Posted on 09/15/2002 6:46:43 PM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
ORLANDO -- Sandbagged by Janet Reno, the once high-flying campaign of Bill McBride is hitting the road as it tries to regain momentum.
McBride, who took two days to claim victory amid reports of voting irregularities in the Democratic primary, made his first general election campaign appearance Saturday morning at a union luncheon.
By this time, McBride had planned to jet around the state on a Democrat victory/unity tour with Reno, third-place finisher Daryl Jones and U.S. Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson.
But Reno has challenged McBride's victory and, as a result, party unity is withering.
Reno says all the votes -- perhaps thousands -- in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have yet to be counted.
The state's unofficial vote tallies show McBride won by 8,196 votes out of more than 1.3 million cast.
Reno's claim not only threw McBride off rhythm but also placed him in the awkward position of trying to campaign against Gov. Jeb Bush without looking too much like the governor's brother in the 2000 election, when George W. Bush's lawyers succeeded in stopping a statewide recount in a move that helped propel him into the White House.
"We've had those problems before, where it appears that people are trying to take something that they didn't deserve.... I'm not like that," McBride said as 250 Florida Education Association supporters drowned him out in supportive cheers and applause.
"Every vote should count," McBride said.
But, he said, he declared victory Thursday because the secretary of state's office declared him the winner. Final vote certification is 5 p.m. Tuesday. McBride said it's unlikely that Reno will find enough votes to surpass him during reviews of the touch-screen voting machines in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Reno stayed away from voters and the media Saturday except for a brief early morning joint appearance with McBride on NBC's Today show, where she repeated her post-election mantra: "I just want the votes to be counted. I'm happy to concede when the votes are there."
Her only nod to McBride was an acknowledgement of his situation.
"If I were Bill, I'd be campaigning now," she said, adding "I'm not stopping anybody."
There was little Reno, or her campaign team, could do Saturday except wait for Miami-Dade and Broward counties to finish reviewing the ballots and hope elections officials would turn up enough votes to give her the nomination.
Early in the day, Reno's campaign hoped the officials would reveal a partial recount that would help bolster its case that the winner of the Democratic primary is not yet known. But elections officials continued to stay mum on content. They want to wait until their review is further along before making any official statements beyond what is already known -- that at least 1,800 votes were not counted in Reno's home county and there could be hundreds more.
Counties that want to amend their vote counts must do so by 5 p.m. Tuesday, when the state canvassing board meets to give its final approval of the statewide vote count.
Alan Greer, Reno's lead attorney, said Saturday that, if the margin is less than one-half of 1 percent, Reno might ask the courts to order a recount since the state deadline for such a recount has past.
But Greer said the canvassing board would risk the wrath of every voter in the state if, after all the problems already found, it was unwilling to order a recount without a nod from the courts.
Asked whether Reno and McBride are becoming increasingly frustrated with each other, Greer said, "I wouldn't want to discuss frustration levels anywhere."
It's no secret, however, that the two camps are growing increasingly divided.
And the GOP is loving it.
Republicans are trying to corner McBride with his own words by sending out copies of a videotape made in May when McBride spoke in Jacksonville.
McBride is shown saying, "We need to focus very hard on making sure that every single precinct in this state has somebody who will make sure that every single voter has the opportunity to cast their vote, and aren't excluded from the polls, or after their ballot is cast, thrown away because they didn't have adequate assistance or help or understanding."
McBride spokesman Alan Stonecipher said there was no contradiction in declaring victory before the vote review is finished.
"Bill McBride's position is the same today as it was in May," he said. "The Republicans just want to show off one of the selections of Bill in their film archives. And it's a very good movie of McBride displaying the very leadership that Jeb Bush lacks."
This isn't the first time Republicans, who have attempted to make as many recordings of McBride speeches as possible, have attempted to use video against him.
Two weeks ago, Bush's campaign produced a snippet of a speech indicating McBride was not against publicly financing private schools with vouchers -- contrary to his campaign literature. Subsequent quotations in the speech show McBride saying he's "vehemently" opposed to Bush's voucher plan.
But reporters didn't hear that portion of the video until after a story ran and suggested McBride waffles on his position to suit the crowd.
The story caught the campaign by surprise. So did a report Friday posted on CNN's Web site. It extensively quoted U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, who suggested Democrats and McBride were being hypocritical for glossing over the need for a recount this year, while clamoring for it in 2000.
McBride's position was virtually absent.
And that's because he was. The come-from-behind candidate who had flown all over the state to win his party's nomination spent all Friday with his top advisers at home, ceding news media time and initiative to his detractors as well as Reno.
The day before, he had declared victory and said he needed to get on with his campaign. But for most of Friday, he was nowhere to be seen. Two television stations and half a dozen reporters waited at campaign headquarters but were refused access to the candidate, thereby costing McBride the free publicity that comes with the so-called "earned media" of a major primary victory.
Meanwhile, grumbling in the black communities of South Florida grew over what some saw as a premature declaration of victory by McBride.
Bush's campaign clearly is enjoying the Democratic discomfort. Bush has viewed McBride as his biggest threat in the November election and now his campaign is convinced that the election controversy is damaging McBride.
"His biggest problems now are that he lost his momentum after the election and he can't make up the time he is losing," said Bush spokesman Todd Harris.
The Bush strategy: Sit back and wait to see what happens. There are no plans to run either anti-McBride or anti-Reno commercials until after the state declares who the nominee is.
Meanwhile, the campaign has begun running a new ad showing how Bush helped a small community get a traffic light.
"It shows that there are no problems that are too big or too small for this governor," Harris said.
Winning may not be much better than losing for Reno, say some Democrats. Reno had a difficult time raising money during the primary campaign and she has been so preoccupied with her vote challenge that no one is working on getting money for the November election.
And it is almost certain that many McBride supporters would be so outraged if their candidate were pushed off the Democratic pedestal that they would refuse to help Reno.
While the campaign feverishly began raising money from donors across the nation, McBride spent Saturday with top advisers plotting ways to reorganize and expand his campaign. And, of course, find ways to make peace with Reno and black voters.
McBride said he won't consider selecting a running mate until today. Who that is is a matter of speculation. Stonecipher says a woman might get the nod so the campaign isn't "only between white guys."
Another way to energize the women's vote: Focus on Jerry Regier, the Christian conservative Bush appointed to head the Department of Children & Families. Regier is linked to extremist writings that condone spankings that leave bruises and that relegate women to subservience in the home.
By Saturday, McBride's campaign began moving again and hitting back at Bush. His campaign staff pointed out a Washington Post story about a legal complaint from a company called Havana Club Holdings S.A. It claims Bush urged a political appointee of his brother's to favor Bacardi-Martini in a federal trademark dispute only two weeks after the Miami-based company donated $50,000 to the Republican Party.
A Bush spokeswoman said there was no "quid pro quo."
McBride contends he's not going to air negative campaign ads. Instead, he's repeatedly issuing a challenge that Bush debate him, one on one on the back of a flatbed truck.
"I'm ready, Jeb," he told the crowd in Orlando. "Are you?"
brian_crowley@pbpost.com, marc caputo@pbpost.com
Join together now in a heart-felt rendition of "Schadenfreude" to the tune of "Edelweiss".
They trouble the world like a tornado tearing through a junk yard.
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