The rush is on for campaign dollars

MORGAN

© St. Petersburg Times
published January 12, 2002

Fundraising is in full tilt in Tallahassee these days as legislators push to raise money before their regular session begins Jan. 22.

Besides the race to fill legislative coffers, candidates for governor and the Cabinet are hastily gathering money so they won't look unseemly standing on street corners with their hands out while laws are being passed.

House and Senate rules forbid lawmakers from fundraising while they are passing laws, even as they run for other offices. It's a rule they adopted after a few members got caught soliciting money in the Capitol from lobbyists who were anxiously awaiting their votes. It never looks good to get the money too close to the vote.

Gov. Jeb Bush is not restricted by the legislative rules, but he says he won't be doing much fundraising during the session either.

Things could get interesting if the session doesn't end in the traditional 60 days. Ten years ago, when legislators last struggled with redistricting and a very bad budget year, the sessions didn't end until July. Republicans in the Capitol are choosing sides in the race to succeed Attorney General Bob Butterworth, the last Democrat left on the Cabinet. Former Sen. Charlie Crist, now state education commissioner, and Sen. Locke Burt, R-Ormond Beach, are locked in a fierce battle for the Republican nomination. Solicitor General Tom Warner, a former state representative, is also in the GOP fight, but he's not nearly as well known.

Tuesday night 14 Senate Republicans will join forces with the Florida Professional Firefighters to stage a $500-a-person fundraiser for Burt at Cafe Cabernet, a Tallahassee watering hole. His supporters include Sens. Jack Latvala, R-Palm Harbor; Victor Crist, R-Temple Terrace; Don Sullivan, R-Seminole; Tom Lee, R-Brandon; and Majority Leader Jim King.

A $250-a-person fundraiser for Crist had been scheduled for Thursday night by a group of lobbyists and state employees, including Cynthia Henderson, secretary at the Department of Management Services. The gathering was to be at Henderson's home but Gov. Jeb Bush canceled it after determining it would be "inappropriate." Henderson's involvement in the Crist campaign was raising eyebrows: Agency heads rarely take such a high profile in fundraising.

In the Democratic race for attorney general, Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox is opening a campaign account to oppose Sen. Buddy Dyer, D-Orlando. Until now the Democrats had been successful in keeping others out of the race in an attempt to avoid a divisive primary.

Until recently the Cabinet races looked sort of dull, but the three-way Republican fight and a two-way Democratic fight for attorney general will spice things up a bit. In addition, Comptroller Bob Milligan is threatening to run against Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher for the new chief finance officer's position. The job, approved by voters in 1998 when they shrank the Cabinet, combines the duties they currently perform.

Milligan says he'll get into the race unless legislators do a decent job structuring the new office so the elected official is not directly in charge of regulating banking and insurance. He wants to ratchet down the campaign fundraising and make regulating less political.

We knew the lull in political flamethrowing was too good to last.

Earlier this week U.S. Sen. Bob Graham suggested that an "anthrax-like infection" has invaded Florida's education system.

GOP chairman Al Cardenas fired back that Graham should be ashamed of himself for saying things like that in the midst of our war on terrorism.

Things are getting back to normal for the first time since Sept. 11.

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