Election 2004

Senate hopeful Klayman enlists Flowers, once a thorn to Clinton

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published July 1, 2004

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's U.S. Senate race has a little of everything: a dozen candidates, two self-financed millionaire neophytes and Al Gore calling a fellow Democrat "treacherous and dishonest."

Now you can add Gennifer Flowers, a nightclub singer-turned-state bureaucrat who burst from the pages of a tabloid in 1992 with a claim that she was Bill Clinton's mistress while he was governor of Arkansas.

Clinton went on 60 Minutes on Super Bowl Sunday, where he talked around questions of infidelity. But he finished a strong second in the New Hampshire primary. The rest is history.

Republican Senate candidate Larry Klayman, a lawyer and founder of Judicial Watch who criticizes the Clintons in stump speeches, will accompany Flowers, a former client, to a fundraising "boat tour" in Miami and stops in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in late July.

"Gennifer Flowers is a public figure and she's a former client of Larry's," said David E. Johnson, Klayman's spokesman. "People are aware of who she is. She's been one of the harshest critics of the Clintons."

So is Klayman, who fires up partisan Republican crowds by calling Bill and Hillary Clinton "the Bonnie and Clyde of American politics."

Johnson said Flowers, who owns a nightclub in New Orleans, also has agreed to record radio commercials for Klayman to be aired in Florida cities. He said the campaign considered but dropped the idea of having Flowers sign copies of the former president's new book, My Life.

"Gennifer thought it might be in a little poor taste," Johnson said.

[Last modified July 1, 2004, 01:00:36]