Election 2004

Deutsch, Moore upstage Castor

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published July 29, 2004

BOSTON - Two U.S. Senate candidates used starkly different approaches Wednesday to curry favor with party activists at the Democratic National Convention.

Betty Castor arrived with an Army captain who will depart soon for Iraq, to press her support for more money and equipment for America's soldiers. But they were upstaged a short while later when Rep. Peter Deutsch, D-Hollywood, joined filmmaker Michael Moore at the podium at a Florida delegates breakfast.

As the room erupted, the maker of Fahrenheit 9/11 stood alongside Deutsch and Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, who appears early in the movie, demanding a congressional investigation of the disputed 2000 election. Deutsch also called for an investigation.

"I will be in Florida," Moore announced to wild applause. "We will guarantee to every Floridian that their vote will be counted this year."

Moore said "an army of lawyers will be poll-watchers" at every precinct in Florida, to ensure that no one would be prevented from voting.

Castor, the former USF president and state education commissioner, introduced delegates to Patrick McNamara, a 29-year-old West Point graduate whose mother lives in Tampa.

McNamara, a statewide co-chairman of Veterans for Castor, was supposed to enter Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in the fall. But he has been ordered to report Aug. 31 for a tour of duty in Iraq.

"My job will be made easier knowing that a fellow veteran like Sen. (John) Kerry and a leader like Betty Castor ... will be fighting for those soldiers I will lead," McNamara told delegates.

In this intensely partisan, high-energy crowd, Deutsch's outrage trumped Castor's more measured presentation.

Moore did not endorse Deutsch, but he came close. "I encourage all Florida voters to take a good look at congressman Deutsch as the man of courage," Moore told reporters.

A third Democratic Senate hopeful, Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, will speak to Florida's 200-plus delegates and their spouses today.

[Last modified July 28, 2004, 23:58:22]