Followers watch and wait for Reno's campaign to gel

Bill McBride builds a statewide presence as Reno fans await an organization to match her name recognition.

By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 3, 2002

In Orlando last weekend, Orange County Democratic chairman Doug Head attended a gay pride parade where he was struck by the number of Bill McBride campaign signs dotting the crowd and the complete lack of Janet Reno signs.

"She wasn't there, but I wondered: Where was her campaign?" Head said.

In Jacksonville, Duval County chairman Clyde Collins has little idea whom to call about Reno events in northeast Florida or about hooking her up with likely contributors.

"I see a very strong organization here for Bill McBride, but I just don't see that with Reno. ... If she wants to do as well as Al Gore did in Florida with a good campaign organization, how does she expect to do that without a good campaign organization?"

It's a frequent whisper among Democratic activists: Reno's grass-roots gubernatorial campaign needs to get tuned up if it hopes to give Jeb Bush a real run in November. Recent Reno staff changes are being taken by some as tacit acknowledgement that her campaign needed changes.

The Reno campaign hired as deputy campaign manager Bob Ellzey of Tallahassee, who previously worked on campaigns for U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and Gov. Lawton Chiles. He effectively replaces Helen Strain, vice chairwoman of the state Democratic Party and a field organizer for Reno. Strain said she is moving on to run a state Senate campaign.

Reno's former political director, Gadsden County Commissioner Ed Dixon, is being replaced by James Harris of Orlando, who will focus on African-American outreach. Another key organizer, Steve Fitzer, left the campaign about a month ago to work for Democrats in Colorado.

"They really helped us in our early stages of building up our campaign," Reno's campaign manager, Mo Elleithee said of the departed staffers. "We're bringing in people who are able to pick up the ball and run with it. ... Every day builds the organization a little bit more. All over the state we have a dedicated army of volunteers beating the pavement for us"

A Florida Voter poll published Tuesday in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Orlando Sentinel showed the uphill battle Reno and every other Democrat against Bush.

It found the Republican governor leading Reno 53 percent to 37 percent with 10 percent undecided. Matched against McBride, Bush led 49 percent to 31 percent with 20 percent undecided. But among Democrats, Reno led McBride in the primary 45 percent to 18 percent.

"The problem is we have a candidate who is not going to lose the primary and will not win the general election," said Christopher Korge, a major Democratic fund-raiser from Miami who has not backed any candidate. "And unfortunately we also have a candidate who cannot see that. She refuses to recognize that the numbers don't work for her."

Reno is universally known among Florida voters, but her campaign often looks like a one-woman grass-roots effort. Nearly everywhere she goes crowds and reporters gather, but outside of South Florida, signs of a Reno campaign organization are tough to find.

McBride, in contrast, is running his first campaign and is little known to most Florida voters. But he has run a methodically organized campaign, locking in key endorsements early and building a statewide campaign. He has offices in Hillsborough, Broward, Orange and Palm Beach counties and has more than 40 active county campaign committees and some regional committees.

The Reno campaign has one main office and could not provide details Tuesday on local campaign committees. The Bush campaign has had local committees across the state for months.

Local volunteers for Reno dismissed suggestions that the campaign was anything but well-organized.

"We're out here, and we're working hard," said James Crawford, her Hillsborough County campaign chairman, who said he spends most of his time working on her campaign.

In Duval County, campaign co-chairman Sam Rooks noted that a steering committee was formed two weeks ago to mobilize Reno supporters. "Things maybe got off to a rough start," he said, "but that's going to change."

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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