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Politics

Why did Tom Lee falter in CFO bid?

Sink's resume didn't tell the entire story.

By ALISA ULFERTS
Published November 12, 2006

In the end, Tom Lee may have lacked the one thing all the Republican election machinery couldn't give him: another X chromosome.

Lee, the Republican state Senate president, lost his bid to become the next chief financial officer to Democrat Alex Sink, a retired banker and wife of 2002 gubernatorial hopeful Bill McBride.

The largely low-profile race was expected to be very close, as well as a test of which Election Day phenomenon gives a candidate a greater edge: the GOP get-out-the-vote grind or the female factor, a.k.a., the historical advantage of women in so-called down-ballot races.

Had the race been closer, that question might still be largely unanswered. But in a state that sends two Republicans for every Democrat to the state House, the fact that Sink's margin of victory - 7.4 points - was larger than the margin in the two other statewide races considered competitive has observers noting the boost that being female can give to a well-qualified candidate.

"In a down-ballot race, you really need something to distinguish yourself," said political strategist Todd Harris, who worked on Gov. Jeb Bush's 2002 re-election campaign against Sink's husband. Being female in a male-dominated field instantly sets a candidate apart before she can even discuss her platform, Harris said.

But like other observers, Harris is quick to note Sink didn't win simply because she's female. Her resume - Sink is a former Florida president of Bank of America - and her promises to bring nonpartisan accountability to Tallahassee won the race, even if being female accounted for the point spread.

Even Lee agreed with that.

"I think her business resume gave her credibility," Lee said Tuesday night after he conceded the race. And her lack of a public service record made it difficult for his campaign to dispute Sink's claims to be a centrist. But being female helped her, Lee said.

"I think a female candidate in these modern times is ... a very attractive thing for the political environment. There aren't enough women in politics," Lee said.

Sink didn't make her gender a focus of her campaign, though she did make note of being a mother from time to time. In fact, she didn't campaign using her formal, female name, Adelaide. Instead, her boyish nickname Alex appeared in her campaign and on the ballot.

But Lee didn't lose simply because Sink won. He actively contributed to his own loss, political observers say. Unlike the other Republicans who won Tuesday - Gov.-elect Charlie Crist, Attorney General-elect Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson - Lee had never run for statewide office before.

"The other Republicans who won all had name ID; they'd done this before," Harris said.

Lee failed to get but a handful of newspaper editorial endorsements, which tend to carry more weight in lesser known races. He was susceptible to Sink's hammering on the property insurance mess and her claims that he did too little to fix it as Senate president.

And Lee had burned some bridges. He made little secret of the disdain he sometimes felt for Crist, and some Republicans were holding their breath over the possibility that the two men could sit on the state Cabinet together.

And Lee's efforts - highly praised at the time by newspaper editorial boards across the state - to rein in the influence of lobbyists in Tallahassee didn't help him at fundraising. Lee's criticisms of the lobbying corps was often taken personally by the business interests those lobbyists represented, said veteran lobbyist and political observer Ken Plante.

"I know he always thought he was bad-mouthing the lobbyists, but what he was doing was bad-mouthing their clients. Because the lobbyists do what the business clients want," Plante said.

So, what now for Lee? The Valrico Republican said he is going to return to his children and his home building business. He never says never, but also says don't look for him to run for public office again anytime soon.

"I'm going to take a little hiatus and just reflect," Lee said.

Times Staff Writer Aaron Sharockman contributed to this report.

[Last modified November 12, 2006, 00:49:49]