Now that Sen. Bob Graham is out of the presidential race, top remaining Democrats are jockeying to tap his donor network.
By ADAM C. SMITH
Published October 17, 2003
After a slow start, Democratic presidential contender Joe Lieberman is emerging as the top alternative to Bob Graham among Democratic donors in Florida.
The Connecticut senator raised more than $318,000 from Floridians from July through September, according to a St. Petersburg Times analysis of federal campaign finance reports. That's more than twice the amount raised by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, his strongest competitor in Florida.
With Graham, the Florida senator, out of the presidential race and no longer dominating the state's well of campaign donors, the contest in Florida is wide open as most Democratic contenders aggressively work to tap Graham's base.
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark looks like a potentially strong force in Florida, raising nearly $88,000 from Floridians in just two weeks as a candidate.
Graham dropped out of the presidential race Oct. 6, shortly after the fundraising quarter ended. The campaign reports filed this week underscored the money troubles that forced him out.
Although campaign aides widely suggested he would raise $2-million, Graham in fact raised just $1.4-million in the quarter, including nearly $672,000 from Floridians. Since entering the race in May, he took in $2.9-million from Floridians, though he hoped to raise $7-million to $10-million.
Florida has long been a major source of campaign money for national candidates.
President Bush, who set a record in 2000 by raising $5.7-million, has already raised more than $7.3-million from Florida. He will make his 17th trip to the state next month to hold two $2,000-a-person fundraisers in Orlando and Fort Myers.
Only Texas and California have given more money to Bush. And no other state has as many top-tier Bush fundraisers, or "Rangers," who have raised at least $200,000 for the Bush-Cheney campaign. Florida has 14.
In a reminder of the state's stark partisan divisions, Florida Democrats also are breaking campaign finance records in their effort to unseat Bush.
In 2000, Al Gore and his primary rival, Bill Bradley, raised $2.79-million from Florida. So far this year, Florida Democrats have given about $5.8-million to the Democratic presidential hopefuls, half of that to Graham.
Before Graham entered the race, Lieberman looked like a strong contender to dominate Florida, having deep ties in South Florida, where he campaigned often in 2000 as Al Gore's running mate.
But Lieberman had a slow start, partly because he waited for Gore to announce he wouldn't run before begining his own campaign.
Kerry made early inroads in Florida, tapping a network of young professionals without longstanding allegiances to Graham. Until this quarter, he was second only to Graham in Florida fundraising.
Lieberman, however, made up ground.
Although trailing other Democratic contenders in national fundraising and in polls crucial to the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, Lieberman beat Kerry in Florida fundraising in the past two quarters and now leads him in total Florida contributions, about $813,400 to nearly $735,000.
Kerry supporters said the fundraising numbers merely reflect that Kerry came to Florida only once during the past quarter while Lieberman visited repeatedly.
"We've had a great deal of success recruiting people to the campaign who had been supporting Sen. Graham," said Rod Margol, a Jacksonville lawyer and Kerry fundraiser.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean lacks major Florida fundraisers but also raised more Florida money than Kerry in the past quarter. The national fundraising leader did it by relying on an army of grass roots supporters.
Dean raised nearly $175,000 in Florida from 899 donors, compared to 358 donors for Lieberman and 215 for Kerry, 145 for Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and 138 for Clark.
"John Kerry is having difficulty nationwide right now, because his whole case for the nomination is "I will win the New Hampshire primary and run the table from there,' " said Lieberman's national finance co-chairman, Mitchell Berger of Fort Lauderdale. Berger noted that Dean is handily leading in New Hampshire.
"We are the natural successor to Graham in Florida, both politically and temperamentally," Berger said, touting the moderate Connecticut senator as a "Lawton Chiles Democrat."
Other campaigns are ceding no ground.
The state has been crawling with Democratic candidates looking for campaign cash since Graham dropped out.
Gephardt, who raised more than $140,000 in Florida in the latest quarter, attended a fundraiser in South Florida last week and is expected to return early next week.
Lieberman met with former Graham supporters in Orlando on Wednesday and raised more money in South Florida on Thursday. More than 90 percent of his donations have come from South Florida, where he is expected to return Nov. 4 and Nov. 5.
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards will be campaigning Saturday in Orlando, where Dean is also expected to visit early next month.
Clark was also in South Florida earlier this week raising money, and he is expected back within two weeks. He is shaping up as a Florida wild card, with donors across the state uncertain about whether his early momentum can last.
"People are getting off the sidelines, and Clark is the beneficiary of the uncommitted, the soft-committed and the Graham people," said Miami attorney Ira Leesfield, a top Democratic fundraiser backing Clark.
Leesfield helped host a South Florida fundraiser this week that he estimated raised more than $100,000 for Clark. He said it attracted a number of former supporters of Kerry, Edwards and some prominent Graham backers, including Miami lawyers Kendall Coffey and Ben Kuehne.
Meanwhile, several money-raisers say they're finding fundraising fatigue among traditional donors who in recent weeks had been repeatedly hit up by the Graham campaign.
Chris Korge, a veteran Democratic fundraiser from Miami, initially had geared up to help Gore, then embraced the Graham campaign. Now he plans to sit on the sidelines for a while.
"Gephardt called me three minutes after Graham said good night to Larry King," he said, referring to Graham's withdrawal from the race on CNN. "I just feel like I need to take a step back for a while. I want to make one more choice and that's it."
- Computer-assisted reporting specialist Connie Humburg contributed to this report. Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com
