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STEVE BOUSQUETRepublican Karen Saull bankrolls name recognition and a game of catchup among her opponents for Senate.
TALLAHASSEE - Karen Saull, a Vero Beach businesswoman and the mystery candidate for U.S. Senate, is starting her campaign with $4.9-million of her money - a personal stake unmatched in the history of Florida politics.
Saull, who has declined interview requests and skipped several Republican forums, will spend some of that money on a television ad campaign beginning today.
The content of those ads, like most everything else in Saull's secretive campaign, was still under wraps Tuesday. Campaign adviser Rick Wilson confirmed that ads would start today in several markets and that her actions would force her rivals to spend even more time raising money to stay competitive on television.
"We are going to run an extremely competitive campaign in every corner of the state," Wilson said. "The other candidates are not going to be able to unburden themselves of the daily grind of begging for money."
While others, such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine, have spent tens of millions of personal money on political campaigns, Saull is at the forefront of a new trend in Florida.
She refuses to take campaign contributions from individuals, and her potential personal investment is already nearly twice as much as the $2.6-million that Republican Senate candidate Doug Gallagher has spent on his largely self-funded campaign.
Gallagher's infusion of personal money triggered the so-called millionaire's amendment under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, and allows other candidates to triple, to $6,000, the amount of money they can receive from individuals in the primary.
Republican Mel Martinez sent out a fundraising pitch this week that noted the spending by Saull and Gallagher of Coral Gables. Though both have very low poll numbers, Martinez said, "With this kind of funding, the poll numbers could change quickly."
Saull, 46, a former banker, is the wife of Jeffrey Saull, who made a fortune selling office chairs to Wal-Marts and candles to Target stores. He began a statewide ballot initiative that could double the Florida homestead exemption to $50,000, and she donated $1.1-million to the campaign, called Families for Lower Property Taxes.
The Saulls' businesses are entangled in numerous lawsuits with former partners, suppliers and customers, including a $1-billion lawsuit against Wal-Mart for allegedly colluding with competitors to steal the Saulls' business.
Saull filed a document with the Federal Election Commission on May 24, declaring her intention to spend personal funds totaling $4,887,220. That is more than the combined total raised through March by the two leading fundraisers in the Republican primary, House Speaker Johnnie Byrd ($2.4-million) and former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum ($2.3-million).
Wilson called the figure a "good-faith estimate" of how much personal money Saull plans to spend on her campaign.
Some other Florida candidates have tried to use personal wealth as a springboard to public office, without success. In 1970, Jack Eckerd spent $1.8-million of his money on a bid for the Republican nomination for governor - a sum that, adjusted for inflation, exceeds Saull's initial investment. In 1986, then-Democrat Jim Smith spent about $1.2-million on a losing bid for governor, according to published reports.
U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch of Hollywood, a Democratic Senate candidate, has put $750,000 of his own money into his 2004 campaign.
Despite her riches, Saull starts out as an unknown, far behind her Republican opponents in name recognition. The primary is less than nine weeks away and will be dominated by activists who closely follow Republican politics.
Many of those so-called super-voters have never heard of Saull, but she's banking almost entirely on the power of 30-second TV ads to bring instant credibility. Florida, with 10 TV markets, is one of the most expensive states in the country for campaign advertising.
Saull's spending is paltry by nationwide standards. Bloomberg spent $70-million of his own money to capture the job of mayor of New York City in 2001, eclipsing the previous record of $63-million that Corzine spent in winning a New Jersey Senate seat in 2000.
Still, Richard Pinsky, an adviser to Gallagher, calls Saull "the X-factor" in the Republican primary.
Saull's campaign Web site, www.saullforsenate.com has been up for about a week, featuring a biography, issue papers and photos of a smiling Saull with former President George Bush and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, among others.
A self-described "businesswoman, charity activist and Florida's first Republican Jewish woman" to run for the Senate, she vows to donate her entire Senate salary to charity. Born in Boston and raised near Birmingham, Ala., she says she converted to Judaism before marrying her husband in 1993.
Her unorthodox candidacy will do more than shatter all records for personal money in a statewide Florida race. It also will kindle a debate over whether candidates should be allowed to attempt to "buy" a seat.
Saull is one of eight Republicans seeking the GOP nomination. The others are Gallagher, Byrd, McCollum, Ormond Beach real estate broker Billy Kogut, St. Petersburg lawyer Sonya March and former U.S. Housing Secretary Martinez.
The winner of the most votes in the Aug. 31 primary will win the nomination and face the Democratic nominee in November.
CANDIDATES USING THEIR OWN MONEYMICHAEL BLOOMBERG: The Republican billionaire spent $69-million in his successful 2001 bid to become New York City's mayor.
JON CORZINE: New Jersey Democrat invested more than $60-million when he won his Senate seat in 2000.
STEVE FORBES: In campaigns for president in 1996 and 2000, the Republican spent about $66-million, combined.
- Times files, BBC