by Bill Rufty

LAKELAND -- While Lakeland native Lawton Chiles walked the length of Florida in a successful race to the U.S. Senate, state Rep. Willie Logan said he hopes he is rolling his way to Washington.

Logan, an Independent candidate for the Senate, will make several stops in Polk County today on his 1,000-mile motorcycle trek.

"On May 8, we started in Century, just like Lawton Chiles," Logan campaign manager Sean Pittman said. "In fact, Marie McMurray, who walked the first mile with Chiles, was there to greet Rep. Logan."

Logan will be at Lake Wales City Hall at 10 a.m. today and will meet with constitutional officers at the Courthouse and County Administration building in Bartow from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

He will ride up Bartow Road to hold a 1:30 p.m. town hall meeting at New Bethel AME Church, 2122 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., in Lakeland. The meeting is open to the public, campaign aides said.

Logan, who was elected mayor of Opa-Locka at 23, will meet with Lakeland Mayor Buddy Fletcher at City Hall at 3:15 p.m. and tour the city offices.

After the stop at City Hall, Logan and supporters will ride motorcycles to Tampa to continue his campaign ride across the state.

He is the second U.S. Senate candidate to visit Polk County this week. Republican U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum was in Lakeland on Monday for a private fund-raiser luncheon.

McCollum and State Education Commissioner Tom Gallagher will compete in the Sept. 5 GOP primary. The winner will face Democratic Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson and Logan in the Nov. 7 general election.