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Chiles can't run in 2006 for governor

The former governor's son exits the race, saying he won't fight a residency provision he overlooked.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published March 2, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Lawton "Bud" Chiles dreamed of following his father's famous footsteps to the Governor's Mansion, but he stumbled over the Florida Constitution.

Chiles abruptly ended his brief campaign Tuesday, days after learning of a constitutional provision requiring a governor to be a Florida resident for the past seven years. The 52-year-old namesake of former Gov. Lawton Chiles lived in New York and New Jersey for a decade before moving back to Florida two years ago.

"This constitutional provision does apply to me," Chiles said in his final campaign speech, "and the governor has to uphold the Constitution. I don't seek to go around the Constitution. I don't seek to make some Mickey Mouse case about where I lived."

Chiles, who started campaigning in January, planned to copy his father's legendary 1,000-mile walk from the Panhandle to the Keys, which catapulted a then-obscure state senator from Lakeland to the U.S. Senate and to two terms as governor. Known as "Walkin' Lawton," the elder Chiles died in 1998, weeks before the end of his second term as governor.

Bud Chiles planned to limit contributions to $250 and refuse political action committee money. But he said that challenging the Constitution was inconsistent with the kind of race he wanted to run.

He folded his tent at a Ramada Inn at a meeting of the Florida Alliance of Retired Americans, where he gave a farewell laced with frustration about failing to meet a fundamental test of qualifications.

"If that is the test, then I failed that test," said Chiles, who lived more than 40 years in Florida. "But I don't think anybody would question whether I'm a Floridian."

Some in the audience were astounded to hear that someone with the name Lawton Chiles would fail a basic residency requirement.

"It's absurd," said B.J. Elder IV of Jacksonville.

"I'm sorry to hear that," said LaVaunne Miller, chairwoman of the Pasco County Democratic Party.

The residency requirement, known as the carpetbagger provision, has been in the Constitution since 1885. It was changed from five years to seven after the modern Constitution was adopted in 1968.

Chiles said he learned about the provision last week in a late-night call from Joe Geller, a South Florida lawyer, Democratic activist and supporter.

Geller said he was reminded of the rule after reading a brief item in the Miami Herald about former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, who has Florida ties but decided he couldn't run for governor because he lives in Virginia.

Geller said he urged Chiles to challenge the provision in court.

"I don't think it should apply here," Geller said. "I think that he would have been okay on this, because clearly, for one thing, he's not who this is designed to keep out."

Chiles was born in South Carolina, where his father was stationed in the Army. He owned a Tallahassee hotel while he lived out of state and paid property taxes.

The hotel is the Governor's Inn.

Chiles, who runs a coastal development company in Orlando, left Florida in 1993 to be a vice president of Hope Worldwide, a charity that provides education and health care for the poor abroad. For most of that time he lived in Ridgewood, N.J.

"If I could have stayed a Florida resident I would have, because you pay about 10 times the tax up there that you pay down here," Chiles said.

His withdrawal means less competition for other Democrats who want to be governor. Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa and state Sen. Rod Smith of Alachua are in the race, and state Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox and Betty Castor, the party's unsuccessful 2004 U.S. Senate nominee, are considering running.

A recent poll by Quinnipiac University showed Chiles the second-most popular Democrat for governor behind Castor, based largely on name recognition.

Chiles complained that a handbook he got from the state elections office when he filed to run in January gave a thorough review of the elections code but did not mention residency.

"They are required to know the requirements of the office they are running for," said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood.

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 2, 2005, 00:48:07]