State: On Janet Reno's campaign, it's all relative

JUPITER -- Mark Reno lives in a chickee hut in the woods next to his sister Janet's house, where he goes to watch TV when he's not driving her to campaign jaunts around the state.

Hunter Reno enlists volunteers and hands out stickers for her aunt Janet between modeling assignments for Land's End and Dockers.

And Maggy Hurchalla has been holding Janet Reno T-Shirt parties, lugging a homemade screen printer to gatherings of her sister's supporters from Gainesville to Miami.

While Gov. Jeb Bush is running a well-funded, finely tuned re-election machine, his leading Democratic challenger is leaning heavily on her family for help. Like the tortoise stew the Reno brood grew up on in the sticks of Miami-Dade County, family flavors the Reno campaign like a hearty meal from a roadside diner.

That mom-and-pop feeling has given rise to criticism by Democrats who complain that Reno needs a more tightly focused, organized and efficient operation if she hopes to oust Bush. A recent shakeup in the Reno camp may quell some of that criticism.

But that doesn't mean the Reno family plans to step aside for the political pros. They are an integral part of the Reno way.

The Renos are tall and rangy, independent, liberal, outspoken and a little quirky, much like the candidate.

Hurchalla, a longtime Martin County commissioner, and Hunter Reno, who was a host for Exotic Islands on the Travel Channel and once dated tennis great Martina Navratilova, are accustomed to the spotlight and comfortable filling in for the candidate.

Others work the phones, stuff envelopes and accompany Reno on trips. But they also give her some of the comforts and realities of home when she's on the road.

Last month in Tampa, as Janet Reno arrived at College Hill Baptist Church with actor Martin Sheen, Hunter Reno and her husband, Peter Rabbino, served as the advance team, making sure everything was ready. As the crowd folded around Janet Reno and Sheen, Hunter Reno tracked names, introduced supporters, and steered her aunt to people wanting photos with the candidate.

Hunter Reno makes sure Janet Reno's lipstick -- the only makeup she wears -- is fresh, that the hem of her skirt doesn't ride too high, that she rests and drinks enough water.

"In my ideal world, I would have dropped everything and volunteered full-time for my aunt," said Hunter Reno, 34, of Miami. "Staff is staff, and they're very dedicated to do anything she needs them to do. But I do realize the value of having family around."

During campaign trips, "she could look around and and giggle at us," she said. "She can make jokes."

Reno clearly appreciates their help, but she's protective of their privacy and won't say much about them: "They provide support and encouragement. They're great to have around."

The family's adoration of its most famous member is as transparent as the worn screen on the giant porch of Reno's Miami home, and her relatives serve as unabashed pitchmen. No matter the topic, Hunter Reno steers a discussion toward her aunt's integrity and experience.

Hurchalla turns any talk of the outdoors into a testimonial for her sister's commitment to the environment, a key Democratic theme.

The campaign involves about a dozen relatives in some way. They include Hunter Reno's husband and her brother, Douglas, a Miami firefighter. Hurchalla's son George handles the T-shirt parties when she's out of town. Her other sons, Bobby and Jimmy, sometimes travel with Janet Reno. Nora Denslow, a cousin, volunteers at campaign headquarters four days a week.

Families and campaign staffs sometimes clash. Relatives tend to second-guess the pros, while the staffers sometimes view family opinions as uninformed meddling. Reno's campaign manager, Mo Elleithee, says that's not the case with clan Reno.

"We rely on them for a whole host of things, whether it is helping us with policy development or political outreach, or driving the candidate, or just simple faxing and phone banking," Elleithee said. "This is a family that's not afraid to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work to get Janet elected. I think they help us, too, with insight into Janet."

Their depth of involvement is unusual for a modern campaign, though Reno's main Democratic challenger, Bill McBride of Tampa, counts heavily on the fundraising and political connections of his wife, former bank president Alex Sink.

Bush's immediate family, in contrast, has kept a low profile so far, though his brother, the president, has raised millions in campaign cash for him and his wife, Columba, has been making more frequent public appearances. Still, they aren't involved in the kind of campaign grunt work the Renos are doing.

Reno is famously direct but hard to read, and as a candidate she can be difficult to handle. Sometimes, her staff seems in awe of her. Not her family. "We refuse to be awed," Hurchalla said. "We tease her and make fun of her about that."

When she was U.S. attorney general, Reno's advisers sometimes called on family to get their workaholic boss out of the office. Hunter Reno, who shared a Washington apartment with her aunt, said an aide would sometimes ask her to take the attorney general to a movie.

"I would be the person in Washington who would take her to the eyeglass place to get her glasses tightened," Hunter Reno said. "She would would go months without getting her glasses tightened or let alone cleaned, because no one would think to approach her that way."

The family has always been close, relatives and friends say. Janet Reno was the oldest of four children born in four years to Jane and Henry Reno. Mom and dad were reporters for competing Miami newspapers and raised their children on the edge of the Everglades, in what now is suburban Miami.

"We lived out in the woods, where no one else lived," Hurchalla said. "If we didn't play with each other, we didn't have anyone else to play with."

In faded family photos, the Reno children are almost always barefoot. One picture shows Maggy and Janet each on a pony, about 10 years old, lanky and tomboyish with big grins and thick, dark hair. It was a wonderful place to grow up, Reno and her sister say, playing in the woods and learning about wildlife and building rafts when the family's 21-acre pine and scrub homestead was inundated by rain.

They remain favorite playmates. While Bush golfs with his brother, Reno kayaks with her sister.

Hurchalla, 61, now lives outside Port Salerno, on four acres of land and mangrove swamp near the Port St. Lucie Seashore Park. As a Martin County commissioner for 20 years, from 1974 until her defeat in 1994, she defended the zoning restrictions that helped the county avoid the development that occurred in Palm Beach, the next county south.

She serves on the board of the Nature Conservancy with Alex Sink, McBride's wife, and last year was honored for her work by the Everglades Coalition. Campaign officials say Hurchalla is Reno's closest adviser, the first person she'll call for help. Hurchalla downplays her role.

"I wait until she asks me," Hurchalla said. "I may give her casual advice, like any friend does, but by and large she's the oldest and wisest."

Hunter Reno's father, Mark Reno, 60, is a carpenter and tugboat captain and former game warden, and he often drives with his sister across the state, taking turns at the wheel of her red Ford Ranger. He lives in a thatched hut next door, on the same 3.5-acre plot. Like her, he has Parkinson's disease.

The youngest brother, Robert Reno, is a columnist for Newsday, a Long Island newspaper.

Hurchalla's green Ford Escort is easily identifiable by its four "Reno for Governor" stickers and the Florida Native Plants Society license plate. Recently it was parked at the Jupiter home of Lucille and Jim Lanpher for another T-shirt party.

Surrounded by blank shirts and a dozen supporters nibbling homemade pineapple coffee cake, she spread ink into a shallow box with a squeegee until the logo etched into the bottom was covered in deep blue.

She lifted the box and pulled out a white shirt with "Reno for Governor" emblazoned on the front. The small crowd around her ooohed its approval.

"This is the happy campaign," she told those waiting to make their own. "You want a red T-shirt, bring a red T-shirt. Want a blue shirt, bring a blue shirt. Want to experiment? Go by Goodwill, or look in your closet."

Two hours later, she had helped make 100.

Hurchalla has been lugging the screen printer across South Florida for the past two months, a mobile ad-making machine. She also has two more stationed in Gainesville and Miami-Dade County. A printer friend made the screens, at a cost to the campaign of just $200, and her husband and sons built the wooden bases.

Both Hurchalla and Hunter Reno say they had hoped Janet Reno would have taken time off to travel and relax after serving eight years in Washington. But now that she's running, they're in on it.

"I would rather she went off kayaking with me, but I think Florida desperately needs a good governor," Hurchalla said. "Whatever she wants to do is fine with us; just tell us what to do."

Back to State news

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk