Gov Jeb Bush addressing supporters in Ft. Pierce:
"I'm never going to stand back and say we're going to be
Democrat-lite. No way, nohow."
Bush's quiet run for reelection switches gears for showdown
BY PETER WALLSTEN
pwallsten@herald.com
FORT PIERCE - With sweat showing through his wrinkled dress shirt, Gov. Jeb Bush stood like an itinerant preacher on the bed of a cherry-red pickup truck parked in the shade of a sprawling live oak tree.
As hundreds of Republican admirers flocked around him, Bush evoked what he called the ''bedrock Republican principles'' of lower taxes and limited government, and promised that he would not tolerate the kinds of attacks on his education record that his Democratic opponents have unleashed.
''We will not step back when the Democrats start harping about how these changes have not made a difference,'' he declared. ``The facts are that they have.''
This was a textbook political speech, delivered not to a roomful of big-money lobbyists and corporate executives in a hotel ballroom, but to a crowd of everyday folks who paid $25 each to the St. Lucie County GOP to hear Bush and enjoy barbecued pork, cole slaw and sweet iced tea.
This was a rare occasion for the man who hopes to become Florida's first two-term Republican governor.
As a challenger in 1994 and 1998, Bush was an aggressive campaigner with an active schedule that put him in direct touch with voters from the Panhandle to South Florida as he decried what he called the politically myopic ways of ``Mount Tallahassee.''
Now he is running for reelection as the incumbent, a status that has his strategists striving to strike a balance between governance and bare-knuckle politics.
The formula is more complicated, given the state's unique political environment.
Bush's likely opponent in the November election will be former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who not only rivals the governor's star power but is hoping to whip up Democratic fury to avenge the contested victory in Florida by Bush's brother, George W. Bush, in the 2000 presidential election.
So far, the Bush reelection campaign has unfolded largely out of public view.
Bush has taken pains to appear focused on his job, especially since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the ensuing economic recession that forced painful cuts in education and other services. He halted the campaign in the months following the attacks and pledged not to solicit money for his campaign during the Legislature's annual session.
WELL-OILED CAMPAIGN
But even as warring among his own party's legislative leadership has mired the governor in an unwelcome, protracted daily grind in the capital -- opening him to criticism for failing to lead -- Bush has managed to quietly fashion a well-oiled campaign.
He has flown aboard private jets to high-dollar fundraisers in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston, Dallas and other locales.
He never broke his pledge on raising money for the campaign. But he also never stopped putting his hand out to collect for the state Republican Party, which will actually bankroll most of his reelection with more than $20 million in the unlimited, unregulated corporate cash called ``soft money.''
He never stopped exploiting his popular brother, the president, who has headlined at least two soft-money events so far on the way to helping the governor's campaign and the state GOP net more than $30 million for the 2002 election cycle so far.
The governor also took time to film a couple of minutelong TV campaign ads promoting his education record, which became the most visible public pronouncement of his reelection campaign when the GOP started blanketing the state's airwaves last week.
Bush, at the same time, has proven himself to be an incumbent savvy with the political powers of his office, holding made-for-TV bill-signing ceremonies on topics from guide-dog safety to breast cancer research.
And even on the rare occasion that he hits the stump, he plays the wonk governor card.
Saturday, following his campaign speech, he was delighted to answer local reporters' questions on subjects like the state budget and legislative relations.
Bush aides say Saturday's barbecue, which brought more than 600 GOP faithful to the 20,000-acre cattle ranch of Alto ''Bud'' Adams about 10 miles west of Fort Pierce, is more indicative of the kind of campaign the governor will run than his more stealthy schedule of recent months.
At least 20 more GOP barbecues are scheduled, and if the Legislature finishes its special budget session on time on May 13, the state's voters will get more frequent glimpses of Bush the candidate, aides say.
Bush intends to answer the attacks from his opponents and the state's teachers union that his ''A-plus'' education plan and his focus on cutting taxes have hurt schools. He will respond, strategists say, as if he were 30 points behind in the polls -- even though he is really at least 17 points ahead of both Reno and Bill McBride, the other leading candidate for the Democratic nomination.
The stakes are too high both for Bush's own career and for what will certainly be Florida's critical role in his brother's reelection campaign in 2004.
BUSH'S MANTRA
Bush himself has begun repeating a mantra: that he has increased spending on education more than his Democratic predecessor, the late Gov. Lawton Chiles, and plans to add one billion ''new education dollars'' when the Legislature convenes this week.
''We're not going to let these guys continue pounding on the governor the way they've been doing for the last eight months,'' said Bush's campaign manager, Karen Unger. ``We intend to campaign very aggressively.''
Candidate Bush was a welcome sight to Kimberly Knapp, 42, a Democrat who voted against him in 1998 but says she likes him this year because of his brother and his efforts to change public education.
''He's been laying kind of low, it seems, and he needs to get out more,'' said Knapp, a homemaker who lives near Fort Pierce.
Referring to Reno's draw among loyal Democrats, Knapp added: ``She'll get a lot of people to come out, a lot of female voters. So he should get out there and campaign.''
The governor did not mention Reno or her signature gimmick, the red Ford Ranger pickup that she drove across the state to promote her folksy, Old Florida style.
But his appearance Saturday atop a red Chevy that could roll over Reno's pickup showed that he is ready to open up the campaign throttle and rev up his own base.
`NO WAY, NOHOW'
''I'm never going to stand back and say we're going to be Democrat-lite. No way, nohow,'' he said. ``We're going to advocate limited government, entrepreneurial capitalism.''
''Government has a role to provide support so that people can live for themselves and pursue their own dreams,'' he said.
The speech offered more red meat than much of his message four years ago, when Bush adopted his brother's ''compassionate conservative'' trademark and devoted his most public campaign work to softening the hard-right image from his failed 1994 bid.
Still, Bush talked Saturday of his spending increases on Florida's ''most vulnerable citizens'' and spoke of the need for government to care for the poor and elderly.
And there are signs that Bush will force his opponents to fight a ground war in their home bases.
Today, Bush's campaign opens a headquarters in the Democratic stronghold of Broward County. At least three more satellite offices are likely to open across the county soon to symbolize a ''grass-roots campaign,'' supporters say.
''We're going to run Jeb Bush in Broward County like he's running for County Commission,'' said George LeMieux, the county's GOP chairman. ``Jeb's going to be here a lot, and there are going to be signs everywhere.''
