Three candidates, one issue: Who stands the best chance of defeating Gov. Jeb Bush come November?
By WES ALLISON, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 5, 2002
The race for the Democratic nomination for governor hasn't come down to which candidate offers the best ideas, who has adopted the most galvanizing issues or who has the most experience.
For Florida Democrats, it's all about which candidate will have the best chance to beat Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in November: Janet Reno, Tampa's Bill McBride or -- the longest of long shots -- state Sen. Daryl Jones.
Reno, a Miami native and the former U.S. attorney general, is leading the field handily in the polls, despite the wishes of many in the Democratic Party establishment who fear a Reno win in the primary will ensure a Bush win in November.
Party leaders say Reno's tenure in Washington under the Clinton administration makes her appear too divisive and too liberal to topple Bush.
But Reno, 64, enjoys strong support from many rank and file Democrats, especially in vote-rich South Florida, her home turf. They say only she has the fame and the name to create a huge turnout on election day, which Democrats will certainly need to beat Bush.
The establishment favors McBride, a Tampa attorney and first-time candidate. He grew up in Leesburg, north of Orlando, is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, is pro-business and was head of Holland & Knight, Florida's largest law firm -- moderate-looking credentials that could pull swing voters from Bush.
His wife, Alex Sink, is the former president of Florida operations for Bank of America.
Many of the Democratic Party's key allies, including the Florida AFL-CIO and the Florida Education Association, are backing him. But polls show he's not widely known around the state.
Running a distant third is state Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami, a veteran lawmaker who many Reno and McBride supporters readily admit is probably the most qualified. Jones has served in the state Senate for 10 years. He's a former fighter pilot who President Clinton nominated to be secretary of the Air Force, although his nomination was rejected after what he claims was a smear campaign to distort his flying record.
Jones is smart, telegenic and moderate on most issues. However, his campaign has lacked the organization and the money to gain much ground, and polls show he remains a stranger to most Florida voters.
That has put the focus on Reno and McBride. While their political views are quite similar, they differ slightly on a few issues, and on what they've proposed to do about them:
GUN CONTROL: Reno favors gun licensing and a law to require gun owners to show they can handle and shoot their guns safely. She also favors closing the loophole that allows people to buy guns at gun shows without first undergoing a background check. McBride also favors closing that loophole, but otherwise favors no more gun control.
DEATH PENALTY: Reno opposes the death penalty but she says she will sign death warrants if elected governor. She notes she often sought the death penalty as state attorney for Miami-Dade and as U.S. attorney general. McBride supports the death penalty, but has called for a moratorium on executions until the system can be examined for fairness.
GAY ADOPTION: Reno says she would work to overturn the state law prohibiting gays and lesbians from adopting children, the only law like it in the country. McBride has said he believes the issue should be solved in the courts.
EDUCATION: McBride has offered a $1-billion plan for improving public schools, including raising teacher pay to the national average over the next several years and cutting class sizes. He says he'll cover $565-million of that price tag by adding an extra 50-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes. The rest will come from ending some exemptions to the state sales tax and vetoing pork barrel projects.
Reno has not offered an education plan, but she says she favors increasing teacher pay, cutting class size and improving early childhood education so all children, especially the disadvantaged poor, enter elementary school ready to learn. She suggests paying for it by looking for waste in school districts.
HEALTH CARE: Reno favors putting senior citizens, state employees and Medicaid recipients into a massive state buying pool, much as the U.S. Department of Defense does, that could negotiate lower prescription drug prices from the manufacturers.
McBride says he will release his drug plan later this month.
CHILDREN: Reno called for firing the director of the Department of Children and Families in May, nearly three months before Kathleen Kearney resigned under pressure. Reno would hire a career social worker to revamp the agency and look to more successful states for ideas.
McBride has proposed forming a commission of national experts to examine the agency. Both want to improve the pay and training for case workers.
Jones has moored his platform to economic development, and his goals begin with improving job training at community colleges.
If Florida does that, he contends, high-paying technology companies will move here, the state's tax base will expand, and Florida will have more money for education, child welfare and other projects.
Whoever wins on Sept. 10 will have a lot of work yet to do. Bush's approval rating remains above 50 percent, and his re-election campaign has raised nearly $6-million -- more than what Reno and McBride have raised together.
The governor is the chief executive officer of the state and is responsible for overseeing state agencies, appointing judges and approving legislation. Florida's governor has the additional power to veto individual items in the annual budget. The incoming governor will be paid $120,171 next year.