GOP governors find much cause for frustration as wait drags on

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 19, 2000

WESLEY CHAPEL -- The Republican governors were supposed to be George W. Bush's secret weapon for Election Day, but many couldn't deliver key states. Now they're in Florida watching nervously as their Texas colleague still fights for the presidency.

"We are watching a circus going on in Florida, that's all it is. P.T. Barnum would have been proud," said South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow, taking a jab at the Democrats. "They are going to steal the election. We ought to put the right face on it."

The decisive count in Florida -- where the nominee's brother Jeb Bush is governor -- has not been settled and results have been put off until at least next week, when the state Supreme Court will consider a tangle of lawsuits. Some of the Republican governors, who are here for a meeting unrelated to the Florida election controversy, expressed frustration that the court had blocked a scheduled Saturday certification of the vote.

"This is an activist court," said North Dakota Gov. Edward Schafer. "They are themselves trying to direct the law instead of trying to interpret it."

Republican governors in some swing states conceded that they were out-organized at the grass-roots level in voter turnout. They were frustrated they couldn't guarantee a Bush win that could help them gain influence in the White House and perhaps administration jobs.

"We've done everything right except to close the deal," said New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman. Whitman and governors of states where the election was closer -- for example, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin -- all had the same explanation for why they couldn't win their states for Bush: a superior Democratic voter effort. They cited the unions, the black vote and their own inability to fare better with Hispanics.

"There's a concern about unions, there's a concern about reaching out to African-Americans. What do we do to make sure we have the appeal to voters," Whitman said.

And the Republicans admitted that sometimes being a popular governor isn't enough.

"The notion of transferring popularity doesn't exist in modern politics," said Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland.

The governors generally agreed that Bush will eventually be declared the winner, but there was uncertainty, too, and worry.

"Almost to a man and woman, there's a belief that George W. Bush is President-elect George W. Bush," said Michigan Gov. John Engler. "There is this apprehension. None of us have ever believed that we live in an America where a general election could be taken away right before our eyes. So there is that sense of fear that the Gore team is so insidious that they could actually steal this in front of the whole nation."

The Republican governors said the political balance is very even in Congress and in the presidential vote, so they will be the remaining power base for the Republican Party.

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