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Gore says Miami Mayor Penelas betrayed Democrats Former Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore delivered a harsh message to Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, three months before he faces a U.S. Senate primary. BY BETH REINHARD breinhard@herald.com Former Vice President Al Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election by 537 votes in Florida, on Saturday called Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas ``the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America.'' The statement was e-mailed by a Gore spokesman in response to a Herald inquiry about Penelas's role in the 2000 campaign. Gore supporters say...

Former Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore delivered a harsh message to Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, three months before he faces a U.S. Senate primary. Former Vice President Al Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election by 537 votes in Florida, on Saturday called Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas ``the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America.''The statement was e-mailed by a Gore spokesman in response to a Herald inquiry about Penelas's role in the 2000 campaign. Gore supporters say the vice president had counted on Penelas for a late boost in...

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek endorsed Alex Penelas for the U.S. Senate on Monday, calling the Miami-Dade County mayor a candidate who could reach out to the parents of school-age children and the state's growing Hispanic community. Meek, a Miami Democrat who led the charge to place class size limits in the state constitution, said Penelas shared his allegiance to education issues and would attract "level-minded moderates" and Hispanics often key among an evenly divided electorate. "Hispanics will have a strong option of someone who has stood strong on behalf of fairness and equity," Meek said. Penelas said Meek "has been...

MIAMI -- U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch has topped the $4 million mark in his campaign for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat, extending his fund-raising lead heading into the election year. Deutsch, a Fort Lauderdale-area Democrat, raised about $800,000 during the year's final fund-raising quarter that ended Dec. 31, spokesman Ryan Hampton said Friday. Democrat Alex Penelas, the mayor of Miami-Dade County, raised nearly $400,000 during the quarter, increasing his war chest to about $2 million. Former Education Commissioner Betty Castor, meanwhile, did not disclose preliminary numbers but campaign officials said they expected to show increases from previous quarters. The three...

PLANT CITY -- Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd kicked off his campaign for the U.S. Senate before a hometown crowd, promising to fight for "common sense, conservative values" before he strapped on an electric guitar and strummed the chords to Johnnie B. Goode. Although the Plant City Republican has been raising money for his Senate race for about three months and lining up supporters even longer, it's been mostly behind the scenes. Saturday's rally at Grandpa Johnson's BBQ Restaurant marked the public campaign kickoff. Byrd told the crowd he "took Plant City values to Tallahassee, and we're going to take...

Evans & Novak Week of August 25 by Robert Novak Posted Aug 22, 2003 Politics 2003 Week of August 25 Democratic: Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is scaring the daylights out of the party establishment. 1) It is not brain surgery. Unless either Rep. Richard Gephardt (Mo.) beats Dean in Iowa and/or Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) beats him in New Hampshire, the Vermonter is home free. 2) Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) has been belaboring Dean as too radical and a non-winner—epithets that seldom, if ever, stop an insurgent candidate. Lieberman’s path to the nomination is unclear. 3) Gephardt is trying...

MIAMI - Rep. Mark Foley formally opened his campaign for Senate on Tuesday, filing papers to seek the seat now held by Democratic presidential hopeful Bob Graham. Foley, a five-term Republican, filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission and paperwork establishing a fund-raising committee for his Senate campaign. Graham has said he does not "anticipate" running for re-election but has not ruled out another Senate race next year. Five Democrats have announced plans to run if Graham declines another term, but Foley was quick to focus on the three-term senator. "Floridians deserve a senator who will work...

WEST PALM BEACH - U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, who's seeking the GOP nomination for Senate, held onto his large fund-raising advantage over Bill McCollum, his party's unsuccessful nominee in 2000. Foley announced Tuesday that he has raised nearly $3.2 million for the race and $734,000 this quarter, more than twice as much as McCollum, who brought in $315,000 in the past three months. McCollum has raised nearly $670,000 to date. But supporters of McCollum, a former U.S. representative from the Orlando area, say he gained valuable momentum, nearly doubling his overall fund-raising total with donations from 3,000 people in 59...

MIAMI — U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch lashed out at fellow Democrat Alex Penelas Sunday, accusing the Miami-Dade mayor of damaging the 2000 Democratic presidential ticket in Florida in the first sign of a rift in the primary race for U.S. Senate. Deutsch, D-Pembroke Pines, said he declined to attend the state party's annual Jefferson-Jackson gala Saturday in his home county because party officials were planning to honor Penelas with an award for his work on a constitutional amendment requiring the state to offer pre-kindergarten classes to all 4-year-olds. "This man did as much to hurt Al Gore as any person...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who has already said he's interested in running for U.S. Sen. Bob Graham's seat, may go to court to see if Graham would violate Florida law by seeking the presidency at the same time he's on the ballot for re-election to the Senate. In a response to a Deutsch inquiry, Tallahassee attorney Mark Herron said Florida law may not prevent Graham from qualifying for re-election to the Senate while he seeks the Democratic nomination for president, or possibly a vice presidential role at some point. Graham's bid for president does not qualify him...

If state lawmakers vote this week to scrap runoff elections in 2004, the Democratic race to replace Sen. Bob Graham will look a lot more attractive -- and a lot riskier -- to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar. Hastings, one of at least five Democrats pondering a run if Graham gives up his Senate seat to pursue the presidency, believes his chances of winning his party's nomination improve dramatically if he needs only a plurality rather than a majority. As the only black in the race, Hastings figures he'll start with a strong base of black support. And he believes...

TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, a North Florida Democrat, is organizing a campaign for the U.S. Senate on the premise that he is well-positioned to win a crowded party primary and then challenge any Republican statewide. Boyd has commissioned a poll that portrays a wide-open contest among Democrats who hope to replace U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., next year, and he has started lining up supporters before a campaign announcement. "Sometime after July 4, he will probably make an announcement," said Barney Bishop, a Tallahassee lobbyist, political consultant and Boyd friend. Boyd, a congressman from tiny Monticello since 1996,...

As newly minted presidential candidate Bob Graham heads to the cornfields of Iowa this week, he leaves behind a bewildered field of candidates for his U.S. Senate seat longing to hear him speak these words: "I will not run for the Senate." Graham is determined to become the nation's 44th president. He acknowledges that getting there will not be easy. He speaks candidly about the difficulty of the campaign ahead, the crowded field, his rusty campaign style and the need to raise $20 million. But Graham refuses to give a clear answer to one simple question: "If your campaign for...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Democratic presidential hopeful Bob Graham said Tuesday that he's urging potential successors to start working on their bids to replace him in the U.S. Senate. The Florida lawmaker has not ruled out seeking a fourth term next year if his presidential campaign falters. Still, a handful of state Democrats have expressed interest in the race, and Graham said he has heard from several. "I've been encouraging them to get organized, start forming a campaign and be ready to go," he said during a campaign appearance. Graham also told reporters he expects to formally launch his presidential campaign...

MIAMI - Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas filed federal forms Wednesday allowing him to raise money to run for U.S. Sen. Bob Graham's seat. Penelas, 41, faces a Democratic primary campaign that may cost him millions. Graham has filed papers to run for president. Penelas said in a statement Wednesday that he was not making any campaign remarks "in deference to the war effort" and the Democrat Graham, the state's senior senator who is serving a third term. Penelas was first elected mayor in 1996. His current term ends in 2004. He will face heavy competition within his own party...

TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Rep. Mark Foley of West Palm Beach has bolstered a fund-raising advantage in his campaign for the U.S. Senate, but former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum of Longwood has gotten off to a strong start in his bid for the office. Foley will report raising $706,000 in the three months that ended Monday, raising his total cash on hand to $2.34 million. With this head start, Foley hopes to secure the 2004 Republican nomination for the seat held by Sen. Bob Graham, a Miami Lakes Democrat planning to announce a campaign for president later this month. "The smart...

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...

ALLAHASSEE - As Sen. Bob Graham heads for the hustings of presidential politics, Florida Democrats are obsessing over one question: Will Graham try to keep his U.S. Senate seat if his White House bid sputters next year? Graham's repeated refusal to entertain that question -- he jokingly raps querying reporters as ''pessimists'' -- is putting party strategists and would-be successors in an awkward position as they straddle the line between building their own campaigns and showing proper deference to a political icon. The issue is so sensitive that few are willing to openly acknowledge the tension, fearful they would alienate...

TALLAHASSEE - A conservative North Florida Democrat is close to opening a campaign for next year's U.S. Senate race, adding geographical intrigue to a field of hopefuls that so far hails exclusively from the party's South Florida base. U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, a ''blue dog'' Democrat from the rural Panhandle district once represented by Vietnam war hero and one-time gubernatorial candidate Pete Peterson, said Thursday that he would decide by June whether to begin fundraising to replace U.S. Sen. Bob Graham. Graham is expected to formally announce his presidential campaign next month. Boyd would join Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas,...

Sen. Bob Graham will not seek reelection to the Senate if he decides to run for president, his spokesman said Friday. The Florida Democrat's decision raises the likelihood that Democrats will lose a popular incumbent from one of the country's most competitive states to retirement. Graham, 66, postponed his decision on a presidential bid to undergo heart surgery last week. Insiders say he's leaning toward a presidential bid -- even though he would be virtually guaranteed reelection to a fourth Senate term. In making a president run, however, Graham would face stiff competition in an already crowded presidential primary race...