In an ad for Mel Martinez, the governor blasts Betty Castor's actions in the Sami Al-Arian case.
By ANITA KUMAR and STEVE BOUSQUET
Published October 16, 2004
OCALA - Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mel Martinez got a boost Friday from Gov. Jeb Bush, who appears in a new TV ad blasting Democrat Betty Castor for her ad linking Martinez and President Bush to terrorism suspect Sami Al-Arian.
The ad, taped Thursday, began running statewide on Friday as the Senate race continued to produce charges and countercharges over the issue of terrorism.
"As university president, Betty Castor had information about suspected terrorists and did not act," Bush says in the ad. "Rather than explaining why, she's running a deceptive, negative ad, trying to shift blame with outrageous claims that I know personally aren't true."
The ad is the sixth in the general election that mentions Al-Arian, a professor who was under investigation at the University of South Florida when Castor headed the school.
Gov. Bush said Friday he volunteered to help Martinez after he saw Castor's latest ad.
That ad accuses Martinez, one of the chairmen of the president's 2000 campaign in Florida, of allowing Al-Arian to campaign with the president.
"I saw the ad on television and was outraged," Gov. Jeb Bush said. "I volunteered to do it. My motivation is that the ad is way over the top, that it attacks the integrity of a good man who will be a great senator."
Castor said she was surprised that the governor was appearing in an ad, but that it was "fair game" to question how Al-Arian was able to attend an event at the White House complex in 2000.
Castor spokesman Dan McLaughlin said he questions Gov. Bush's credibility, considering that the state gave Al-Arian's private school in Tampa $350,000 in vouchers while he was under investigation. He also questioned the governor's motives.
"Is he entering this discussion because of his role in trying to re-elect his brother in Florida?" McLaughlin said.
Castor's ad, which began airing statewide this week, uses a photo of George W. Bush and Al-Arian together at the Plant City Strawberry Festival in 2000.
Martinez was a co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Florida that year, as was Gov. Bush. Martinez says the photo was a spontaneous moment at a campaign stop, and nothing more.
Martinez has accused Castor of not being forceful enough in taking steps to remove Al-Arian from USF. But Castor has said she received limited information from the FBI at the time and that university lawyers advised her she had no right to fire a tenured professor.
Friday's ad comes at a time when polls show the governor's popularity is at an all-time high, following his aggressive and high-profile response to the four recent storms.
The governor's decision to side with Martinez also underscores the importance of the Senate race, not just to maintain a Republican majority in the Senate but to ensure Martinez helps President Bush attract more Hispanic votes.
Florida is one of a handful of states with contested Senate races that could determine whether Republicans maintain their narrow Senate majority.
Less than three weeks before the Nov. 2 election, most opinion polls show the race is a toss-up between Castor, the former state education commissioner and University of South Florida president, and Martinez, the former federal housing secretary.
A new poll of likely voters released Friday shows Castor and Martinez tied at 47 percent with 6 percent undecided. The poll of 801 people conducted Oct. 12-14 by Strategic Vision has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
On Friday, Martinez accepted an award in Tampa from the Hispanic Alliance for Progress, a group that thanked the former HUD secretary for seeking to improve the number of Hispanics who own homes in America.
In Ocala, Martinez met with members of a Veterans of Former Wars post and attended two fundraisers with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a member of the GOP Senate leadership team who's working to get Republican candidates elected.
"We desperately need some help to expand our margin in the Senate," McConnell said.
Castor touted her prescription drug plan to a group of retirees in Jacksonville, pledging to cut prices by at least 50 percent through reimporting medicine from Canada and allowing Medicare to buy drugs in bulk.
Later, she attended a fundraiser with retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Graham and state Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, at the home of Danny Ponce, a lawyer working for John Kerry in Alachua County. More than 100 people attended.
"Tonight, you are making an investment that will help me to stay on TV and compete with whoever writes checks for Mr. Martinez," she said.
Both campaigns were working late Friday to tally the amount of money they raised between Aug. 12 and Sept. 30. The results were due by midnight.
Castor's campaign released a figure that took into account money raised prior to Aug. 12. Martinez's campaign refused to release any figure at all.
"We are not going to release that," said Melissa Shuffield, a Martinez spokewoman. "It was a campaign strategy decision."
The figures will become public in a matter of days at the Federal Elections Commission.
Times researcher Cathy Wos and Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.
