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A new poll indicates the Tampa lawyer has closed the gap with the former attorney general, who remains upbeat.
By WES ALLISON and STEVE BOUSQUET
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 4, 2002
FORT MYERS -- Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride claimed momentum Tuesday as he barnstormed North Florida while Janet Reno, her once-awesome lead gone a week before the primary, seemed unhurried and unworried.
"If I feel pressed and hurried, I usually don't do as well as I do when I put one foot in front of another and proceed apace," Reno said after speaking to high school students in Fort Myers.
Another newspaper poll released Tuesday showed the Reno-McBride race a dead heat. The poll by Mason-Dixon Opinion Research also found McBride faring slightly better than Reno against Republican Jeb Bush, though both would still lose to the incumbent governor.
McBride even got a boost from an unlikely source: Republican Comptroller Bob Milligan.
"I have a great deal of respect for what he's doing," Milligan said of his fellow Marine. "McBride handles himself very well. He's sure come a long way."
Milligan said he also holds Bush in high regard but did not rule out endorsing McBride in the general election.
A Bush spokesman later said the governor phoned Milligan and felt assured he retained the comptroller's support.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat who represents parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties, and Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas are expected to endorse McBride today.
State Sen. Daryl Jones Miami, who polls show is badly trailing Reno and McBride, brought his campaign to Tampa. "I don't think the circumstances are as dire as you purport them to be," Jones told Kathy Fountain during her call-in show on WTVT-Ch. 13. Jones said he has trailed in August in every election, and "I've won 'em all."
McBride began the day with U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, considered a major political force in northeast Florida. McBride is counting on her to deliver him a trove of votes Tuesday among black voters, who favor Reno in most opinion polls.
"Judge me by my friends," McBride said as he clasped hands with Brown before about 50 people at an ironworkers' hall.
In Maitland, over lunch with a dozen supporters, McBride exuded confidence.
"We thought we were going to be in a fight right down to the end. I feel we are comfortably ahead . . . right now."
In Jacksonville, McBride went before a union audience for the fourth day in a row. He kept up his criticism of Bush on education, calling the governor's much-touted $3-billion increase in education "no real investment" after inflation and enrollment growth.
Reno, in contrast, didn't ask for a single vote until 3:30 p.m., when she met with about 30 senior citizens in Cape Coral.
She seemed content to listen to voters' concerns and to answer questions.
She also told voters she plans to find ways to reduce school class sizes, increase teacher pay, and cut prescription drug prices, a sore subject among the retirement centers of southwest Florida.
"The making of a great state is one that takes care of its people, that takes care of its seniors the way they took care of us," Reno said in Cape Coral.
Jean DeVito, 79, and her husband, Jerry, 76, were impressed. "I wish I could vote 10 times," Mrs. DeVito said.
Reno picked up an endorsement Tuesday in Sarasota, although the effect was more emotional than practical: Rhea Chiles, the widow of Florida's last Democratic governor, Lawton Chiles. Mrs. Chiles said Reno is best equipped to revive her husband's legacy of providing health care and education to low-income children and their parents.
"I think Janet's main interest is in what's best for the people," said Mrs. Chiles, who lives nearby on Anna Maria Island.
A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald poll released Sunday also showed Reno ahead of McBride by 2 percentage points, with 13 percent of likely Democratic voters undecided.
Jones, favored by 9 percent of Democrats in that poll, spoke at the University of South Florida Tuesday evening. He said on WTVT-TV that while he still trails Reno and McBride, "let's take another poll with only a day or two left in the campaign and see if that's still true."
After campaigning in Jacksonville, McBride held a reception at his lakefront home near Tampa for area higher education leaders, then raised money at the home of Devil Rays' owner Vince Naimoli, who usually favors Republicans.
Reno continues today meeting with senior citizens, students and with African-American voters. "I don't want to take anything for granted," she said. "I am approaching it in a very steadfast way, based on my experience. ... I have a feeling and it's not supreme confidence, it's not over-confidence, it's just my reading on it."
-- Times staff writer Curtis Krueger, researcher Kitty Bennett and the Associated Press contributed to this report.