Betty Castor

Betty Castor (born Elizabeth Bowe in Glassboro, New Jersey on May 11, 1941) is an American public servant and educator who served as Florida Education Commissioner, President of the University of South Florida and President of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Her public service included three terms in the Florida State Senate and one term as a Hillsborough County Commissioner In 2004, she was the Democratic nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat of retiring Senator Bob Graham and was very narrowly defeated. She is the mother of Kathy Castor, who is the Democratic Congresswoman from the Florida's 11th congressional district. Betty Castor is the Director of the Patel Center for Global Solutions at the University of South Florida, which is the largest urban, public university in Florida.

Background

Castor grew up in Glassboro, New Jersey, where her father, Joseph Bowe, was the mayor. She attended Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), earning her bachelor's degree. While at Glassboro she was active in organizing a drive to support education in Uganda. Because of her activities, President John F. Kennedy appointed her to a diplomatic mission to attend the independence celebrations in Kampala, Uganda in 1962. Following her graduation in 1963, she attended the Teachers College of Columbia University and subsequently went back to Uganda and taught secondary school as part of the Teachers for East Africa program. While in East Africa, Castor participated in a project to help lead two dozen African school girls to the summit of Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, the first all-female expedition to accomplish this.

She returned to the U.S. in 1965, married Donald Castor and moved to Dade County, Florida, where Castor was a teacher while studying for her Master of Education degree at the University of Miami. While living and studying in Miami, Castor's first daughter, Katherine (Kathy), was born. Kathy Castor is currently the Congressional representative of Florida's eleventh congressional district, which includes portions of greater Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida.

After receiving her Master's Degree in 1968, Castor moved with her family to Tampa, where she joined the League of Women Voters's Tampa chapter, becoming its president in 1970. Castor's daughter, Karen, was born in 1968 and her son, Frank 1970. In 1972, she ran for the Hillsborough County Commission. An advocate of environmental protection and governmental reform, Castor faced ten opponents in the Democratic Primary and faced a general election opponent as well. She won all the contests, becoming the first woman ever elected to the County Commission. During her term, she chaired the Environmental Protection Commission and became chair of the Board of County Commissioners in 1976. Later in 1976 she was elected to the State Senate and served until 1978 when she ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor. She was elected again to the Florida Senate in 1982 and became the president pro tempore of the Senate in 1985, the first woman to hold the post. Castor served on numerous education committees and became chair of the appropriations committee on education. She was the prime sponsor of the Human Rights Commission and championed bills to end discrimination and fund spouse abuse centers statewide. She successfully sponsored and funded the early childhood education.

In 1986, Castor was elected statewide to the Florida Cabinet as Florida Education Commissioner, overseeing the state's public schools. (Florida had an elected Commissioner of Education at that time.) In 1994, Castor became president of the University of South Florida.

In 1995, while Castor was president of the University of South Florida, the FBI began investigating suspected terrorist Sami Al-Arian and two other USF professors. In 1996, USF officials received information on the investigation, leading Castor to suspend Al-Arian.

In 1999, Castor left USF to become president of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.

Divorced from Don Castor, she is currently married to former state legislator Sam Bell III. She has six children.

Senate campaign, 2004

File:Betty Castor campaign logo.jpg

In the 2004 Senate campaign, Castor faced two Democratic candidates, Miami mayor Alex Penelas and Hollywood congressman Peter Deutsch, in the Democratic primary election.

Until the spring of 2004, Castor's fundraising was much slower than her Democratic and Republican rivals. In the spring, the campaign hired fundraising staff from the defunct presidential campaigns of Howard Dean and Bob Graham, and subsequently posted much higher fundraising numbers over the summer. Online grassroots techniques devised for the Dean campaign (Castor became a Dean Dozen candidate in August) were one contributing factor: another was the support of EMILY's List, which named Castor as its highest-rated candidate for the 2004 election cycle, even when her support for banning intact dilation and extraction (D&X) abortions was not in line with the EMILY's List support for woman's issues. The latter was a source of criticism during the August primary heat - a complaint was filed by a Deutsch supporter with the Federal Election Commission accusing inappropriate coordination with EMILY's List. The complaint was dismissed by the Federal Election Commission in 2005.

Castor's handling of Sami Al-Arian became another source of criticism during the campaign. In June, The American Democracy Project, a 527 group founded by Bernie Friedman, began attacking Castor's handling of the incident, alleging that she had sufficient evidence to fire Al-Arian in the mid-1990s. Castor responded by stating that she never had sufficient evidence to fire Al-Arian, who was a tenured professor at the time. On June 29, Senator Graham, who had previously remained outside of the Al-Arian controversy, released a statement that "Betty Castor acted appropriately as President of the University of South Florida to deal with Sami Al-Arian": later, Graham and Senator Bill Nelson brokered an agreement between the Democratic candidates to refrain from negative campaigning against each other, although this agreement appeared to break down in the final weeks of the race, when Deutsch launched attack ads on television.

Despite these controversies, Castor won the Democratic nomination on August 31. She was defeated, however, by Republican candidate Mel Martinez in a close race on November 2, 2004. The overwhelming support for Martinez among Latinos effectively counterbalanced Castor's relatively high popularity among swing voters throughout the state.

There was some speculation that Castor would run for Governor of Florida in 2006 to replace Jeb Bush, who was ineligible for re-election due to term limits, but she announced in 2005 that she would not be a candidate.

Positions

• Abortion: Generally pro-choice, but opposes Intact dilation and extraction (D&X) abortions.
• Civil rights: Supports affirmative action; supports special funding for historically black colleges; advocates allowing children of immigrants to apply for college at in-state tuition rates.
• Economy: Supports free trade generally; advocates federal tax incentives and education subsidies to boost growth of high-tech industries; supports progressive taxation and a balanced budget; advocates closing corporate tax law loopholes and enforcing American intellectual property overseas; supports raising the minimum wage to $6.75/hour.
• Education: Opposes No Child Left Behind Act.
• Environment: Opposes offshore oil drilling in Florida; advocates Everglades restoration and expansion of the Superfund.
• Foreign policy: Generally internationalist; advocates closer alliances with foreign powers and "internationalization" of peacekeeping in Iraq and Afghanistan; supports Israeli self-determination and a U.S. role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process; opposes travel restrictions to Cuba.
• Health care: Advocates free health insurance for uninsured children and their families; supports re-importation of drugs from Canada; opposes privatization of Social Security.
• Homeland security: Supports provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act pertaining to counterterrorism intelligence; opposes military base closures in Florida; advocates stronger port security.
• Religion: Did not express an opinion on "Permit prayer in public schools" on a recent poll, in which she did answer many other questions [1].
• Same-sex marriage: Opposes same-sex marriage; supports civil unions.
• Second Amendment: Supports the Right to Bear Arms for protection and for sports; does not support new legislation on gun laws; supports enforcement by federal government of existing gun laws.

Patel Center for Global Solutions

In January 2007, Betty Castor was appointed the Executive Director at the Patel Center for Global Solutions at the University of South Florida. Betty Castor oversees all aspects of this solutions-oriented research center, including working with faculty to carry out the applied research strategic plan. Castor's immediate tasks include assembling an advisory board of local, national, and international experts on globalization, as well as overseeing the construction of a new building for the Patel Center.