicted on charges of conspiring with a friend to accept a $150,000 bribe in exchange for giving two convicted swindlers a sentencing break. The friend, Washington lawyer William Borders Jr., was convicted of bribery, but he has refused to testify about Hastings.

Hastings was acquitted of the bribery charges in 1983. But a panel of federal judges concluded that Hastings had lied during his trial and asked the House of Representatives to consider impeachment. In 1988, the House voted 413 to 3 to oust Hastings from the bench. The Senate adopted the impeachment charges, 69 to 26.

Since his removal from the bench, Hastings has been a defense attorney. His clients have included Yahweh Ben Yahweh, the black sect leader who recently was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his involvement in a murder conspiracy.