Posted on 09/19/2002 6:39:10 AM PDT by PhiKapMom
The race goes national
Presidential hopefuls are quick to lend support and help to Bill McBride
By ADAM C. SMITH and WES ALLISON
St. Petersburg Times
published September 19, 2002
------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------
Bill McBride, Florida's come-from-nowhere Democratic nominee for governor, is suddenly a new star in the national Democratic Party.
Democratic presidential hopefuls are lining up to campaign for the man they think has a shot at unseating the president's brother. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee reworked his schedule to join McBride and dozens of fundraisers and politicos for a strategy session in Tampa today. And party leaders in Washington are buzzing over an internal poll showing McBride just 5 points behind Gov. Jeb Bush.
"This is an important race, and Florida means a lot to all of us," said U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a potential 2004 presidential candidate. "Anybody who's got his kind of background and has his plain-spoken approach to life and politics has a real shot."
A fellow Vietnam veteran, Kerry intends to campaign with McBride in October. U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and former Vice President Al Gore have committed to stumping for the Tampa lawyer -- McBride was an early Bill Bradley supporter in 2000 -- and a spokesman for John Edwards said the North Carolina senator wants to help McBride too.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is not yet positioning for a White House run, but she phoned McBride Wednesday to offer her help on the campaign trail.
"Not only do the 2004 Democratic candidates want to campaign with McBride, they'll want to deliver up to McBride money, hardware and staff," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.
While McBride spent Wednesday campaigning throughout the state with his running mate, state Sen. Tom Rossin, Democratic Party chief Terry McAuliffe was boosting the McBride buzz in Washington.
Meeting with journalists and later with U.S. House Democrats, McAuliffe touted a state party poll taken Sept. 13-15 that showed Bush leading McBride 48 percent to 43 percent. Nearly a fourth of the voters polled knew little or nothing about McBride, giving Democrats more fodder to convince prospective donors that McBride is a serious threat.
"If we can beat Jeb Bush, and the numbers show that we can, that's what gets people excited across the country. . . . For the national party, Florida is critical for '04," McAuliffe said.
Republicans, however, have said privately they had expected the race to tighten considerably as it got closer to the election.
Controlling the Governor's Mansion helps in winning a presidential primary, which is why a potentially close race against Bush is expected to draw money and attention from across the country.
"It'll be huge amounts of money," said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University. "This is the replay of 2000 and the forerunner to 2004."
McBride, whose post-primary momentum was stalled by election day problems, meets in Tampa today with fundraisers and operatives. He also will appear in Miami with former gubernatorial candidates Janet Reno and state Sen. Daryl Jones in an effort to demonstrate a party unified against Bush.
Meanwhile, the governor on Wednesday basked in the support of 38 elected sheriffs, 13 of them Democrats, as he stood in front of GOP headquarters in Tallahassee to tout his record fighting crime.
"The bottom line is, our citizens are safer today than they were four years ago," said Bay County Sheriff Guy Tunnell of Panama City, a former Democrat who changed to the GOP two years ago.
The governor also traveled to Hialeah, where he told 250 Cuban-Americans in Spanish and English that his administration has improved the state's drug policy, education programs and public safety.
"Doing what is right matters a lot more than being popular," Bush said. "My opponent is offering empty promises without specifics. He attacks, he attacks, he attacks, but at the end of the day he won't tell you what he'll do differently."
McBride campaigned in Tallahassee, where he formally announced Rossin as his running mate and filed their campaign papers.
Rossin and his wife, Joyce, spent the day campaigning with McBride and his wife, Alex Sink. McBride repeatedly cited Rossin's legislative experience, which McBride lacks, and his ability to court moderate voters statewide. He also is from South Florida, the Democratic base.
"I needed someone who could help build that legislative agenda and get things through," McBride told about 100 supporters who crowded an airport conference room in Orlando. "He knows how to make things run."
The Bush campaign and the state Republican Party have attacked McBride repeatedly over layoffs at his former law firm, Holland & Knight, which happened after he left.
"I'm calling on the governor, the current governor, and I'd like him to raise the level of his play," McBride said. "We don't need all this negative stuff. What we need is a real dialogue and discourse about our future."
He also repeated his challenge to Bush that they hold a series of debates on the bed of a flatbed truck, in the spirit of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
But two hours after Rossin submitted the papers to register as McBride's running mate, the Bush campaign blasted Rossin as a "tax-and-spend liberal" who raised taxes for "seniors and savers," a reference to his opposition to cutting the intangibles tax.
In 1993, Rossin sold the bank he founded, Flagler National, to SunTrust. About 150 former Flagler employees lost their jobs, and Rossin, the Bush campaign noted, received $137,000 in severance pay. He also received $338,000 in deferred compensation.
Rossin noted that his opponent in his first campaign in 1994 raised the same issue. Voters didn't listen then and they won't listen now, he predicted.
The bank helped all employees find new jobs in the banking industry and provided severance, he said. As for his compensation, he said it was no golden parachute. "I was the CEO of that bank for 19 years. I had stock options," he said.
"I've been tried and tested. I've won three elections," Rossin said. "These are old charges that have been discounted any number of times. This election should not be about sound bites."
-- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Janet Reno was no more than red herring in this whole campaign and then on election day was used to try and blame Bush for the fiasco in South Florida!
Bush/Brogan is going to need support of everyone to bring out the truth about the two tax and spend lawyers Mcbride/Rossin who are running against them.
Not on my watch. Heinz/Kerry has to win in Nov.
I'm no Libertarian but I'll vote for Cloud.
JFK wants us all to ride bikes to work and sample all 57 varieties.
I tend to stay overnight in fly-over country... Hardin Montana is a favorite... Billings is a good landing. ;^D
You have to remember what kind of state his is. We send the likes of Kennedys and Barney Frank (not to forget Gary Studds a while back) to Washington. The Clintons took their vacations in Martha's Vineyard among many supporters. I imagine most of the Kennedy lovers will vote for Kerry. Not me though! I won't even buy Heinz ketchup! Kerry is a real weasel, well coiffed and sucking up to Imus all the time.
WE ARE DEDICATED to his campaign because in addition to him being the only qualified person for the job, all the 2004 dem prez candidates are on the way to Florida to help McBride. It's all about the ELECTORAL COLLEGE and restoring Florida into dem hands.
I would like to add my ping list to phikapmom's new, supersized ping list to help Governor Bush get re-elected. Please let me know by freepmail by this coming MONDAY if you don't want to join the bigger effort ping list for Governor Bush. I will ping phikapmom my list MONDAY evening omitting you if you so indicated.
This will be the ultimate way at FR to help the Bush/Brogan campaign without being part of the official campaign.
I phoned Bay News 9 Time Warner channel this morning because they've been cheerleading for McBride and downplaying Governor Bush. I asked them to be more "fair and balanced" or I'd boycott their station. She repeated fair and balanced back to me so at least I believe she wrote down my complaint. Call your local media in Florida if they seem over-eager for McBride and start trashing Governor Bush. Request fair and balanced coverage from them. The end. Fregards, FV regards, FV
Could someone explain how an ex-Marine could work to undermine both God and the American family, claim to be a church-going man who cares about the children and yet be a "staunch" abortion and homosexual 'marriage' rights and public school advocate? Anyone who thinks McBride's military experience made him pro-gun rights...think Oliver Stone, Tom Daschle, Jimmy Carter.
Alex Sink Supports..., opensecrets.org
McBride " "
Watch McBride lose the first debate. I can speak better than him and I'm "floriduh" voter. lol
The truth be told in the democrat's true hidden agenda, the students aren't important at all. They are just a sound bite which is a real farce.
The teacher's union wants to own the State of Florida so they can get raises and so they can spoon feed McBride their AGENDA. He spends more time with the FEA Director than with his very own wife! Learning about educashun takes time and McBride's got his very own "private tutor". That's not his wife - it's the FEA Director! Pass it on.
Here's what the Florida Tax Watch has to say, an organization McBride's own wife belonged to:
The First Constitutional Amendment Estimating Conference Puts an Official Price Tag on Class Size Initiative:
Reducing class size to the prescribed limits would be a challenging undertaking. Without a significant overhaul of state spending patterns, the class size proposal would likely require some new or increased taxes. A 1-penny increase to the state's 6-cent sales tax would raise $2.9 billion (based on FY 2004 estimated collections.).
To further illustrate the scope of the estimated required investment, the gross receipts tax on utilities, which funds public school construction, raises less than $800 million annually. Moreover, it would take a tripling of the state corporate income tax to raise the additional revenue called for in the estimates. In fact, four major tax sources combined (gross receipts, corporate income, beverage, and tobacco taxes) are expected to bring in $2.97 billion in FY 2004, so it would take a doubling of all those to raise the revenue. Lastly, a state personal income tax (currently prohibited by the state Constitution) of 1 per cent of Floridians' federal taxable income would raise approximately $2.4 billion.
McBride's answer...a .50 per pack tax increase on cigarettes. New schools, same old agenda and NEA education plan.
We haven't posted it because we don't want to tip off McBribe. You know, loose lips sink ships.
If you want to take the first step, I'll bump your thread. I worked at his law office and never saw him. I think his wife got him the job. He's too shy and awkward to be a practicing attorney and the way he flays his hands around, it's kind of goofy.
Richard Swann who is T. MacAuliffe's father-in-law is McBribe's money man. Swann is a shady businessman and a big dem in central Fla. MacAuliffe owns lots of real estate around Orlando. There's also tons of stuff that we corroborated too regarding the McBride's law firm. That's just the tip of the iceberg.
I suggest you visit the Holland & Knight web site and also visit on line Martindale Hubbell directory. Holland & Knight have an entire page there. You can see what their areas of practice were. IT'S INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT H & K has an Illinois office. This tells me that McBribe knows Bill Daley. (he's in this Florida election somewhere but is working behind the scenes IMO).
Finally, the biography of BM has lots of holes in it. The guy's a fundraiser with a rich wife. But, at the moment, he spends more time with the FEA teacher union director lady than with his wife Alex Sink who caws like a bird. How'd she get rich at Bank of America? She's in NOW and didn't take his name.
I never saw him when I worked at his office and I worked there a lot in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Where was he? That office was on several floors but I worked on the same floor he was on. I say he was just a figurehead and he mainly swallowed up smaller law firms and THEY WERE IN THE TOBACCO LAWSUITS I BELIEVE and also specialize in white collar crime. See for yourself at their web site.
Visit Tampa Bay Business Journal and register to go through their archives. There's ties to Arthur Andersen, etc. The Tampa Bay Business Journal is a goldmine re: Holland & Knight law firm and McBride. If the archives don't show much, then they've been deleted to protect McBribe. HE WANTS TO TAX AND SPEND US SO WE'LL WANT TO LEAVE THE BEAUTIFUL STATE THAT WE LIVE IN. HE'S AS DANGEROUS AS ALGOR WAS and just as transparent.
I don't know about a drinking problem but he acts very goofy and his wife speaks for him alot. Why does he hide while the wife says, Bill isn't ready to come down? He always says "Jeb's nervous. Jeb's afraid of me." What kind of individual talks like that? Not a politician. He has no sound bites or non-scripted language skills and he sounds like a child instead. That's all I can say without helping DU lurkers. I can't freepmail you what I have because of time constraints. I would if I could. Fregards, FV
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.