TALLAHASSEE - The last time Florida had an open U.S. Senate seat, powerful Republicans wanted a peaceful primary. So they huddled in a back room and made Bill McCollum the nominee.
McCollum lost that 2000 race to Democrat Bill Nelson. But the former congressman from suburban Orlando, who gained notoriety as a floor manager of the House's impeachment of President Clinton, is running for the Senate again.
This time, the circumstances couldn't be more different.
McCollum, an unwavering supporter of President Bush, finds his loyalty rewarded by Mel Martinez's decision to enter the Senate race with the White House's blessing.
But rather than fold his tent and rally around the White House's favorite, McCollum is emphasizing his background on national security and attacking Martinez as a former trial lawyer who backed Democratic candidates in the 1980s.
It's the sign of a candidate with nothing to lose.
Martinez resigned as U.S. housing secretary on Friday and will return home in hopes of sharing a November 2004 ballot with a president eager to win a Senate seat in Florida. The state is a critical 2004 battleground, with 27 electoral votes and a growing population of non-Cuban Hispanics, many of whom lean Democratic.
Martinez is a Cuban-American and was the only Hispanic in the president's Cabinet.
Florida is the largest state with an open Senate seat in 2004 and is one of four Southern states where Republicans hope to take seats held by Democrats. The others are North and South Carolina and Georgia.
McCollum, a Washington lobbyist after 20 years in Congress, says no one can match his resume.
"I can help this president win the war on terrorism, and I don't need on-the-job training," said McCollum, a Brooksville native who founded a congressional task force on terrorism in 1989.
Lightly dismissing Martinez as a threat, McCollum said: "I just don't see that there's any impact."
A recent St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald poll of 336 Republican voters, conducted on Dec. 1-3, showed McCollum was the second choice of Republicans behind U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris of Sarasota, who has not said whether she will run. The other candidates are House Speaker Johnnie Byrd of Plant City, state Sen. Daniel Webster of Winter Garden and Miami lawyer Larry Klayman.
Harris got the support of 29 percent of Republicans, McCollum 16 percent and Martinez 11 percent. McCollum was strongest among men and older voters. But 38 percent of Republicans were undecided, a sign that the race is wide open.
Across the state, Republicans are speculating that the only way to clear the field for Martinez would be to offer McCollum a high-level administration post, one emphasizing his background in terrorism issues.
If McCollum stays in the Senate race, as he insists he will, a political bloodbath could soon emerge, the opposite of what happened in 2000 when Gov. Jeb Bush and state party leaders persuaded Republican Tom Gallagher, now the state's chief financial officer, to get out of the race.
McCollum has criticized Martinez for his role, more than a decade ago, as president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers. He also cites campaign contributions Martinez made to Democrats in the 1980s, including $1,000 to Bob Graham, who unseated Republican Sen. Paula Hawkins in 1986.
McCollum is employing a staple of modern campaigns: Define an opponent before he can define himself.
Martinez's checks to Democrats included $1,000 to South Carolina U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings in 1990; $500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1989; $250 to Delaware Sen. Joe Biden in 1989; $1,000 and $500 to the 1988 U.S. Senate campaign of Bill Gunter, who was then Florida's treasurer; and $1,000 in 1983 to the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
Former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, McCollum's campaign chairman, joined in the criticism after learning that Martinez supported Gunter, a candidate for the same Senate seat Mack won over Buddy MacKay in 1988.
"I'm surprised at that. I was not aware that Mel had supported Bill Gunter. I am shocked and disappointed by it," Mack told the St. Petersburg Times. "I'm for Bill McCollum now, more than I've ever been."
The checks were written a long time ago. Democrats were in power in Florida, but another Bush - the current president's father - was in the White House. McCollum and Mack say those contributions are relevant.
"Those kinds of actions are going to affect how people perceive an individual," Mack said. "We're talking about a primary now . . . If he supported someone who was attempting to run against me in 1988, how conservative could they be? That's the way it's going to play out in a primary."
In 1984, Martinez contributed $100 to Dick Batchelor, an Orlando lawyer and Democratic state House candidate. Batchelor, now a lobbyist and political analyst, said the Martinez contributions should not be a political issue. He said Martinez proved his conservative stripes in 1994 when he ran as the running mate of gubernatorial candidate Ken Connor, an outspoken opponent of abortion.
Batchelor said Martinez will appear more moderate than his GOP rivals.
"There are so many conservatives in that primary, they're going to split up the real conservative votes, and that is to his advantage," Batchelor said. "He only needs to carry the more moderate ones."
In an interview last week, Martinez carefully tiptoed around political talk. Under federal law, he is prohibited from political activity while holding public office. But in an apparent reference to McCollum and the rest of the Republican pack, he said Republicans have urged him to run because "they didn't want to see us lose this seat."
He declined to say whether the White House urged him to run. It has been widely reported that the president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, sees advantages in a Martinez candidacy because the former Orange County chairman could attract Hispanic support, particularly along the Interstate 4 corridor, helping Bush in a state crucial to his re-election.
But McCollum has Hispanic support, too. His hardline stand against Fidel Castro has earned him the support of two leading voices in South Florida's exile community, U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his younger brother, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.
After the New Year, the pace of the campaign will quicken. The race already is attracting attention among grass roots activists, and McCollum's criticism of Martinez is having an effect.
Dee Williams, president of the 980-member Sun City Center Republican Club in Hillsborough County, said of Martinez's past Democratic support: "That sounds like a chameleon to me."
Williams also said that if it is true Martinez is the "hand-picked" choice of Rove and the White House, it could cause other candidates' sources of money to quickly dry up.
She also said Republicans remember McCollum's loss to Bill Nelson three years ago.
"When you lose a race, it has a certain stigma to it," Williams said.
