Mack will not seek re-election

NO SPECIFIC REASON: The 58-year-old Republican now in his second term is in good health.

By TIM NICKENS and BILL ADAIR

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 6, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Connie Mack, the grandson of a baseball legend who came out of leftfield to win a U.S. Senate seat in 1988 and rose to the top ranks of the Republican leadership, has decided to retire.

With Republicans and Democrats eagerly eyeing his seat in recent weeks because of Mack's uncertainty about seeking a third term, the 58-year-old senator quietly telephoned friends and supporters Friday to tell them he will not run in 2000.

"It's a purely personal decision," said Florida Republican Party Chairman Al Cardenas, who received a call from Mack. "He felt good that he had made the right decision, and so did his wife."

Friends and others who have worked closely with Mack said there is no specific reason he decided to retire. They said he and his wife, Priscilla, are in good health. Both are cancer survivors, and Mack has made cancer research his top issue.

In Washington, Mack is the third-ranking Republican in the Senate and the first to announce his retirement. Three Senate Democrats already have announced they do not intend to run next year, when some observers believe control of the chamber could be up for grabs. Republicans now hold 55 seats and Democrats occupy 45 seats.

In Florida, Mack's seat is drawing interest from both Republicans and Democrats who did not dream of running against him. He has nearly $2-million in the bank and no announced opponents.

Friends said Mack's decision was not driven by political concerns. They said he simply decided it is time to move on.

"He's big enough to walk away," said Mitch Bainwol, a longtime top aide who is now a Washington lobbyist. "That's a sign of remarkable personal strength."

In 10 years in the Senate, Mack has remained true to his conservative roots. He regularly fought spending increases and argued for tax cuts as a believer in Reagan-style, supply-side economics. As chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, he helped rewrite the rules for writing the federal budget in a way that forced departments to better justify their spending.

On foreign affairs, Mack supported tightening the Cuban embargo and spoke out against Fidel Castro. He also is a fervent defender of Israel, spending a week there last month and visiting a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem.

Mack also has won some praise for his work on environmental issues, from his efforts on legislation aimed at restoring the Everglades to his opposition of offshore oil drilling.

As chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the group that coordinates the GOP message, Mack leads the weekly policy lunches. He mediated often-contentious party discussions during the impeachment trial of President Clinton.

Despite his lofty job, Mack did not show burning ambition for a bigger role in the Senate or for the national spotlight. He was content to lead the weekly party meetings and use his clout to get more money for medical research.

He came closest to the national stage in 1996, when he was a finalist for the vice presidential nomination under Bob Dole. But Dole picked Jack Kemp, the former housing secretary.

Perhaps most of all, Mack's congenial personality enabled him to win friends among Democrats and others who disagreed with him on policy. He and Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat, developed a mutual respect and often worked together on state issues.

Graham's office had no comment on Mack's decision, but spokesman Chris Hand said, "Sen. Graham has the highest respect for Sen. Mack and enjoys working him."

Cory Tilley, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush, called Mack's retirement "a great loss for the state. Connie Mack's been a great U.S. senator -- partisan politics aside."

Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, a likely candidate for the seat, said Mack found the right balance between Florida and Washington.

"He's been very adept at being a Floridian first, being able to play inside the Washington Beltway and not losing his roots," Foley said.

Mack's departure is a blow to Florida in a year when it achieved tremendous clout in Congress. Besides Mack's role as the No. 3 Senate Republican, Rep. Tillie Fowler of Jacksonville is now vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference and Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Rocks Beach is chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

"It's a terrible loss," said Al Austin, a Tampa developer and Republican fund-raiser. Mack has "a lot of seniority and a lot of commitments and friends" that a freshman senator won't have.

Born in Philadelphia in 1940, Mack's formal name is Cornelius McGillicuddy III. His famous grandfather, also called Connie Mack, managed and owned the Philadelphia Athletics, providing the grandson with instant name recognition.

Mack's family moved to Fort Myers in 1951. He graduated from the University of Florida and was a 40-year-old Cape Coral banker when he won an open U.S. House seat in 1982.

In the '80s, Mack was among the leaders of Newt Gingrich's Conservative Opportunity Society years before Gingrich burst on the national scene. The congressman from southwest Florida was little known outside his district when he announced he would run for the U.S. Senate in 1987.

The race turned out to be Florida's closest statewide contest ever and one of the most memorable.

Mack got into the race before the incumbent, Democrat Lawton Chiles, announced he was retiring. He stayed in even after another legendary Democrat, former Gov. Reubin Askew, jumped into the contest.

But Askew could not overcome his distaste for raising vast amounts of campaign money, and he dropped out early on.

While Democrat Buddy MacKay battled his way through a crowded primary and a run-off election, the lightly regarded Mack brought in President Ronald Reagan and former Lt. Col. Oliver North to raise money.

He also continued to repeat his mantra: less taxing, less spending, less government, more freedom.

Graham labeled Mack an "ideological wacko." But the tag Mack hung on MacKay proved far more damaging.

"Hey Buddy," the Republican's ads shouted. "You're liberal."

Mack and MacKay went to bed election night without knowing who had won. So did supporters on both sides.

"I went to bed that night with Bob Dole saying on the national news shows, "Well, I guess we lost Florida,' " Cardenas recalled. "I woke up in the morning at quarter of seven and somebody said, "Guess what, we're getting phone calls that we may be winning.' "

Boosted by absentee ballots and a controversial, last-minute independent expenditure by foreign car dealers, Mack squeaked out a victory by less than 34,000 votes; it took days to verify.

In 1994, Mack easily won a second, six-year term. He captured 71 percent of the vote against Hugh Rodham, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother, in a year when the governor's race, Chiles versus Jeb Bush, captured the state's attention.

In recent months, it became clearer that Mack's life was not consumed by the U.S. Senate.

Weeks before the House impeachment hearings began last year, Mack indicated he was uncomfortable with the spectacle. Despite his senority, Mack was no where to be found on the TV talk shows as his colleagues jockeyed to share with the world their views on the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

At Gov. Bush's inaugural prayer breakfast in January, Mack held the audience spellbound as he traced his spiritual rebirth to a Senate prayer meeting he attended in 1995. He talked of the busy schedule a senator keeps, of his religious awakening's reordering his priorities, of a solitary walk in the snow-covered Vermont woods, and of a hospital visit to a dying Senate dining room waiter.

"Our lives are so filled with demands," Mack said during his talk. "We live by rigid schedules."

During this time, Mack apparently was thinking of adjusting his own schedule.

As the Senate impeachment trial closed last month, he acknowledged to reporters that he was undecided about running for re-election. When Mack did not move quickly to squash talk among members of Congress and state legislators about his successor, the betting from Washington to Tallahassee was on retirement.

At a Republican Senatorial Committee dinner several nights ago in Washington, Mack rose to speak amid chants of "Run, Connie, run!"

He smiled but did not take the bait.
-- Times staff writer Katherine Pfleger contributed to this report.