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pot check
By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Political Editor OFFICE: Governor CANDIDATE: Jeb Bush, Republican OPPONENTS: Bill McBride, Janet Reno, Daryl Jones, Democrats SPONSOR OF AD: Republican Party of Florida THE AD: Ominous background music accompanies black-and-white images of Bill McBride and of gloomy employees packing up their belongings. "Corporate lawyer Bill McBride: Check the record," the narrator says. "The American Lawyer reports that at his law firm McBride cut health care benefits and froze wages for support staff in order to increase profits for each partner by $50,000. McBride recklessly put the firm in debt. Later hundreds lost their jobs. The St. Pete Times says support staff was hit the hardest. Now, Bill McBride promises us nearly a billion in higher taxes. Corporate lawyer Bill McBride: His mismanagement hurt working people." ANALYSIS: This is the latest Republican ad targeting McBride. Polls show the primary race between McBride and Reno is a dead heat and that McBride would give Bush a tougher challenge in November. The Bush campaign wants him to lose the Sept. 10 primary, or at least head into the general election wounded. Earlier spots mixed criticism with humor, showing goofy tap-dancing feet. Some Republicans complained that those spots backfired. Now the dancing feet, and any shred of humor, are gone. This ad aims directly at McBride's management of Florida's biggest law firm, Holland & Knight. The ad mainly refers to a 1992 American Lawyer article about budget cuts at Holland & Knight in 1990 and 1991. During an economic downturn, McBride was on a three-member management team that cut millions of dollars from the projected 1991 budget. The cost cutting included raising the monthly employee payment for health coverage for children from $75 to $90, eliminating about 15 administrative positions, decreasing retirement benefits for partners, and freezing support staff salaries for a year. Partner profits increased by $50,000 each. McBride became the sole manager of Holland & Knight in 1992, and he dramatically expanded the firm into one the nation's biggest, borrowing money in the process. Last year, 11 months after McBride left the firm to run for governor, Holland & Knight laid off 60 lawyers and 170 other employees, citing the soured economy after Sept. 11. The firm has begun expanding again. Challenging McBride's record at the firm is fair game -- Bush, for example, has faced questions about a former business partner accused by the Justice Department of defrauding the federal government -- though generally McBride is recalled by Republican and Democratic employees as a strong leader. He dramatically raised the wages of those making the least, increased health benefits, and gave generously to community groups while revenue grew 500 percent. Whether McBride's push to expand was reckless is the subject of debate. Clearly, when the economy soured, the firm was unprepared and the result was painful layoffs. Even Bush was forced to deal with the economic downturn, slashing $1-billion from the state budget. But no employees were laid off. Budget cuts also meant 5,500 adults lost Medicaid eligibility.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times state desk
From the state wire
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