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Gathering reveals Democratic split

In his quest to be governor, Jim Davis enjoys the old guard's support. But younger party members embrace Rod Smith.

By ADAM C. SMITH
Published December 11, 2005

LAKE BUENA VISTA - They may agree on most issues, but Florida's two Democratic gubernatorial candidates on Saturday showed striking contrasts as they tried to rev up some 2000 Democratic activists.

U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, the nominal front-runner, bounded onstage at the state Democratic conference to join faces from a bygone era when Democrats consistently won statewide elections.

There was Sen. Bob Graham, comparing the Tampa congressman to old Democratic icons like himself, Lawton Chiles, and former Gov. Reubin Askew. Rhea Chiles, the late Walkin' Lawton's wife, presented Davis with a pair of L.L. Bean boots and her surprise endorsement.

"Jim's a lot like Lawton and a lot like Bob Graham, and I know Jim's the man to carry on their legacy," she said.

But state Sen. Rod Smith said Democrats need to try something new to stop losing.

"I know we can win. You here, you've worked so hard, you've sacrificed so much, you've been disappointed so often. We're not going to settle again for the predictable, the same old approach, the same old kind of message. We're not going to squander a chance for victory this time," the former Gainesville-area prosecutor thundered.

Amid a sea of inflatable Jim Davis noisemakers and "I'm on the Rod Squad" lapel stickers touting the two centrist Democrats, Davis and Smith, an underlying division was generational.

Smith won election to the state Senate just five years ago, while Davis has been in the Legislature and Congress for 17 years. In the battle of endorsements, for instance, most elected officials who have been working in Tallahassee in recent years are backing Smith, while Davis is reeling in most of the party's bigger, and older, names.

"It's the old Democratic Party of Florida vs. the new," said Chris Korge, a prominent South Florida fundraiser backing Smith. "It's going to come down to whether or not Democrats believe they can win with the same kind of package they've been running for the last eight or 10 years."

That Chiles-Graham aura can be mighty potent to party stalwarts, though.

"He's got all of the good people behind him. He's going to win," Elsie Saunders, 86, of Lake County said of Davis. "When I found out that Bob Graham endorsed him, I knew he was the right man."

Rank and file activists from across the state converged at Disney's Contemporary Resort to size up state candidates and several prospective future presidential candidates, including former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Govs. Tom Vilsack of Iowa and Mark Warner of Virginia, and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Grim public opinion polls for national Republicans, Florida Democrats hope, will help boost Democrats at all levels.

"I think we have a chance because the Republicans are being so helpful," said Elsa Lentz, 77, of Bradenton. "But we have to pull ourselves together. The message is there, but it has to be more succinct."

The conference is an annual spectacle where party stalwarts get to wear silly hats, sign stem cell research or draft Hillary Clinton petitions, watch people move in and out of assorted private fundraising receptions, and cheer red meat partisan speeches. Some consistent themes: Terri Schiavo, a hunger across America for more of a sense of community, the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, mishandling of Iraq, Florida's poor school rankings and fixation with FCAT tests, ethical lapses in Tallahassee and Washington.

"This week Republicans pushed forward and passed one of the most sweeping lobbyist reform bills in the nation - bringing increased government transparency to Florida," state GOP chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan said in a statement. "It's ironic that only Democrats voted against increasing such ethics laws - and then proceeded to Orlando to tout their integrity on the matter."

Except for the gubernatorial primary, party leaders wary about scarce campaign money succeeded in avoiding tough and expensive primary battles for the statewide offices. The three Democrats running for down-ballot statewide races - Miami lawyer Eric Copeland for agriculture and consumer services commissioner, former bank executive Alex Sink of Thonotosassa for chief financial officer and state Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell of Coral Springs for attorney general - stressed their commitment to consumers.

Sink stressed her 25 years in the banking field and promised to be a financial watchdog for taxpayers.

"I am going to protect consumers," Sink said. "I am angry about the financial and ethical lapses at Citizens Property Insurance Company. As your CFO, I'm going to work hard to ensure that consumers have a healthy, strong and competitive insurance market."

Campbell, a plaintiffs' lawyer worth more than $10-million, tossed aside his prepared speech, and talked off the cuff about his blue-collar Catholic roots. As the first member of his family to go to college, he worked his way through the University of Florida by managing an Arby's restaurant.

Campbell said he would be "a people's lawyer" protecting consumers from corporations.

"I have represented people that needed legal representation - poor people - against gasoline companies, and won," Campbell told the crowd. "We have taken on the tobacco industry, and won."

Among the gubernatorial hopefuls, Davis appeared to have more supporters at the conference than Smith. But both sides had fervent supporters.

After hearing both speak, 80-year-old Ray Chote of Key West slipped off his Jim Davis sticker.

"I think maybe I would vote for Smith rather than Davis. He just seemed like an ordinary guy."

Smith has a reputation for working with and crafting compromises with Republicans, and some liberals dismiss him as "Republican lite." But in calling for Florida to let gay couples adopt foster children, bashing the governor's plan to revamp Medicaid in Florida and touting his long ties to labor unions, he sounded like many traditional liberal candidates.

"The FCAT," Smith said, as the crowd booed the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. "Designed to be a diagnostic tool for teachers, it's being used to undermine our public schools and tell 8-year-olds they're failures."

Davis, dismissed by critics as too bland, gave a thundering speech, reminding the crowd, "I stood up to Tom Delay when he tried to play politics with the tragic life of Terri Schiavo. . . . I have yet to meet a Floridian with a living will that says at the end of my life call Tom Delay or the governor."

Tallahassee Bureau Chief Steve Bousquet contributed to this report. Adam C. Smith can be reached at 727893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 11, 2005, 02:38:06]