Election 2004
STEVE BOUSQUET
By Candidates toil in obscurity
Published August 15, 2004
ORLANDO - Fame is fleeting for Florida's U.S. Senate candidates.
For one hour last Tuesday night, four Republicans dominated the airwaves in their only live debate on network TV. In a TV studio afterward, they basked in the heady glow of TV lights and microphones.
By the next morning, Bill McCollum, Mel Martinez & Co. were back where they usually are, as background noise on radio and TV newscasts.
The biggest story Wednesday on Orlando's TV stations wasn't Bill and Mel. It was Bonnie and Charley, the two storms heading toward Florida, as it should have been.
If nothing else, the lack of attention should be a lesson in humility for an ambitious pack of senatorial wannabes.
Florida is the largest state in the nation with an open Senate seat this year. The eventual winner in November will be one of the state's dominant political figures. The next senator may tip the balance of power in a closely divided Senate, and may yet cast a deciding vote on a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
For those who care to watch, it's a fascinating contest, on both sides.
Can McCollum hold off Martinez's charge and wreck the best efforts of the White House and Washington insiders to nominate their favorite? Or can Martinez emerge in position to become the first Cuban-American to serve in the Senate?
On the Democratic side, has time passed Betty Castor by? Or can she make an impressive return to statewide politics by holding off a determined U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch?
Can Doug Gallagher, the wealthy and inexperienced newcomer with a familiar name, pull an upset with his millions and his businessman-not-a-politician message?
Where will Johnnie Byrd's votes come from? And at whose expense?
Questions abound. But with less than three weeks until both parties pick nominees, an eerie quiet hovers over the race. Local contests for sheriff or county commission are generating more interest around the state.
Perhaps most telling of all, the Senate candidates are depending heavily on those regional races to drive up the turnout and help them. They know they can't attract a large turnout by themselves.
Even with the surge in absentee and early voting, the election is sure to sneak up on many voters: The date is Aug. 31, before Labor Day, not afterward as in past years.
When the primaries are over, the race will be a sharp contrast of vision, one closely tied to the presidential race between George W. Bush and John Kerry.
With seven Republicans and four Democrats, the Senate race is unusually crowded. But most candidates have little statewide name recognition. Try as they might, they have much more in common than what divides them.
The Republicans fight over limits on embryonic stem cell research, and whether a $250,000 limit on malpractice damage awards is better than a $500,000 cap. The Democrats disagree on Castor's handling of the case of a suspected terrorist when she ran the University of South Florida.
Contrary to perceptions, the race has attracted lots of coverage, too much of it still focusing on the horse race - who's up, who's down.
The candidates spend so much time raising money, it often isn't worth reporters' time to follow them around on the road. A typical day is a press conference, followed by a round of fundraising phone calls, a TV interview, more phone calls, a fundraiser (usually private) and more phone calls.
But even if the Senate primaries were much livelier, it would still be obscured by a presidential campaign in which both contenders are focusing more than ever on Florida.
At a time when Floridians appear highly polarized on their choice for president, it may simply be not that interesting for party-line voters to choose among their favorite Senate candidates.
"It feels like Halloween in Florida, because all the focus is on the presidential race. It's all people talk about," said Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, one of the Democrats who wants to be senator. "It's very frustrating. People are not focused on this race."
Frustrating, maybe. But unusual? Sadly, no.
"You have a lot of relatively unknown people in the race," observes Bill Miller, national political director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, who has family ties to Florida. "There's no governor or statewide official in the race, that everybody really knows."
A ho-hum primary election for a Florida Senate seat is nothing new.
In August 1970, a reporter spent two days cruising around North Florida, searching in vain for signs of public interest in a U.S. Senate race with some parallels to this one. It was a crowded field of Democrats, back in the days when that party dominated statewide politics.
But in 1970, there were no tracking polls or focus groups. So Hank Drane of The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville went to Bronson, Lake City and Macclenny, searching for voters with fixed opinions on who should replace Spessard Holland in Washington.
Instead, he met A.L. Finley, a city commissioner who sounded a little ashamed of himself. "It's a shame," Finley told the newspaper. "I'm in politics, and can't even name all the Senate candidates. There just isn't any interest."
That was the year a new face literally walked his way to the U.S. Senate. Lawton Chiles prevailed over four Democratic rivals and beat Republican Bill Cramer of St. Petersburg in November. Chiles was a senator for 18 years, followed by eight more as governor, and today is firmly entrenched as a political icon in Florida.
So there. A primary campaign for a Senate seat, being Round One, may not captivate voters' attention. But it sure can lead to big things.
Steve Bousquet is the Times' deputy capital bureau chief.
[Last modified August 14, 2004, 00:24:12]
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Election 2004STEVE BOUSQUET
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