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Gallagher's public side evolves through wife's faith

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published January 14, 2006

For Tom Gallagher, running for governor is an all-consuming job. But there are limits.

He laid down the law with a campaign staff that wants him 24/7: It can forget any Monday night events.

"Monday night is date night," he says.

That's Gallagher-speak for a cardinal rule. His wife, Laura, gets him Monday nights, then spends much of the week as a single mother with their son, Charlie, while Gallagher is on the road campaigning.

"I've had to tell them all along, "Unless you want a single, homeless candidate, Monday night is date night. Got it, guys?' " Gallagher says. "I think then they understood I was serious about it."

Gallagher, the chief financial officer who turns 62 next month, is chasing his dream of becoming governor for the fourth time. But this is his first bid since he married Laura Wilson, a former cable-TV industry lawyer, eight years ago.

When Gallagher is challenged on the evolution of his positions on abortion, gay marriage, vouchers and the courts - hot-button issues in which some see a drift to the right - he cites marriage and fatherhood as the reasons why.

How that changed Gallagher, and its obvious comparison with rival Charlie Crist, who is unmarried with no children, could make this race unique: a Republican primary in which the marital status of the candidates could be a defining issue for some voters. So Gallagher hopes.

Gallagher was Florida's insurance commissioner when he met Laura through a mutual friend, Pete Dunbar, the lawyer-lobbyist and former Pinellas lawmaker. Gallagher says Laura rebuffed his initial requests for a date, but he persisted.

"The sale begins when the customer says no," the former mortgage insurance executive joked.

Gallagher is Catholic and Laura is Baptist and a born-again Christian, he says, and she's "pretty straightforward, pretty solid in her beliefs." She is on leave from her job at the powerhouse law-lobbying firm of Greenberg Traurig, where she is of counsel and specializes in telecommunications issues.

Charlie is being raised Baptist and attends Baptist Bible study classes. Gallagher says that while his wife has gotten him to go to his church more often than he used to, in most cases they still attend separate services.

"She hasn't gotten me to be a Baptist yet, I can tell you that," Gallagher said.

Over Christmas, the Gallaghers mailed out one of those holiday letters to friends, signed by Laura. In it, she wrote: "We rely on our faith and the strength of our family each day."

Gallagher says he has always considered himself a conservative, but dislikes political labels. When he last ran for governor in 1994, in a race in which Jeb Bush staked out the right, Gallagher said he was prochoice, favored a penny sales tax increase for more prisons (subject to voter approval), and wanted the state to keep records of gun sales.

He lost in the primary.

In 2006, he is "prolife," supports repeal of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973, and supported government intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

"My personal positions probably haven't changed. My public position has, probably," he said. "I wasn't much of a standup person in what I personally believed, and I think that's probably where Laura has a lot to do with it."

He said Laura told him: " "You know, if that's where you are, then that's where you need to be, not sort of hiding from it.' So she was right, and I was wrong."

Gallagher claims to have always been a conservative, and in 1986 he often sounded like one, calling for no new taxes, cuts in state spending and competency tests for teachers. But he also questioned whether the death penalty was a deterrent to crime, and called the $25,000 homestead exemption "one of the worst things that happened to urban counties."

"I've always said, you give me the issue, and I'll tell you where I stand on it. And you call me whatever you want," Gallagher says.

Gallagher will be called a lot of things before this race is over. The one label he will seek to avoid at all costs is "moderate."

Asked why he wants to be governor, he cited "the challenge of governing," then quickly turned to his 7-year-old son and the kind of Florida he will find when he gets out of college. "Life changes when you have kids. I can just tell you that," Gallagher says.

[Last modified January 14, 2006, 01:38:14]