Bush, decisively

He's the first Republican governor in Florida to be re-elected.

By STEVE BOUSQUET, LUCY MORGAN and WES ALLISON
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 6, 2002

MIAMI -- Gov. Jeb Bush made history Tuesday, and he did it with remarkable ease.

Florida voters made Bush the state's first Republican governor to be elected to a second term. They also extended the Bush family's political dynasty and ended Tampa lawyer Bill McBride 's dream of a Democratic upset in the nation's biggest battleground state.

"I am so grateful for your support and I thank you from the bottom of my heart," Bush told a ballroom filled with wildly cheering supporters, his voice scratchy and trembling with emotion, his father nearby. "I will not let you down. I will work as hard as I can."

Bush's overwhelming victory keeps the Governor's Mansion firmly in Republican hands as his brother the president plans a 2004 re-election campaign and Tampa seeks to host the next Republican convention. He got a higher percentage of the vote than any candidate for governor since 1982, when another popular governor, Democrat Bob Graham , was re-elected.

McBride, the first choice of the Democratic Party establishment, was expected to give Bush a much tougher challenge than the early front-runner, Democrat Janet Reno. But while Reno was beloved by African-Americans and South Florida seniors, the returns dramatically showed McBride failed to energize either group and didn't win over the moderates he hoped to draw back to the Democratic fold.

In the end, Bush won every region of the state and McBride conceded about two hours after the polls closed in western Florida.

"I congratulated him and wished him well," McBride said with his wife, Alex Sink, and teacher union leader Maureen Dinnen at his side. "This was an election for the head of the Florida family, and the new head of the Florida family, this governor, needs our support. We've moved the agenda, I think, into the right place."

Bush spent election night in an 18th-floor suite in Miami's Renaissance Omni hotel. Five big-screen TV sets were lined up across one side of the room. Studying the returns with a laptop at his side, Bush compared his totals with those of his brother two years ago. "We're winning by 22,000 votes in Pasco County. George lost Pasco," he said.

Bush dined on stone crabs from Joe's, a Miami Beach institution, while watching election returns on TV with his family, including his parents, former President George Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush.

Also with the governor were his two sons, George P. and Jebbie. Bush's daughter Noelle is in a drug-treatment program in Orlando.

"I'm a very proud father. It's hard to describe it. It's not politics for me anymore, it's family," the former president said. Asked if he would like to see his son run for president, the elder Bush said: "Ask him. Let him recover."

President Bush phoned his brother and congratulated him. CNN projected Bush the winner at 8:18 p.m., less than 20 minutes after the polls closed in the western Panhandle.

Voting went smoothly for a change and Bush showed his strength in every region of the state, even in South Florida, home to nearly a third of the state's Democrats. But in Broward County, the state's biggest Democratic stronghold, the turnout was surprisingly low, and Bush held McBride to a smaller percentage than Buddy MacKay got there four years ago.

Bush held big leads in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties and along the Interstate 4 corridor, a key swath of moderate voters that McBride hoped would swing in his direction.

The spirits at McBride headquarters at Tampa's Marriott Westshore hotel sank further when turnout in key black precincts in St. Petersburg, Jacksonville and West Palm Beach failed to reach campaign projections.

Bush, 49, eagerly tackled a controversial agenda that earned him the admiration of many voters but angered others. He's personally popular, but his education policies, including school vouchers and school grades based on standardized tests, have been a polarizing force.

His drive to a second term was helped by a mountain of Republican Party money, conservatively estimated at $40-million, to get out the vote and pay for an elaborate series of targeted mailings and TV ads calling Bill McBride a "liberal" who might impose a state income tax. Much of that money came in unlimited donations from corporations and wealthy donors.

"The dirty tricks added up," said Dan Albert, a McBride volunteer from Tampa. "If you say a lie often enough, if you spend enough money, people will start to believe it."

In the final weeks, third-party groups such as the National Rifle Association and the Florida Medical Association flooded airwaves with ads criticizing McBride. An Florida Medical Association-financed group, "People for a Better Florida," ran radio ads featuring a woman who said: "Tell Bill McBride we can't afford his liberal ideas."

The medical group will soon be at the forefront of an effort to limit jury awards for noneconomic damages, known as pain and suffering, in medical malpractice cases.

Bush's campaign reflected his style of governing. It was focused and intense. Nothing was left to chance. No allegation went unanswered.

The last days of the campaign also exposed racial and geographic divisions. Bush told predominantly white audiences that "Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson" were in the state to help McBride, though McBride said it wasn't true. A Pensacola congressman said a big turnout was needed to neutralize the "liberals in South Florida."

Amid their euphoria, Republicans said Bush's win could strengthen Tampa's bid to host the 2004 Republican convention. "With a win this big, we have a good chance," said Tampa office developer Al Austin, a prominent GOP fundraiser. "We can raise the money and now we'll have a friendly atmosphere for them."

New York and New Orleans are the other cities in the convention competition. A decision is expected early next year.

Bush said the challenge for Republicans now is to govern responsibly. He said Democrats lost their way in the 1990s because the party didn't stand for anything.

"If it becomes the organizing principle of our party that we're in power, so people have to "come to Caesar,' then we'll lose," Bush said during a three-day weekend bus tour of the state. "If we deal with issues in terms of the form, how we reach out, we'll be important as a party. Standing on the principles that got us there will be very important. If we try to be all things to all people, we'll lose."

Florida GOP Chairman Al Cardenas called Tuesday "the greatest evening in the history of the Republican Party of Florida." With the election of Charlie Crist as attorney general and Charles Bronson as agriculture commissioner, the party now controls the governor's mansion, the state Cabinet and both houses of the state Legislature. "Call it a clean sweep," Cardenas said.

But the euphoria of Bush's victory was dampened by the passage of a costly constitutional amendment that limits the number of students in classrooms by 2010. Bush aggressively campaigned against the initiative, known as Amendment 9.