Doug Gallagher increases his personal stake in the GOP primary to almost $5-million.
By ANITA KUMAR
Published August 17, 2004
Doug Gallagher, a wealthy software developer from Coral Gables, contributed another $1.3-million of his own money to his U.S. Senate campaign Monday, bringing his total donations to $4.9-million.
It is a personal stake that appears to be unmatched in the history of Florida politics.
Gallagher will begin airing television ads today across Florida as he tries to court voters before the winner-take-all Republican primary Aug. 31.
"This is it. It's game on," said Richard Pinsky, a Gallagher consultant. "We broke out of the pack and started our sprint."
Gallagher's personal contributions, along with the $300,000 he has raised, bring his total to $5.2-million - an amount that exceeds any other candidate in the crowded race to replace retiring Sen. Bob Graham.
His past donations already had triggered the so-called "millionaire's amendment," a part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that allows other candidates to increase to $6,000 the amount of money they can receive from individuals in the primary.
The latest donation appears to allow the other Republicans to start accepting $12,000 from individual contributors, six times the normal limit.
Gallagher faces six other Republicans, including former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum of Longwood, former U.S. Housing Secretary Mel Martinez, state House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and Miami lawyer Larry Klayman.
"Doug Gallagher's checkbook is no match for Mel's broad base of grass roots support from all of Florida's 67 counties," said Jennifer Coxe, a spokeswoman for the Martinez campaign. "On Aug. 31, Doug Gallagher will learn that the U.S. Senate seat isn't for rent."
Under the law, designed to prevent a wealthy candidate from overwhelming his opponents with personal money, a self-funded candidate is required to notify opponents within 24 hours of making a personal contribution of more than $10,000. Gallagher has not done that yet.
"Money alone doesn't win elections," said David E. Johnson, a Klayman spokesman. "We're not intimidated by this. Voters think someone is trying to buy the election and they resent that."
Gallagher, 55, says he is worth more than $50-million. He owns Gallagher Financial Systems, which markets software used in home mortgage applications. In his stump speech, Gallagher talks about borrowing $14,000 from a 401(k) in 1985 to start the company. He says it did $30-million in sales last year.
He has never held public office, but his last name is familiar to Florida voters. His older brother is Tom Gallagher, Florida's chief financial officer, who has held three statewide elected Cabinet offices, run fo r governor twice and is expected to do it again in 2006.
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. In 1986, then-Democrat Jim Smith spent about $1.2-million on a losing bid for governor.
Michael Bloomberg spent $70-million of his own money to capture the job of mayor of New York City in 2001.
Gallagher's ads began running Monday night on Miami's Spanish-language television. He spent $1.3-million on a three-week run of ads that started in late June in most markets, including the Tampa Bay area.
His ads use the Sorcerer's Apprentice from the score of Disney's Fantasia to show "senators," played by actors, walking in single file into a puddle of water.
"They talk the same, they walk the same, they are the same," the narrator says.
Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.[Last modified August 17, 2004, 00:03:17]
