State: Reno concedes: the race begins

[AP photo]
Janet Reno praised Bill McBride and said she wants "to do everything that I possibly can to see that he gets elected," during a short concession speech Tuesday in Miami Lakes. She blamed Gov. Jeb Bush for election day problems.

By WES ALLISON and ADAM C. SMITH
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 18, 2002

View related 10 News video
56k | High-Speed

MIAMI LAKES -- It took a week, but Bill McBride on Tuesday officially assumed the mantle of Democratic nominee for governor. Even thousands of newly counted votes in her home county couldn't push Janet Reno past him.

Reno, whose victory had been taken for granted just a few months ago, delivered a short concession speech that had her supporters cheering, and a few crying, at her campaign headquarters here. She pledged to do anything she can to help McBride beat Republican Gov. Jeb Bush in November.

While she stopped short of blaming voting problems in South Florida for her defeat -- McBride won by 4,800 votes out of 1.3-million cast in one of the closest elections in Florida history -- Reno did blame Gov. Jeb Bush for the election day mess.

Reno vowed to campaign for election reform even as she urged her supporters to back McBride.

"Bill McBride is the Democratic nominee for the governor of Florida, and I congratulate him," Reno declared. "We just had a great, good talk. I congratulated him on the positive and very effective campaign he ran, and I told him he was going to be a great governor.

"He will combine so many of the talents and skills and abilities that will really make him one of Florida's great governors, and I want to do everything that I possibly can to see that he gets elected."

Reno's last hopes, unlikely as they were, died at 5 p.m. when Miami-Dade and Broward counties presented amended election returns to state Secretary of State Jim Smith, a full week after polls closed.

The extra time was needed after Reno campaign officials discovered that voting machines in Broward and Miami-Dade failed to register thousands of votes. Over the past week, about 7,500 votes in Miami-Dade County and about 1,100 in Broward County were found to have been uncounted in the hours after the polls closed.

Numbers released Tuesday showed Reno gained 3,402 votes, mostly from Miami-Dade, her native county. State Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami finished a distant third. The final result: McBride took 44.38 percent of the vote, Reno 44.03 percent, and Jones 11.57 percent.

The delay did not stop McBride from starting his campaign against Bush: He begins a two-day tour of Florida today to show off his running mate, state Sen. Tom Rossin, D-Royal Palm Beach.

Also planned is a joint Reno-McBride appearance in South Florida on Thursday. Having overwhelmingly lost to Reno in South Florida's Democratic strongholds, McBride badly needs her supporters to unite behind him and turn out to vote in November.

McBride spent the day out of the public eye and issued a short statement praising Reno's "powerful intellect, her unquestioned integrity, her power of leadership," and love of Florida.

"The issues Janet Reno spoke most passionately about during the campaign -- prescription drug benefits, protecting the most vulnerable of Florida's children, improving our public schools, protecting our wonderful but fragile environment and guaranteeing everyone's right to vote -- are also my issues. Together we will move this state in the right direction again," McBride said.

[Times photo: Toni L. Sandys]
Bill McBride's wife, Alex Sink, watches Reno's speech at Tampa's Cactus Club since campaign headquarters does not get cable.

Bush congratulated McBride at a Tuesday news conference in Fort Lauderdale, but said his opponent has failed to say how he would pay for programs he supports, such as reducing class sizes.

"I look forward to a good, tough fight and I intend to win," said Bush, who today will accept a police group's endorsement before flying to a "Cuban-Americans for Jeb" rally in Miami. "I challenge my opponent, who hasn't had a record of public service, to lay out specifically what he will do."

Reno spent most of the day at her campaign headquarters in suburban Miami, writing thank-you notes and talking with supporters. She slipped out for lunch with former Vice President Al Gore, who was in Miami to support a Florida constitutional amendment that would mandate smaller class sizes.

Gore, of course, narrowly lost the presidential election to George W. Bush, the governor's brother, after widespread voting problems in South Florida two years ago.

"He said he understood," Reno said, drawing a huge laugh.

Reno, 64, hadn't lost an election since 1972, when she ran for the state House. Except for a brief period after her eight-year tenure as attorney general, which ended in January 2001, Reno has been in or seeking public office for a quarter century.

Reno did not sound content to stay out of public view. Aside from campaigning for McBride, Reno said she aims to determine how and why Tuesday's election fiasco happened, even if it means going to court.

"As a candidate, I have put the election behind me. With this, we move forward," Reno said. "But as a private citizen, I want to do everything in my power to see that the people in the state of Florida have the right to vote, the right to vote for the candidate of their choice, the right to have their vote counted in a timely and accurate fashion."

Reno said Bush has an obligation to enforce state election laws and failed to provide adequate training and money to localities after the botched 2000 presidential election.

"That's a bunch of crap," Secretary of State Jim Smith said. "Miss Reno says she is interested in helping, I would suggest she doesn't have a long way to go. Miami-Dade and Broward counties elections supervisors need help."

Blaming Bush is like saying Reno was responsible for all the murders in the United States while she was U.S. attorney general, Smith said.

Bush also dismissed the criticism, saying 65 election supervisors did their jobs well, while only Broward and Miami-Dade counties had widespread reports of shuttered polling places, malfunctioning machines and botched vote tallies.

In Broward, Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant defended her leadership, saying the problems were not caused by her or poll workers.

"The buck stops with the voters of Broward County," she said.

Miami-Dade County Manager Steve Shiver, who acknowledged that his head will be "on the chopping block" if problems are not smoothed out by the Nov. 5 general election, was apologetic.

"It's inexcusable what happened on Sept. 10," he said. "We will ensure a good course of action over the next few weeks."

Shiver said the county hopes to train as many as 1,700 county employees to work the county's 764 precincts Nov. 5.

Although some of Reno's staff clearly believe the voting problems cost her the election, Reno refused to go along. "I lost," she said, and McBride won "fair and square."

Asked what she plans to do next, Reno said, "I plan to learn to play the piano more effectively than I can, perfect my Eskimo roll" -- a kayaking reference -- "go visit the people I have met along the way and fight as hard as I can to make sure that Florida's voting process is one that the people can be proud of."

At the end, before she joined campaign workers for cake, Reno was asked what she hoped her legacy would be. She paraphrased George Washington's answer to the same question.

"He said if I were to write all that down, I might be reduced to tears," Reno said. "I would prefer to drift on down the stream of life, and let history make the judgment."

-- Times staff writers David Adams and Lucy Morgan contributed to this report, which used information from the Associated Press.

Back to State news

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

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk