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TAMPA — Former gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride remained hospitalized in fair condition Wednesday, one day after he suffered sudden cardiac arrest while jogging and had his heart restarted with electric shock. McBride, who lost to Gov. Jeb Bush last November, just completed a workout on a treadmill at Harbor Island Health Club when he passed out on a nearby stretching mat. Longtime friend Bob Bolt said doctors were still trying to determine what caused McBride's heart to stop. Initial tests showed no abnormalities and McBride, 58, was in good spirits Wednesday at Tampa General Hospital, Bolt said. "He was sitting...

McBride's wife decides against run for U.S. Senate Alex Sink, wife of defeated gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, said Monday she will not run for U.S. Senate. Sink spent several weeks examining a possible campaign but said it would strain her family life. McBride and Sink live in Tampa with their two teenagers. "It was going to be too much family stress," Sink said. Sink, the former Florida chief for Bank of America, remains open to a future campaign. Her husband lost in his bid to prevent Gov. Jeb Bush from becoming the first Republican to be re-elected to Florida's highest...

TAMPA - Alex Sink, wife of defeated gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, is considering a run for the U.S. Senate. "I'm giving it real thought," said Sink, the former Florida chief for Bank of America. "I think I would have a chance, and I know I could put together a great team of people. I have friends all over the state. I don't have to say, 'I'm going to Pensacola - who does somebody know there?"' In November, McBride lost in his bid to prevent Gov. Jeb Bush from becoming the first Republican to be re-elected to Florida's highest office. The...

Pity the poor trial lawyers. They're people, too, said Bill McBride in his last debate with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. But Bush beat McBride 56% to 43% in the Nov. 5 election. And around the country, the trial lawyers' favorites lost in most close races. Fans of tort reform say it's a trend. The rising cost of health care has made voters more receptive to their message blaming excessive malpractice awards. That's helped win key elections. And fewer activist judges and more Republican lawmakers better the odds for tort reform, even if getting stalled bills out of the Senate is...

Say No To Amendment 9By IRA J. PAUL Special for The Tampa TribunePublished: Nov 3, 2002Florida voters will have a chance Tuesday to vote on the latest silver-bullet proposal to fix public education, a constitutional amendment known as Amendment 9, which would limit the size of classes in our public schools. As a public school teacher with more than 25 years of experience in the Miami-Dade public school system, I am going to vote ``no.'' I would urge my colleagues in the profession and all citizens of this state who are concerned about the quality of public education in Florida...

Posted on Thu, Oct. 24, 2002 Teams intend to ensure voting goes smoothlyBY ANDREA ROBINSONarobinson@herald.com On Election Day, the ''poll worker'' helping at your neighborhood precinct might be Miami-Dade County's procurement director, or the deputy director of the transit department, or some other county bigwig. Your eyes aren't playing tricks and your imagination isn't running away. Those executives -- normally in charge of multimillion-dollar departments with dozens of employees -- will oversee the county's 553 polling places as Miami-Dade makes a last-ditch effort to correct Election Day problems that have stumped voters and made the area instant fodder for...

Former First Lady Barbara Bush's Speech to Broward County Women at Nova Southeast University   Tuesday, October, 22, 2002 Thank you very much, all of you for that great welcome. I am delighted to be here with you today in Broward County and am grateful you took the time out of your busy day to come hear me talk about one of my favorite subjects - our son Jeb. I was confident I could speak with great authority about the election and the issues, until I heard Dave Barry on TV the other day. He swears the biggest issue -...

Bush talks trade with officials in Israel St. Petersburg Times Nov 15, 1999LUCY MORGAN The governor signs an agreement officials hope will double the annual $500-million in business between Florida and Israeli companies. In 1983 military officer Ehud Barak gave an obligatory briefing to U.S. Vice President George Bush's son Jeb, who was making his first trip to Israel. On Sunday, Barak, now prime minister of Israel, met again with Jeb Bush, now the governor of Florida, to talk about increasing the business ties between Florida and a nation halfway around the world. "He also met my wife back then...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE OCTOBER 25, 2002 Desperate McBride Forgets He Once Called Bush a Bold Leader who "Cares for People" and "Knows How to do the Right Thing" --Does Bill McBride Believe His Own Ads Attacking Bush? You be the Judge-- TALLAHASSEE – Despite his latest round of attack ads, corporate lawyer Bill McBride once compared being around Gov. Jeb Bush to being "in the company of a rock star," and called Bush a bold leader who "cares for people" and "knows how to do the right thing." McBride elaborated saying, "Bush’s style is friendly, and he is high-tech; but...

ORLANDO - Bill McBride bumbled a big opportunity Tuesday night. With the race for governor coming down to a handful of waffling voters, the most widely viewed televised debate of the campaign offered the Democratic nominee a prime-time stage to make a compelling pitch for ousting Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. But a flurry of questions from the debate's relentless moderator, NBC's Tim Russert, flummoxed McBride and laid bare an agenda lacking in specifics. Across the Meet the Press-style table, Bush appeared relaxed and in command. And, most important, the governor offered an artful argument for voters to reelect him on...

Rich Democrat lawyer Bill McBride is trying to portray himself as a moderate candidate for governor of Florida, but in a state of maniacally Jeb-hating newpapers, one daily has the guts to expose McBride. "Moderates don't call for hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes, as McBride has done," writes Peter A. Brown in the Orlando Sentinel. "They don't talk about tax reform to make everyone pay their fair share but want to exempt the wealthiest Democratic special-interest constituency: trial lawyers, such as McBride. "Moderates don't, as McBride has done, kowtow to the teacher unions. Moderates offer new ideas...

The Federal Trade Commission should haul Bill McBride into court for violating truth-in-advertising rules by running for governor as a political moderate. He's entitled to that label if he's running in Berkeley or Boston, but not in Florida, where loony liberalism and raising taxes by the billions are outside the mainstream. snip McBride is adept at telling each audience what it wants to hear and ducking the real questions, most importantly how to pay for his ambitious agenda. In this regard, he's similiar to Bill Clinton, but without the former president's considerable charm and political skills. snip Regarding education, McBride...

Nothing moderate about McBride Peter A. Brown October 18, 2002 The Federal Trade Commission should haul Bill McBride into court for violating truth-in-advertising rules by running for governor as a political moderate. He's entitled to that label if he's running in Berkeley or Boston, but not in Florida, where looney liberalism and raising taxes by the billions are outside the mainstream. McBride has an admirable military and business record, but his desire to put a hold on capital punishment, free local schools from the teeth of accountability and return to a system of racial preferences stamps him as more in...

Filed at 7:19 p.m. ET MIAMI (AP) -- Eleven other Florida counties had the same kind of touch-screen voting machines used in Miami-Dade County, where voting irregularities have tied up another major election. They were operated by similar crews of mainly elderly volunteers who had worked low-tech elections for years. So why did Tuesday's primary go so well in those places and so miserably here? For starters, those other counties trained their poll workers up to three times longer than Miami-Dade. Some made sure volunteers could read the English instructions. Most had their machines longer then Miami-Dade did, and they...

Filed at 7:15 p.m. ET MIAMI (AP) -- Workers waded through stacks of voting machines Saturday, pulling them out one by one in a search for uncounted votes from Florida's disputed Democratic primary. At the same time, leading candidate Bill McBride was back on the campaign trail, saying it was time to get past the primary election fiasco and work on unseating Gov. Jeb Bush. McBride spoke to a raucous crowd of about 200 chanting ``Bill! Bill! Bill!'' at a Florida Education Association meeting in Orlando. ``What we've got is a party I think is ready to unite and party...

MIAMI (AP) - Florida's first major election since the 2000 debacle was marred by mechanical and human glitches that frustrated voters and prompted Janet Reno ( news - web sites) to consider challenging results that showed her trailing in the race for governor. Political novice Bill McBride jumped out to an early lead over Reno in the Democratic primary when initial results were counted, but Reno remained in striking distance as votes were still being counted in South Florida counties where she held a better than 2-to-1 margin. Despite $32 million spent to reform the voting system, Tuesday's primary was...

MIAMI (AP) - Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Janet Reno ( news - web sites) narrowly trailed a surprisingly strong opponent Tuesday in a Florida election marred by problems with the state's new election system, while two-term New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith lost a bitter GOP primary battle to Rep. John Sununu ( news, bio, voting record). Both the closeness of the Florida race and widespread complaints at many state polling places eerily echoed Florida's 2000 election, which left the presidential race in limbo for weeks. Early Wednesday, glitches sent police to seven precincts in Miami-Dade County to pick up electronic voting...

Florida primary results stalled; NH senator loses primary Elizabeth Dole wins NC Senate nomination as 12 states go to polls 09/11/2002 Associated Press Another Florida election. Another race too close to call. And, once again, problems at the polls that left voters angry and confused. This time it was the Democratic primary for governor, in which former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno narrowly trailed lawyer Bill McBride. Early Wednesday, with 94 percent of the precincts reporting, McBride had 45 percent of the vote, while Reno had 43 percent. A new $32 million election system put in place after the...

MIAMI - Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ( news - web sites) made a last-minute pitch to voters Monday as she tried to stop political novice Bill McBride from pulling off a major upset in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor of Florida. The winner of Tuesday's primary will face first-term Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in November. In all, 12 states will select candidates for governor, House and Senate on the busiest day of the election season yet. McBride, a Tampa lawyer, went from obscurity back in January to a dead heat in the polls against Reno,...

Ask who Bill McBride is and some people say, "Oh, the guy who dances on TV." This is how clueless some people are. It also shows how negative campaigning has totally boomeranged on Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republicans. In being so concerned about McBride, the Republicans have boosted his recognition to the point where they're about to get precisely what they didn't want: McBride as the Democratic candidate for governor.