Kerry fires up Florida faithful for November

He vows to assemble a legal team to guard against election problems this fall.

Times Political Editor

TAMPA - Democrats hooted and cheered Monday from South Florida to Tampa, sounding thoroughly fired up about the looming election.

Not today's primary, mind you, but November's showdown against President Bush.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry effectively locked up the nomination last week, and today's Florida primary is almost meaningless. Still, Kerry wound his way through the state Monday, asking Democrats to support him in the primary even as he campaigned for the general election.

"The one person in the United States of America who deserves to be laid off is George W. Bush," he told nearly 1,000 supporters Monday night in Ybor City.

Kerry, on his second trip to Florida in six days, was greeted with a shot from Gov. Jeb Bush. The president's brother questioned whether Kerry has "the character" to be president and slammed him as a flip-flopper who is weak on defense and opposed to the president's Medicare prescription drug plan.

"Over the last several weeks Kerry has tried to distance himself from his own record, but Floridians won't be fooled," the governor said in a statement. "They will demand a strong leader, not a senator from Massachusetts against policies for a strong America."

The last presidential candidate from Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, lost Florida by 22 points to the Bush brothers' father in 1988. But the Dukakis campaign wrote off Florida, and Kerry says he intends to fight hard for Florida's 27 electoral votes.

A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald poll last week found Kerry leading Bush in Florida among likely voters, 49 percent to 43 percent.

On Monday, Kerry presided over a town-hall style meeting with more than 400 people in Hollywood and held a rally in downtown West Palm Beach that drew nearly 1,000. He finished the day in Tampa, where his motorcade delayed rush-hour traffic on I-275 before reaching a raucous crowd at Centro Ybor. Joining him on stage were U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, U.S. Reps. Jim Davis of Tampa and Kendrick Meek of Miami, and Del Sandusky, a crewmate of Kerry's in Vietnam who has a house in Clearwater.

Kerry referred throughout the day to the contested 2000 election, which Bush won after the U.S. Supreme Court stopped a Florida recount and gave him a 537-vote win in the state.

"You'd think that somebody remembering what happened in this great state, who was finally put in office by the Supreme Court of the United States, would actually recognize the divisions in this country and try to reach out," Kerry said in Hollywood, suggesting Bush governs as a "great divider" after campaigning as a uniter.

The four-term senator promised to assemble a legal team to guard against election problems across the country in November.

"We're going to take injunctions where necessary ahead of time. We'll pre-challenge if necessary," he said.

First, Kerry needs to officially win the nomination. The 177 delegates that Florida distributes today should push him closer to the 2,162 needed to secure the nomination.

Polls are open today from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

While parts of Pinellas have other elections to decide, Hillsborough and most other counties have no other races on the ballot. The statewide turnout is expected to be anemic. In March 2000, when Al Gore and George W. Bush already effectively had won their party nominations, 19 percent of Florida's registered voters turned out.

"A great turnout for Kerry could really help him," said Carole Miller, a retired guidance counselor and Democrat from Temple Terrace who came to see Kerry in Ybor City. "But the other thing would be to stay home and not let the Republicans see how many of us are out there."

Democratic voters will see nine names on the ballot, which was completed before most candidates dropped out of the race. Only Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and the Rev. Al Sharpton are still campaigning against Kerry, despite having no chance of winning the nomination.

"Florida was cheated in the 2000 presidential election. Don't let Florida be cheated out of a primary contest in 2004. Florida does have a choice on Tuesday," Kucinich said in recorded calls to Florida voters.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards have suspended their presidential campaigns, but their grass roots Florida supporters are trying to mobilize people to vote for them anyway. They want to get at least 15 percent of the vote to win more delegates and increase their influence at the Democratic convention this summer in Boston.

But the general election campaign already is in full swing.

President Bush raised $3-million Monday in Texas, while slamming Kerry for "a deeply irresponsible" proposal in 1995 to cut $1.5-billion in intelligence spending.

"Once again, Sen. Kerry is trying to have it both ways," Bush said in Dallas. "He's for good intelligence, yet he was willing to gut the intelligence services. And that is no way to lead a nation in a time of war."

The Kerry campaign dismissed the attack.

"He voted against a proposed billion dollar bloat in the intelligence budget, because it was essentially a slush fund for defense contractors," said campaign spokesman Chad Clanton. "Unlike George Bush, John Kerry does not and will not support every special spending project sponsored by Halliburton and other defense contractors."

Throughout the day, Kerry hammered Bush as a divisive force helping the wealthiest Americans. The Bush campaign is pegging Kerry as a tax-raiser, while Kerry said he only wants to roll back tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

"He will beat Bush," retiree Sid Miller predicted after Kerry left the stage in West Palm Beach. "He's presidential and he's compassionate. Yes, he's got millions of dollars himself, but he cares about the average person."

Kerry predicted he and his wife would be subjected to personal attacks by the Bush campaign.

"I expect everything but I'm a fighter as you know, and I'm ready for it," he said.

Kerry also alluded to unnamed international leaders in his corner: "I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly, but boy they look at you and say, "You've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy,' things like that."

- Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727 893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com

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