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McBride's campaign pitch rests on statewide appeal
By ADAM C. SMITH DELRAY BEACH -- The silver-haired Democrats in the back of the Kings Point condo meeting hall buzzed as the burly fellow in a tie prepared to speak. "What's his name? Bill what?" "And he's running for governor? You ever heard of him?" Nobody had. So when Bill McBride stepped to the podium and started to get on a roll, a woman promptly interrupted. Repeat your name, she instructed. This is a new world for McBride, high-powered lawyer turned novice politician and combat-decorated Marine who rose from humble beginings; he sincerely believes anything can be accomplished through hard work. "If the glass is half empty, it's three-quarters full in Bill's eyes," said Steven Uhlfelder, a Democratic Bush supporter and longtime McBride friend and colleague at Holland & Knight. "Bill came up the hard way, and he's tenacious as hell. ... If somebody runs faster than him, he'll say he'll just run further and harder. That works in the Marines, and that works on the football field. But politics is different." McBride, his wife, Bank of America's former Florida chief Alex Sink, and their two public school-educated teenagers live amid citrus groves and bearded oaks in rural eastern Hillsborough County. He speaks with a southern twang and, at 6-3, 245 pounds, looks every bit the linebacker he used to be. As a candidate, he is a work in progress. He still struggles to fire up large crowds from a podium ("Bill McBoring," said one South Florida columnist). It's part of the reason he still struggles to convince party leaders he has a real shot in the primary. The basic McBride pitch: He can beat Bush, because he is the most appealing Democrat to Florida's moderate swing voters. It's an unusual message considering that on most issues he's no more moderate than any of his primary opponents. At Holland & Knight, he provided health benefits to gay and lesbian domestic partners. He says he would consider a law like one in Vermont that allows gay couples to form civil unions. At his law firm, he also enacted a "living wage" policy that dramatically increased the pay of the firm's lowest wage staffers. He supports the death penalty, but last year he called for a temporary moratorium to thoroughly review the fairness and effectiveness of the system. He strongly supports abortion rights, but he says he sees little need for more gun control laws. McBride's message for broad statewide appeal is largely resume-based. A decorated Vietnam veteran with old Florida roots and extensive business experience can win swing votes across the state, he tells Democrats. "A lot of being a moderate is cultural," said David Doak, McBride's Washington-based media consultant who helped underdog Democrat Gray Davis become California governor. "This guy's got a tremendous story, and he's going to be good on TV. There's an authenticity to him." * * * McBride's message for broad statewide appeal is largely resume-based. The McBride-Can-Win theory relies on basic voting trends in Florida. Democrats win statewide races when they run up overwhelming margins in Democrat-rich South Florida; lead among moderate swing voters along the I-4 corridor between St. Petersburg and Daytona Beach; and don't get clobbered in conservative North Florida. McBride thinks he can appeal to all three regions. His theory: Voters in South Florida will embrace his progressive (some say liberal) politics. His Tampa Bay roots and business ties (and those of his wife) will help him win strong support along the I-4 corridor. And North Florida, which consistently backs Republicans in statewide races, will take another look after learning of his resume. "I believe my Marines will come out for me," said McBride, who intends to campaign aggressively in that Republican-friendly territory. His old Marine sergeant will be featured in a television spot. His political argument, delivered at Democratic-friendly events, doesn't address his biggest and most immediate hurdle: overcoming former Attorney General Janet Reno in the primary. Even people openly questioning Reno's ability to win the general election have a hard time imagining her losing the Democratic primary to McBride. "Of all the (Democratic) candidates out there, he by far has the right kind of appeal and background to appeal to the largest number of voters across Florida. But that's the general election. The primary is the big problem at this point," said Cathy Kelly, head of government relations for the Florida Education Association, a key interest group for Democrats. Come August, McBride insists, he will be well known across the state. He's counting on Democrats eager to unseat Bush to be pragmatic about choosing a nominee. His unspoken message is that Reno can't muster broad enough appeal to win. Making his challenge all the more daunting is a new primary system Republican lawmakers put in place this year. They did away with runoff elections, so whoever wins the most votes, even if it's just 30 percent, wins the nomination. Operating under that system, such legends as Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles and Reubin Askew would have lost their first statewide races. But some strategists believe hard-core Democrats who tend to vote in primaries are well aware of that change and will act accordingly. "Democrats in the state are going to vote based on who they think can beat Jeb Bush," said Karl Koch, a political consultant working for the state party. McBride is the only Democratic candidate not from South Florida. The son of a television repairman and homemaker, he grew up in the small town of Leesburg in rural Central Florida. He won a football scholarship to the University of Florida, but was quickly sidelined by a knee injury. McBride gave up his scholarship and worked his way through college waiting tables and shelving library books. He spent summer and winter vacations working in a hotel dining room in the Catskills. Bad knees and good grades could have kept him out of Vietnam. But after his first year of law school in Gainesville, he enlisted in the Marines in 1968. He went on to graduate No. 1 from Army Ranger school, lead infantry Marines in Vietnam and rise to captain. "In numerous combat missions ... he repeatedly distinguished himself by his courage and composure under fire as he skillfully directed the combat efforts of his men," reads McBride's Bronze Star citation. He returned to Florida, completed law school and joined Holland & Knight in 1975. The firm had fewer than 400 lawyers when he was elected managing partner in 1992. While he was chief executive, it grew to be the nation's seventh-largest law firm, with more than 1,300 lawyers. His civic involvement over the years has included leading United Way campaigns, serving on the boards of children's groups and business groups. He was a board member of Enterprise Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce (which endorsed many of the Jeb Bush initiatives McBride decries). He's an avid youth sports coach in rural east Hillsborough County. He paid for college scholarships for seven of his lower-income Little League players and for another student he mentors. The campaign includes top political consultants such as media consultant Doak and pollster Geoff Garrin. His campaign manager, Robin Rorapaugh, ran the latter part of Buddy MacKay's gubernatorial campaign three years ago and has strong contacts in Broward County, crucial Democrat country. McBride has shown early signs of fundraising strength. Through Sept. 30, he had raised $512,000, compared to $102,179 for Reno, $90,054 for state Sen. Daryl Jones of Miami and $68,635 for Rep. Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach. But the terrorist attacks have made raising money much harder, and McBride's early fundraising relied heavily on his legal connections. Lawyers and their relatives accounted for nearly 57 percent of his contributors. Bush had $1.2-million, despite minimal fundraising events. McBride has yet to generate much enthusiastic buzz among party leaders. Many think Reno is too formidable in the primary, and many remember his underwhelming debut speech at a major Democratic gathering in June. "He has to show everybody that he can communicate those great ideas that he tells me about one on one," said Democratic state Sen. Skip Campbell of Fort Lauderdale, who is leaning toward supporting McBride since former Vietnam ambassador Pete Peterson dropped out of the race. Ten months before the first election of his life, McBride brushes off talk of the big hurdles in front of him. Just watch, he says. "The day I don't think I can win, I'm dropping out," McBride said. "I had a perfectly good job before this that I liked. I got into this race not because I thought I could win a primary, but because I thought I could win the election." -- Adam C. Smith can be reached at (727)893-8241 or adam@sptimes.com. Bill McBrideAGE: 56. BORN: Belleville, Ill. Moved to Leesburg in 1954 after living in Tennessee and Texas. EDUCATION: Leesburg High School, University of Florida, University of Florida Law School. MILITARY: U.S. Marines, 1968-1971. Received Bronze Star with Combat V. Rose to captain. CAREER: Lawyer. Joined Holland & Knight law firm in 1975, served as managing general partner from 1992 until he started running for governor in July. FAMILY: Married since 1986 to Alex Sink, former Florida chief of Bank of America. They have a son, 14, and daughter, 12.
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