State: McBride fixates on South Florida

So the man who has long touted his ability to lure moderates in Central and North Florida back to the Democratic family finds himself charging through South Florida seining for votes where seven of 10 Democrats chose someone else to be the party's nominee.

Bush, smelling blood, also worked Democratic constituencies on Thursday, stumping among Jewish voters while campaigning with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.

"When it gets down to the last couple of days, it's not about Democrat or Republican," Giuliani told about 400 people at Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center in Miami-Dade County. "You know exactly who Jeb Bush is, and you know what he stands for."

McBride started the morning with an education rally in Daytona Beach, then spent the rest of the day campaigning among Latinos and Haitians in Broward and Miami.

Except for brief stops in Tampa, Tallahassee, Ocala and Gainesville, he will spend most of the weekend in this area, home to the largest concentration of registered Democrats.

Former President Clinton will campaign with him in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Clinton's job: energize Democratic voters who might otherwise stay home.

Former Vice President Al Gore, who narrowly lost Florida in the 2000 presidential election, might come, too.

With most polls showing Bush still ahead by 4 to 8 percentage points, the Democratic Party and the McBride campaign acknowledge they need a big turnout in South Florida to win Tuesday.

"I do believe -- and Gore proved it -- if you turn out your base, you can win it, regardless of polling," said Mitch Ceasar, chairman of the Broward Democratic Executive Committee.

McBride and his surrogates have stumped here tirelessly, and several elected officials and voters said Thursday they believe Democrats will vote for him en masse.

At a union rally Thursday in North Miami, Kingsley Ross, 64, a nursing assistant who voted for Reno, said "there aren't a lot of people here who voted for McBride. But he's going to get it, or I'll eat my shirt."

But Bush is doing his best to make sure McBride has to work for every vote. In 1998, he successfully won Democratic votes while depressing turnout among Democrat-leaning constituencies, and he aims to do so again.

Giuliani drew wildly enthusiastic crowds Thursday as he campaigned with Bush. The two spoke at a religiously conservative synagogue, basked in the support of police and firefighters and mingled with 350 Delray Beach residents at a lovingly restored theater in the historic district.

"Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!" the crowd chanted.

Giuliani, introduced as "America's Mayor," is a stirring presence. Bush laid out a broad agenda for a second term, including a stronger emphasis on reading, improving the state's business climate and limiting damages in medical malpractice cases.

But the campaign isn't being fought just on the ground. Bush launched two more TV ads Thursday warning that McBride's support for smaller class sizes would risk the Everglades restoration plan and aid for senior citizens.

"Can seniors afford McBride's new tax increases? Can seniors risk McBride's big cuts to Medicaid and prescription drugs?" the announcer asks in one ad.

"That's another pack of lies from a guy who specializes in them," said McBride campaign spokesman Alan Stonecipher, noting that McBride has repeatedly said he will raise only cigarette taxes for schools. "Bush is running the most negative campaign in modern Florida history."

The McBride camp launched two ads aimed at deflecting Bush's attacks.

Bush also was on the defensive Thursday. The controversy over 200 Haitian refugees who landed in Miami on Wednesday appears to be galvanizing anti-Bush voters in South Florida angry about his brother's immigration policy, which likely will keep the refugees in detention for months.

Unlike asylum seekers from other nations, U.S. policy bars Haitians from being released while their applications for asylum are reviewed.

Campaigning Thursday in Miami's Little Haiti with U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, and other elected officials, McBride said it's unfair to treat one group differently from others, and said he would push harder than Gov. Bush to change it.

Asked if the Haitian policy was racist, McBride, who has done missionary work in Haiti, said, "Certainly it's racist, no question about it."

Bush said injecting race was "close to shameful."

Bush said he favors allowing the release of Haitian refugees who can prove a "well-founded fear of persecution" if they return to their homeland.

Today, McBride appears on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, a national radio show popular with black audiences, broadcast live from Sunrise. Bush begins a three-day bus tour of the state in Pensacola today with Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan, ending in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk