Martinez back as civic leader

The former governor is aiding Tampa General Hospital and works as a chamber leader and Bush adviser.

[Times photo: Fraser Hale] Ex-Gov. Bob Martinez speaks Thursday at a meeting of a chamber of commerce task force trying to help solve Tampa General Hospital's financial problems.

By DAVID KARP

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 28, 2000

TAMPA -- He had been mayor of Tampa, governor of Florida, and federal drug czar, but Bob Martinez was an invisible man as he sat earlier this year in Tallahassee's airport. No one seemed to know him. No one said hello, even in a political town where lobbyists make a living recognizing faces.

Now, a decade after leaving the Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee, Martinez is getting noticed again.

All of a sudden, he is leading the charge to try to assist Tampa General Hospital, taking on the time-consuming task of being chairman-elect of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and quietly advising Gov. Jeb Bush on local issues and political appointments.

There is even some talk that he might run for mayor of Tampa again. Martinez quickly dismisses that notion.

"I am not living in the past," Martinez said, as he looked out at the Tampa skyline from his office on Harbour Island. "I really don't miss it."

At 65, Martinez has begun to enjoy his role as an elder statesman. As managing director of governmental consulting at the Carlton, Fields law firm, Martinez no longer has to walk the halls, lobbying legislators, as he did for the Hillsborough County teachers union in the 1970s. He can be choosy about the social invitations he accepts, and he lends his name to political campaigns only if he knows the candidate personally.

"I think he is having a great time," said Brian Ballard, a lawyer who was chief of staff when Martinez was governor. "I think he is enjoying more financial success than he ever probably dreamed of and the ability to play a role as senior statesman in the community."

After electing him mayor twice, Tampa voters cooled toward Martinez when he ran for governor in 1986. Many considered the lifelong Democrat a turncoat for switching to the Republican Party and turning his back on the teachers union he once led. Although he won the governor's race, he lost in Tampa and even lost in West Tampa, the Democratic stronghold where he grew up.

When Lawton Chiles defeated Martinez after one term, Martinez went to Washington as President George Bush's drug czar. But he had a rocky tenure. The Washington Post reported he used office stationery to route political funds to help re-elect President Bush. Many members of Congress considered Martinez a lightweight appointed because of his connections to Bush.

"Where is he?" Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., asked in 1992. "If you told me that he quit six months ago, I wouldn't argue with you."

When Martinez came home from Washington, he moved back into his modest house in Sunset Park and kept a low profile. He was seldom quoted in the newspapers or seen on TV. He worked quietly as an international trade consultant.

But Martinez's profile began to rise two years ago when Jeb Bush was elected governor. Martinez had appointed Bush commerce secretary in 1987, and many other Republicans now in power had gotten their first taste of public office thanks to Martinez.

"We had no experienced people," said former state Republican Party chairman Tom Slade. "That four-year term gave us a farm team that has really, really been of enormous assistance."

Slade estimated that Martinez raised more than $1-million for Bush's gubernatorial campaign and another $1-million for the presidential campaign of Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

"You don't do that without an enormous commitment," Slade said.

Today, Martinez can get Jeb Bush on the telephone when he needs him. The governor also relies on Martinez for advice.

"He is a very key adviser," said Al Hoffman, a real estate developer and Republican fundraiser.

"I know Bob Martinez is one of the numbers that the governor calls," said Margie Kincaid, Hillsborough Republican Party chairwoman. "He knows a lot of influential people, and he knows what buttons to push and what numbers to call."

Martinez says he rarely asks for help for himself or his clients. Instead, he spends his days dialing for dollars for his alma mater, the University of Tampa, where he is a trustee, or for charities like the Hillsborough Education Foundation. He also tutors on Friday at Oak Grove Middle School in the Wellswood neighborhood of north Tampa.

Most days, he gets up about 5 a.m., stops by different coffee shops to chat with neighborhood friends, and arrives at work around 7:15. During lunch, he makes telephone calls for charities, and heads home around 6 or 7 p.m. Most nights, he and his wife, Mary Jane, attend some sort of social gathering downtown or in South Tampa, he said.

He still tries to play tennis on Saturdays at a friend's tennis court or at the Avila Golf & Country Club, and reserves some time each weekend for his four grandchildren.

Martinez had not planned to take on a role at the chamber of commerce, but then former chairman Ike Tribble called and asked for his help.

"I said, "Gosh, that's a lot of commitment,' " Martinez recalled. Still, he agreed. "I always loved the chamber," he said.

In the 1970s, the chamber and people Martinez met through Cafe Sevilla, a West Tampa restaurant he bought after leaving the teachers union, formed the base of his support for his successful 1979 bid for mayor.

Through the chamber, Martinez again finds himself involved in helping Tampa General Hospital survive financially, an issue he worked on when he was mayor.

Martinez's approach to solving TGH's problems fits his style: He gathers facts, consults all sides, and then makes a decision.

"He is task-oriented," said George Pennington, one of Martinez's top mayoral advisers who now runs the MacDonald Training Center. "He knows how to get from point A to point B. He knows how to delegate and how to follow through."

In person, Martinez, a handsome man with sapphire blue eyes, comes across as formal. He tends to wear cuff links and dark suits. His speech is clipped, he carefully measures each syllable, as though he is addressing a classroom.

His voice, a Southern accent with a blend of Latin, reveals his roots in working-class West Tampa.

Unlike Mayor Dick Greco, who is emotional, spontaneous and loves to hug people, Martinez as a campaigner was dull. Lou Frey, his Republican opponent in 1986, described him as a numbers-crunching technocrat. The label stuck.

Despite the label, Martinez continues with his same businesslike approach when he discusses the hospital's fate. Martinez says he alone can't persuade the Legislature or Gov. Bush to give TGH the tax support it says it deserves.

"I think he will listen to the community," Martinez said of Bush. "This is a community effort. It needs to be supported by the community."

Even so, Martinez's presence may reassure Republicans who might otherwise be reluctant to help. Martinez says he doesn't want to give the hospital an unfair advantage in the marketplace. He wants the state to pay for essential but money-losing medical services other hospitals don't -- or won't -- provide.

"This is a business," he said. "We have to bring the public dollars into play so we don't provide a competitive advantage" to any one hospital.

-- Times staff writer Barry Klein contributed to this report. David Karp can be reached at (813) 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.