Let the real race begin for governor

MORGAN

By LUCY MORGAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 8, 2001

One thing should be clear by now. Running for governor is not for the faint of heart or easily offended.

U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, was wise to drop out of the race after former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno got in. Davis obviously doesn't have the fire in his belly or a skin thick enough to withstand the heat in Florida's political kitchen when it comes to a statewide race.

This will be a no holds barred, down and dirty, expensive and jarring campaign.

There is little love among the Democrats who are out there running and far less love between the Democrats and Gov. Jeb Bush.

This is mud wrestling at its finest.

Former Republican Party Chairman Tom Slade said it best.

"Reno just sucks the air out of the room for the other Democrats."

The voters will decide who stays in the end, but Reno's entry means the 800-pound gorilla has entered the tent and will take no prisoners.

"I can't see where any of them have a remote possibility of putting the necessary money together," says Slade. "Two blocks from their homes, no one ever heard of them."

After a week of whining because Davis didn't like a St. Petersburg Times article that portrayed him as indecisive, the Tampa Democrat folded his exploratory campaign and went back to Washington.

On Friday, Davis said there was no single factor that sent him packing. But he described the Democratic primary campaign with Reno in it as "exotic."

Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach; Sen. Daryl Jones, D-Miami; former U.S. Ambassador Pete Peterson of Tallahassee; attorney Bill McBride and a handful of lesser-known Democrats remain in the race at the moment.

Gov. Jeb Bush moves on ahead, ignoring the fray among the Democrats.

Reno is already aiming her guns at Bush, ignoring her fellow Democrats as though they were so many flies flitting around the screen door.

A Bush-Reno race is likely to show us all that is ugly about campaigns.

Money will pour in from all over the nation. Democrats and Republicans remain sharply polarized as a result of last year's presidential election recount.

And you can expect a world of inflammatory rhetoric.

By the time we get to November 2002, we will all wish the state had banned political advertising and declared a monarchy.

Hugh Westbrook, the Miami millionaire who has been doing polls and focus groups for Reno, believes a Reno candidacy will keep the bitterness of last year's election alive until November of 2002.

"We need to maintain the excitement and momentum in the African-American community and the rest of the base of the Democratic Party," says Westbrook.

"I believe Reno is the only candidate who really motivates that base and gives hope to African-American voters. . . . She takes them seriously."

The folks who were trying to anoint Peterson as the agreed-upon Democrat failed to consult the state's African-American community, says Westbrook. And he has spent a lot of time organizing get-out-the-vote efforts in minority communities.

Frank Greer, the Washington media consultant who will guide Reno's campaign, says he believes Reno will be able to convince Florida voters that she is an independent, down-to-earth candidate in the tradition of Lawton Chiles.

Greer has been around political campaigns for a long time, but he had not met Reno until recently.

"I always saw her as a stern figure from a distance," Greer said Friday.

Greer is pinning his hopes for a Reno candidacy on her ability to match Bush's money-raising abilities with money from angry Democrats.

Well, we'll see. The governor is not likely to lie down and let the Reno truck roll over him.

It will be fun to watch. Or bloody.

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