2000 Election Resonates In Fla. Race

For obvious reasons, the gubernatorial race in Florida is one of the most hotly contested and widely watched state-level campaigns in a contentious midterm election year.

Democrat Bill McBride needs a huge turnout from blacks and retirees if he hopes to stop Jeb Bush from becoming the first Republican governor re-elected in Florida, political experts say.

The first-time candidate and Tampa lawyer was unknown across much of the state just a year ago. He lacks both the decades of public service of the late Democratic governor Lawton Chiles and the name recognition of Janet Reno, whom he upset to capture the Democratic nomination.

Before the primary, McBride had concentrated on central Florida and north Florida, largely conceding South Florida to Reno, the former attorney general.

Since then, in a race Democrats and Republicans both consider crucial, McBride has been forced to scramble in South Florida to secure a turnout of voters in the traditionally Democratic stronghold.

Bush, who held a slight lead in the latest polls, has a huge edge in fund-raising and generous help from his brother, President Bush.

"Such high-profile campaigning illustrates what's at stake, not just control of the House and Senate, but President Bush's future congressional agenda," reports CBS Correspondent Teri Okita.

Democratic leaders accuse the president of caring more about campaigning than running the country.

"I wish he'd put one-tenth of the time he has spent campaigning for his candidates around the country, focused on the economy, and our country would be better off today for it," says Terry McAuliffe, the national chairman of the Democratic Party.

But Republicans say the president has a loftier goal in mind.

"The president feels very strongly that there is something the American people can do to work with him, to help him get the economy moving, and that's to elect a House and a Senate that will work with him to accomplish those things," says the president's adviser Karen Hughes.

At most stops, Bush's message was that folks should get out and vote. But he also touted his record on issues such as overhauling the state's education system and told audiences that his Democratic opponent McBride would raise taxes.

Blacks, who traditionally vote Democratic and comprise 11 percent of the state's voters, are key, analysts say.

In the 2000 presidential race, Al Gore trailed the governor's brother in Florida early in the year, but he was helped by a massive voter registration drive by black leaders. About 610,000 black Floridians voted, nearly 50 percent more than in 1996, and Gore got about 90 percent of those votes. The close election was tied up in the courts for 36 days.

In that election, however, many blacks said a high percentage of their ballots were systematically discarded. In the September primary, several precincts in black neighborhoods in South Florida opened late because of problems with voting machines.

National leaders including the Rev. Jesse Jackson have been in the state urging blacks to make their presence known this year at the polls.

McBride has been campaigning hard to boost turnout for Tuesday, touring churches in urban parts of South Florida with Reno, several black lawmakers and former President Clinton.

Former president Bill Clinton touted McBride's record on civil rights, telling black voters in South Florida that the candidate helped institute a living wage when he was managing partner of the state's largest law firm. On Sunday, he spoke about McBride to members of a predominantly black church in West Palm Beach.

"I'm here today because I've never known a man who has never been in office who has the ability to build a community based on love," Clinton told about 1,000 people at the service Sunday.

In 1998, Jeb Bush won 14 percent of the black vote. This year, he has won endorsements from two black newspapers, The Broward Times of Fort Lauderdale and The Weekly Challenger of St. Petersburg. It was the first GOP endorsement in the 13-year history of the Times.

Bush also has courted central Florida's growing Puerto Rican community with bilingual appeals on radio and television. And he has campaigned heavily in South Florida, particularly among Cuban-Americans, and has tried to attract black voters.

Last week, however, he found himself facing uncomfortable questions from Democratic U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, who demanded he call the president and urge him to release more than 200 Haitians who had jumped ship off Miami's shores the day before and were behind detained.

The Haitian immigration issue, while an embarrassment for Mr. Bush, likely won't weigh heavily on the minds of voters across Florida, political analysts said.

"Outside of Miami, it's just not as big of an issue," said Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political science professor.

Both Bush and McBride have also been courting the state's 2.8 million retirees, who comprise about one-third of the turnout in elections.

Reno was popular among retirees in South Florida during the primary, forcing McBride to pay close attention to elderly voters during the campaign's final stretch. In an unusual show of support, Reno has been campaigning on his behalf since the primary — a promise she made then to continue to help the party.

McBride has also touted a plan to reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the voter-heavy retirement condominiums of Broward and Palm Beach counties, home to many Democrats. Bush, meanwhile, has appealed to retirees by stressing his record of reducing the state's tax on investments and his own prescription drug plan.