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Barry Richard, a longtime Democrat, has enjoyed his exhausting run representing Gov. George W. Bush.
By LUCY MORGAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 10, 2000
TALLAHASSEE -- Barry Richard, the gray-haired lawyer who has been representing Texas Gov. George W. Bush in Florida courtrooms, took the morning off Saturday.
"I felt like I had run a triathlon and someone moved the goal," Richard said as he talked about a Florida Supreme Court decision that went against his client late Friday.
He spent the morning with his wife, Allison, and their 21/2-year-old twins while waiting to hear from the U.S. Supreme Court. It was a rare moment in a life that has been consumed by litigation since Election Day.
Richard, 58, a longtime Democrat and former Young Democrats president in South Florida, has represented Bush in more than a half-dozen lawsuits, including two that came to trial before different judges on the same day.
"If I can do this, I can do anything," Richard said after the judges advised him that both trials would occur on the same day.
Both trials, as well as his arguments before the Florida Supreme Court, have been broadcast live on C-Span, CNN and MSNBC thanks to a Florida law that allows cameras in the courtroom.
Because of those broadcasts, Richard has gone from being a low-profile lawyer in the state capital to one of the best-known figures in American politics.
Richard said he thinks the Bush team hired him because he was campaign counsel for Gov. Jeb Bush and has handled a number of election lawsuits in recent years. (He also represented State Insurance Commissioner Bill Nelson, a Democrat who last month won election to the U.S. Senate.)
Richard is widely known among Florida news organizations because of his representation of the Florida Press Association and the Florida Bar and his service as Florida's deputy attorney general and a state legislator from Miami in the 1970s.
"I feel like I'm going to wake up any minute and say, "Oh, what a strange dream I had,' " Richard said. "Nothing I have ever done has compared with this, but then that's true for anybody involved in this."
Last week, Richard and his wife walked into Provance, a Tallahassee restaurant, and were greeted with applause from the patrons.
It also happened in the Miami airport on Thanksgiving weekend.
"It has literally thrust me into being a national figure overnight," Richard said. "It's been fun."
Richard says he believes this election drama also will define the city of Tallahassee much like the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil defined Savannah.
He hasn't had time to look at his mail, but he has received more than a thousand e-mails that surprisingly include only three or four negative messages.
"Many from Democrats say we are supporting Gore but we think you are doing a good job," Richard said.
Richard has been joined by about 30 other lawyers at Greenberg, Traurig's Tallahassee office where he works.
He says the legal fees for this fight, which will be paid by the Gore and Bush campaigns, are likely to be in the millions of dollars.
"The whole thing is nuts," Richard said. "There is only one thing I know for sure. If you have stock in a company that makes those punch-card ballots, you need to sell it now."