STUART, Fla. — Jury duty was the last thing Florida state Rep. Joe Negron needed Tuesday, his first full day as a candidate for Congress.
Five weeks before election day, Negron took over that role from Mark Foley, who resigned his seat in the House following revelations of sexually explicit Internet communications with underage congressional pages.
But at 8:45 a.m., Negron entered Martin County's Peter L. Cheney Courthouse as an alternate juror in a triple murder case while his media facilitator paced outside the courtroom, speaking into his cellphone.
"We're being held hostage right now," said Tom McNicholas. "The campaign is in limbo."
Inside, Negron's face was blank as he sat with 13 other jurors listening to mothers and daughters read victims' statements in the case of Eugene McWatters, who was found guilty last week of murder and sexual battery.
Jury duty, though, was just one challenge facing the legislator. He has to make himself known to voters, a task he found daunting earlier this year: After declaring himself a candidate for Florida attorney general, he decided he didn't have enough name recognition to defeat former U.S. Rep Bill McCollum in a statewide race.
At the same time, he has to explain that Foley's name, not his, will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot as the Republican candidate.
As Negron was on jury duty, his Democratic opponent, Tim Mahoney, a millionaire businessman and former Republican who became a Democrat last year, attempted to focus on issues such as port security.
At a news conference at the Port of Palm Beach in Riviera Beach, as container ships were unloaded behind him, Mahoney said, "The federal government has turned a blind eye on our ports and failed to live up to their promise to make America as secure as it can be."
But questions kept pulling Mahoney back to Foley.
"What goes on in Washington, D.C., has nothing to do with what this campaign is about," he said. "Six weeks from now, what is going on with Mark Foley won't mean anything."
Unlike Mahoney, Negron seemed eager to discuss Foley. After he finished his jury service shortly after noon, Negron -- a parent and former congressional intern -- said that he was offended by Foley's behavior.
"But Mark Foley should be responsible for his disgusting failures, not me," he said. "Democrats are acting like Mahoney should be coronated because Mark Foley did disgusting things. But Republicans are not going to go into the fetal position because of Mark Foley's disgusting behavior."
