State: Bush vs. McBride offers clear choice

One boasts of shrinking state government. The other talks of expanding it, especially public school spending. One touts tax cuts. The other stresses helping the needy. One is a charismatic but thin-skinned politician. The other is a political novice who already has misspoken.

In Bush vs. McBride, Florida voters finally have a governor's race with clear and sharp contrasts.

For more than a year, voters watched Democrats Bill McBride, Janet Reno and Daryl Jones agree on almost everything. Now it's a contest between fundamental Democratic and Republican philosophies, whether Florida government needs more or less.

"I want the debate to be, "Are you tired of just cutting and cutting? Do you want to start investing again?' " McBride said. "I'm ready, Jeb, are you?"

Bush says he's more than ready.

"We have limited government and prioritized toward the things that are important," Bush said. "I care more about how much money is in your pocket than in the coffers of government."

The next 44 days will feature not just competing ideas, but two very different people with starkly different backgrounds and personalities.

Democrats plan to spend millions of dollars portraying Bush as a divisive figure who mismanaged the state and won't take responsibility for Florida's problems, including child welfare, struggling schools and botched elections. Republicans will spend millions more portraying McBride as a pawn of union bosses who mismanaged his own law firm and waffles on issues.

Here's a glimpse of some of the contrasts voters will see leading up to the Nov. 5 election:

Education

Polls show improving public schools is far and away the top concern of Florida voters. The debate hinges on perceptions: Are Florida schools improving under Bush or plagued by crowded classrooms, underpaid teachers and high-stakes standardized tests?

"To some degree, the election is a referendum on Jeb Bush's education plan over the last four years," said Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida.

Bush campaigns as the education governor who is passionate about ensuring kids learn "a year's worth of knowledge in a year's worth of time." He points to rising reading and math test scores under his watch, especially among minorities. He touts the extra $3-billion he has spent on schools, and his emphasis on accountability.

McBride says his education priority is putting more money into schools. With a son and daughter in public schools, the Tampa lawyer says he sees firsthand how "absurd" it is use standardized tests to grade schools. He says Florida schools are mired at the bottom of national rankings and will stay there until the state starts spending more.

The Democrat would raise taxes on cigarettes by 50 cents a pack and eliminate some tax exemptions to provide $1-billion more for schools. He would end school vouchers.

Social services

Scandals at the Department of Children and Families, including a 5-year-old girl who was supposed to be under state watch but went missing for a year before the state noticed, offer more fodder to the debate about funding of state services.

McBride says Bush promised to fix Florida's child protection system and failed. Bush has been too focused on helping big businesses and wealthy Floridians, McBride says, while he should have been providing more money to reduce case loads and improve salaries of child protection workers.

But Bush has doubled state funding for child welfare services and notes that government ultimately can't replace families. He maintains he is reinvigorating the whole system, contracting with nonprofit groups that can do the job better.

The governor also will point to funding for developmentally disabled Floridians that nearly doubled, to increasing numbers of kids with health care, and to efforts to help seniors receive care at home and obtain cheaper prescription drugs.

Environment

In a state where voters strongly favor environmental protection, the issue this year is dwarfed by education. Still, there are some significant differences between Bush and McBride.

McBride calls growth management the most pressing environmental issue facing Florida and criticizes Bush's shifting more control over development decisions to local governments. He maintains the state should take the lead role in protecting Florida's quality of life.

Bush also has stressed the need for more effective growth management to deal with crowded schools and roads but has been unable to get much passed in the Legislature. He still has an environmental record to tout, though, including helping extend Florida's land preservation program, working with his brother, President Bush, to block offshore oil drilling and committing to a major federal-state Everglades restoration program.

Business experience

Bush and the state Republican Party already have spent millions of dollars attacking McBride's record at Holland & Knight, Florida's biggest law firm and seventh-biggest in the United States. Look for more of the same.

In the era of Enron and WorldCom, they want to make "corporate lawyer" part of McBride's name. Holland & Knight expanded dramatically under McBride's leadership, and Republicans say his "reckless" expansion led to 230 layoffs in the spring, 11 months after he left.

McBride will counter that he created more than 1,000 jobs at the firm, led a business that gave generously to charities and instituted a policy that dramatically increased pay for mail room and janitorial staffers. He notes he actually has run a business, unlike Bush.

Democrats also are expected to paint the governor as someone who traded on his father's name to become a millionaire.

Among the controversial business ventures in Bush's past is his work marketing industrial water pumps abroad. The U.S. Justice Department has a lawsuit pending against Bush's former partner, accusing him of defrauding the government of more than $70-million in a deal selling pumps to Nigeria.

Personality and image

Personalities matter in politics, and in this campaign the personalities are big.

Jeb Bush, celebrity son of George and Barbara, has an appeal that transcends issues. Polls show voters generally like him, even those skeptical about his record. The image the campaign will try to convey is that of an energetic, down-to-earth policy wonk who doesn't hesitate to tackle the thorniest issues.

The flip side of the Bush persona is his defensiveness. Whether it is school spending or problems in child welfare, Bush can be prickly when pressed. In July, for example, when asked about discrepancies between his claims that school spending is way up and critics' claims to the contrary, Bush replied: "They're lying and I'm telling the truth. That's the discrepancy."

McBride's personalty is still a wild card. A first-time candidate, he hopes voters see a big-hearted ex-Marine who rose from humble roots through hard work and tenacity. He suggests he understands the needs of struggling working families as well as those in Florida's board rooms, but also owns an expensive home and has been campaigning in a private jet.

McBride's only debate performance was lukewarm and he already has made some rookie mistakes, including retracting a statement that he was not philosophically opposed to vouchers. "Sometimes," McBride laughingly told reporters recently, "I'll just be talking along and I'll think, "That isn't what I meant to say.' "

-- Adam C. Smith can be reached at (727) 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com.

Back to State news

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

Special Links

Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk