State: Candidates take war to air

See Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican Party accuse Democrat Bill McBride of "reckless mismanagement" at his former law firm. Watch as McBride counterattacks, accusing Bush of running a smear campaign. Glimpse Democrat Janet Reno promising to make prescription drugs more affordable.

It's all part of a multimillion-dollar TV campaign aimed at helping voters make up their minds before Tuesday's Democratic primary.

This election is unique in Florida politics because the Democrats aren't fighting with each other and Bush is trying to influence the results. After an earlier GOP ad depicted Reno and McBride as tap-dancing around the issues, two recent Republican ads have aimed at McBride, a focus many say merely helped McBride surge in opinion polls.

McBride is airing a new ad of his own on TV stations statewide, accusing Bush of smearing him and touting his endorsements from Florida newspapers. The ad closes with a line meant to win over wavering Democrats: "If you think McBride makes Jeb Bush nervous now, wait till November."

Bush defended his attacks in the face of skepticism from some supporters. If the ads haven't raised doubts about McBride yet, he said, "they will."

"I think we had an obligation to begin to give people a sense that there's a different side to this man," Bush said Thursday. "I think he's mismanaged his law firm."

McBride said the Bush TV ads are the mark of a "desperate" candidate. "You can't build yourself up by tearing somebody else down," he said.

A new Mason-Dixon Florida Poll of 405 Democrats, conducted Wednesday night, shows McBride inching past Reno, 44 percent to 42 percent. Although well within the poll's 5 percent margin of error, it marks the first time McBride has led Reno in any news poll since he began campaigning 14 months ago.

Still, there was scattered evidence Bush's ads are having some impact. At a rally for veterans in Cape Coral, Pamela Kellogg buttonholed McBride and said that "every five minutes" she sees a TV ad about people losing jobs at Holland & Knight.

"Did 250 people lose their jobs?" she asked McBride.

"No, not when I was managing partner," McBride said. "I left the firm about 14 months ago, and all that happened after I left."

McBride's forces anticipate one last televised blast from the Bush campaign this weekend, but none of the campaigns hinted at what the next media move will be.

Some Bush loyalists still don't think attacking McBride was a good idea.

"I probably wouldn't have, but there are a lot of things that are done in politics that are a little strange, and they work," said Charles Kane, chairman of the Martin County GOP and the Bush-Brogan campaign in Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan's home county. "There's an old adage: Never mention the opponent's name. Tell them what you want about yourself."

The state GOP rolled out yet another new Bush ad Thursday intended to soften the hard edge of the anti-McBride commercials. It features testimonials by three former Florida teachers of the year, including Scott Hebert of Hernando County, vouching for Bush's credentials on education, the dominant issue in the election.

The McBride-can-win message has been hammered home in recent days by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler of Boca Raton and Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, state Sen. Ron Klein of Delray Beach and Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson.

In Century Village in Boca Raton, one of the most solidly Democratic communities in the state, TV ads have worked magic for McBride.

"For somebody we didn't know anything about, he seems to have come from nowhere," said condo association president Bernie Cohen. "It used to be everybody was for Reno, but now you keep hearing McBride, McBride. I was a Reno supporter. I don't know if my mind is changed, but it does make sense to support the candidate who can beat Jeb Bush."

With a lot less money to spend, Reno has a much weaker presence on TV.

The former U.S. attorney general's campaign manager, Mo Elleithee, estimated McBride is outspending Reno on TV by 9 to 1.

The Reno campaign credits McBride's $4.5-million TV ad campaign, and Bush's ads about McBride, for closing the gap. But Reno strategists say McBride's support is not as passionate or as solid as Reno's, which she has won through years of public service.

"Those aren't voters that they have locked and loaded into their database," Reno spokeswoman Nicole Harburger said. "That's a wild card for them."

Reno used about $100,000 from the Florida Democratic Party to begin airing 60-second radio ads on black-oriented stations such as Tampa's WTMP-AM and outlets in Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tallahassee.

A male announcer emphasizes Reno's support for "civil rights and equal opportunity" and cracking down on deadbeat parents, and promises "a real patient protection act."

Not surprisingly, the candidate advertising the least downplays the power of TV to decide the election.

"When all is said and done, I don't think television is going to decide the primary," Elleithee said. "I think it's important, but I don't think it's going to decide things."

-- Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers was used in this report.

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Lucy Morgan

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