Gov. Jeb Bush thinks the campaign will help secure the state for his brother in the coming presidential election.
By ADAM C. SMITH
Published October 2, 2003
TAMPA - Kicking off a grass roots effort to ensure that Florida helps keep his brother in the White House, Gov. Jeb Bush took a slap Wednesday at former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, suggesting he would love to see a Bush vs. Dean matchup.
"Dean's my man. I'm a big Dean guy," a chuckling governor told reporters after introducing leaders in the president's Florida re-election campaign. "I think being governor of a state that's got a budget half the size of Miami-Dade County makes him eminently qualified to be the Democratic candidate."
The governor said Dean's success so far has come largely by connecting with the left wing of the Democratic Party and suggested Florida Sen. Bob Graham and others hurt themselves trying to "out-Dean Gov. Dean." He alluded to a heckler who disrupted the Bush-Cheney campaign event at the Airport Marriott.
"The guy that was yelling and screaming, I bet he was a Dean supporter," he said, referring to east Pasco Democratic activist John Russell, who is indeed a Dean supporter. "The hot, angry people that aren't rational ... may be drawn toward the Dean candidacy because he's focused his campaign on trying to connect with that anger ... "
Dean is leading the Democratic field in fundraising and in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. A spokeswoman quipped that the Dean campaign welcomes Bush's support.
Gov. Bush is chairman of his brother's re-election campaign in the battleground state that nearly put Al Gore in the White House three years ago.
"We're preparing for an election that could be competitive. We're going to build the strongest grass roots campaign ever," said Ken Mehlman, the national campaign manager for Bush-Cheney, who was on hand to announce the Florida campaign "leadership team" of some 60 elected officials and business and party leaders.
A beefed-up effort to mobilize Republican voters helped Gov. Bush win a lopsided victory over Democrat Bill McBride in 2002, and aggressive get-out-the-vote efforts are a big part of the strategy in 2004. The president's Southeast regional chairman is Ralph Reed, a former Christian Coalition leader who has proven to be a master at grass roots organizing.
More than 100 people gathered Wednesday at the Marriott on behalf of Bush-Cheney. A handful of protesters from the University of Tampa held anti-Bush signs outside the ballroom, and Russell momentarily stunned the room with his attack on the GOP.
"What planet are you on? You are for the few at the expense of the many," Russell shouted before being drowned out by chants of "Viva Bush! Viva Bush!"
The director of the president's Florida campaign will be former Jeb Bush aide Brett Doster, who two years ago helped organize a George Bush rally at the New York Yankees' Legends Field in Tampa. The rally spurred a lawsuit from protesters who said they were improperly forced to leave the area. The Yankees identified Doster as the person who asked police to remove the protesters.
"They may have used my name, but I didn't have anything to do with kicking out a bunch of protesters, to the best of my knowledge," Doster said Wednesday.
