With 2 strikes, McCollum takes fateful swing
Bill McCollum hopes the third time's the charm. For him, it better be.
By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published November 26, 2005
A third straight statewide defeat in 2006 will send McCollum to the political scrap heap. In Florida politics, three strikes and you're out.
Say this for the Brooksville native with the earnestness of a Boy Scout: He doesn't quit easily.
After two decades in Congress marked by high-profile assignments on crime, intelligence and President Bill Clinton's impeachment, McCollum was the consensus choice by Republican Party insiders to run for the Senate in 2000. He lost to Bill Nelson.
Last year, McCollum ran for the Senate again and lost the nomination to Mel Martinez in one of the ugliest races in memory. The McCollum haters in the Martinez camp smeared McCollum as "antifamily" and the candidate of the "radical homosexual lobby" because he favored a hate crimes bill with a sexual orientation provision.
Saddled with back-to-back losses, McCollum dropped out of sight. He said he "made a deal with myself and my wife" and took what he calls a "self-imposed sabbatical" while working as a rainmaker at an Orlando law firm, Baker & Hostetler. A month ago, he joined the three Republicans seeking to succeed Charlie Crist as attorney general.
"I don't think the stakes are such that I should sit out," McCollum says. "I would feel guilty sitting around on my hands, not making the effort to be in the room and take advantage of that."
Listed alphabetically, as they will be on the 2006 primary ballot, the field is McCollum, Rep. Joe Negron of Stuart, Rep. Everett Rice of Treasure Island and Sen. Burt Saunders of Naples. The winner will face Democratic Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell of Coral Springs in the November general election.
Clearly, McCollum sized himself up against his three rivals and liked what he saw. He will emphasize his tenure in Congress on terrorism and intelligence and his background in the U.S. Navy as a prosecutor, military judge and reservist.
Clearly, he decided (for the third time in five years) that this was a race he could win. This time, he may be right.
When McCollum's name is listed next to the three lesser-known Republicans, a silver lining emerges: The name is familiar.
In a critically important but down-ballot race certain to be overshadowed by contests for governor and senator, candidates spend most of their time raising money to buy TV ads in the final two weeks.
Bill McCollum has the name. He might be a two-time loser, but he's a known quantity to most voters. He still needs money for TV, but what experts call his "residual name ID" could be a powerful advantage.
McCollum's opponents will have to spend as much as $2-million to get their names as well known as his. It won't be easy. Sadly, many voters will studiously ignore this race.
Because McCollum's Republican opponents are so obscure, they will have to spend most of their money promoting themselves, leaving scarce resources to attack McCollum, the presumed front-runner at this early stage.
In spring, while McCollum is crisscrossing the state collecting checks, his opponents in the Legislature will be closeted in the Capitol, prohibited from raising money while they are in session.
McCollum does face big obstacles. Both Crist and his predecessor, Bob Butterworth, sought to reshape the attorney general's post as a champion of consumers - a strategy that is even more popular now after the hurricanes that are driving up insurance and utility costs. When McCollum was in Congress, he often sided with businesses against consumers. In his first Senate race in 2000, Nelson pummeled him for siding with banks and credit unions on issues involving the privacy of individual consumers' information.
Because McCollum has a record of opposition to abortion and now seeks to be the chief legal officer of the state, swing voters, especially women, will want to know how far he thinks the state should go in opposing abortion rights.
There's a perception out there that McCollum's bid for attorney general is positioning, to get himself in line to run for the Senate again in 2010. Not so, he says.
"I can't look at anything except this office. At my stage in my life, I'm not looking for something in the future. I'm looking at now," the 61-year-old lawyer says.
For McCollum, it's now or never.
--Steve Bousquet is the capital bureau chief of the Times. He can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com or 850 224-7263.