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The Democrat who angered Republicans in the 2000 election will become the state's 50th chief justice on July 1.
By JULIE HAUSERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 11, 2002
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead, whom angry Republicans pledged to oust from office over rulings during the 2000 presidential election, is the high court's new chief justice.
A Democrat, the 64-year-old Anstead grew up poor in Jacksonville's Brentwood Housing project to a single mother with five children during the Depression. He worked his way through college and law school at the University of Florida. He became a judge on the 4th District Court of Appeal in 1977, and served 17 years before Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1994.
Anstead will become Florida's 50th chief justice July 1, succeeding Charles Wells. The high court followed tradition in electing the next most senior justice to take over the top administrative job for two years.
Anstead was one of four justices who ordered counties to hand-count so-called "undervotes" in the close race between George W. Bush and Al Gore for Florida's electoral votes, a decision that many said favored Gore. The U.S. Supreme Court halted the recount a day later.
Republican activists vowed to defeat Anstead this fall.
Florida justices seek re-election every six years. Voters say yes or no to keeping them. If a justice is rejected, the governor appoints a new one. Anstead was approved by 69 percent of voters in 1996.
In December 2000, with politics at a fever pitch, Republican Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty formed the Committee to Take Back Our Judiciary and fired off a letter to GOP donors urging them to "beat these liberals and have them removed from the court, making way for more conservative jurists." The group has raised $219,000 since January 2001. McCarty could not be reached for comment.
"Important cases generate very passionate feelings," Anstead said. "People are entitled to their views."
Anstead said he hopes to provide more resources to judges who handle juvenile cases.
The Supreme Court makes annual budget requests to the Legislature, outlining how many new judges are needed around the state.
-- Times researcher Stephanie Scruggs contributed to this report.