Will Bush Win Florida Again?
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
Will Bush Win Florida Again? Jeb Bush's 2002 reelection bid is complicated by the legacy of 2000. BY STEPHEN F. HAYES SINCE THE MOMENT George W. Bush was declared winner of Florida's 25 electoral...
...Media coverage of the findings largely echoed the tone and the substance of the report...
...And Jeb Bush . . . you have two more years.'" Florida Democrats have begun a high-dollar national fund-raising campaign to oust Jeb...
...If Girley is right, Bush should be worried...
...All of this, plus the obvious White House interest, insures that Florida's gubernatorial election will be one of the most fiercely contested races next year...
...Is it too late for him to work with people of color...
...Such a strategy might open up Republicans to additional criticism from Democrats...
...But it's not just Jeb Bush, it's all Republicans...
...Just how fiercely can be gauged by the fact that the chairman of the state Republican party said last week he is "seriously considering" a strategy "to call into question the credibility" of the state's black leaders...
...He pulled just 6 percent of the black vote that year...
...With Jeb Bush's announcement that he will run for reelection as governor of Florida in 2002, they think they have their chance...
...Florida GOP chairman Al Cardenas provides evidence of that...
...reciprocated across the race divide...
...African ^^ Americans will be energized and will go to the polls like never before," he says...
...But Jeb Bush's popularity with Florida's black voters may have peaked in 1998, when 86 percent of them voted for someone else...
...Cardenas, who doesn't mention any of these leaders by name, acknowledges that such a strategy would mark a significant departure from recent GOP efforts...
...It's divisive, and I think it will backfire...
...Asked whether Bush can do anything to repair his standing with Florida's black residents, she replies, "I don't think so...
...We need to call into question the African-American leaders and what they're saying," says Cardenas...
...Cardenas, who also sits on the Republican National Committee's "New Voices, New Faces" minority outreach committee, warns that a continued failure to do so will doom future outreach efforts...
...For years, Republican consultants said, oh, let's not get into a confrontation with African-American leaders because that will just lead to more confrontation and mistrust," said Cardenas...
...Cardenas pledges to avoid "the politics of personal destruction," but nonetheless says he intends to ask some tough questions...
...It's right in line with when he called an African-American voter registration drive a 'hate tour.'" One Republican strategist says bluntly, "Al Cardenas is speaking for himself...
...Though blacks usually make up a relatively small percentage of Florida voters, their votes were cru-cial—perhaps decisive—in his two previous gubernatorial bids...
...You've got one term...
...Is it too late for him to build relationships with us...
...Frankly," he says, "I'm seriously contemplating a counteroffensive and taking the African-American leadership to task...
...Jerry Girley about Jeb and his relations with Florida's blacks, and the longtime Democrat and civil rights leader at first waxes philosophical: "It's never too late, my friend...
...Susan McManus, a professor of political science at the University of South Florida, says Democratic arguments about the presidential election resonate in the black community...
...In 1994, a year in which Republicans across the nation swept into office, Bush lost his challenge to incumbent governor Lawton Chiles, 51-49 percent...
...To attempt to undermine the credibility of African-American leaders is racist—and I use that term advisedly...
...Ask Rev...
...Democrats] controlled things for years...
...So we'll ask them why the schools haven't gotten better...
...And nearly a dozen Florida Democrats, including ex-attorney general Janet Reno, are considering a challenge to Bush...
...Even this partisan document, which came after a six-month investigation of the Florida election, offered no evidence of wrongdoing...
...Civil Rights Commission released its report on the Florida vote...
...Despite these efforts, more than 9 of 10 black voters in Florida cast ballots for Al Gore...
...There's not going to be any bridge-building between the African-American community and the [Jeb] Bush administration...
...We're here to say, 'George W. Bush, have fun...
...He's got a great record and he's going to campaign on it...
...The potency of such demagoguery was on full display June 8 when the U.S...
...This is a striking departure from the Republican cordiality with black leaders that Jeb Bush has sought in recent years...
...If we don't do that, [voters are] going to take the Democrats' and the African-American leadership's word for it...
...Perhaps not surprisingly, Bob Poe, chairman of the Florida Democratic party, says it would be "insidious" to question the good faith of black leaders...
...Ironically, Bush had conceived his plan as an alternative to a more comprehensive ban on racial preferences promoted by Ward Con-nerly, who led a successful campaign for such a ban in California...
...Poe can't resist a personal shot at Cardenas...
...Bush advisers distance themselves from Cardenas and insist that the reelection campaign will focus on the candidate...
...BY STEPHEN F. HAYES SINCE THE MOMENT George W. Bush was declared winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes, both state and national black leaders have vowed to exact revenge on brother Jeb...
...Girley, too, thinks the campaign will center on Bush...
...And Democrats cloaked their aspersions in grave, civics-lesson language designed to stoke minority resentment...
...Welcome to Florida, the state that doesn't count every vote," said Adora Obi Nweze, president of the state's NAACP chapter, at an Inauguration Day rally...
...Rev...
...In terms of raw numbers, he may be right...
...But truth be told, he sees little potential black support for Bush's reelection bid...
...The DNC believes that voting is the language of our democracy, and we support the Commission's efforts to no longer allow Governor Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris to silence minority voters in Florida," said DNC national development chairman Maynard Jackson...
...Now, as 2000 shows, there's really nothing to lose by confronting them...
...This outreach failed in part, Cardenas suggests, because Republicans have been too timid to challenge directly the more demagogic anti-Republican claims of black leadership...
...A year later he announced his "One Florida" plan, which sought to eliminate some but not all racial preferences and sparked protests across the state, including one in which two black legislators and several reporters camped for 25 hours inside the office of Bush's lieutenant governor...
...Black turnout in Florida increased by 65 percent from the 1996 to the 2000 presidential elections...
...Still, the report suggested that Bush was negligent, and it artfully managed to assign him almost full blame...
...The Democratic National Committee, seeking to nurture and perpetuate Democratic anger over the presidential election, launched a "Voting Rights Institute" in Florida earlier this spring...
...The only way we break that cycle is to call into question the credibility of those who are parlaying that message...
...Yeah, absolutely," he says...
...In 1998, after a four-year campaign designed to boost his image among the state's minorities, Bush did better, more than doubling his share of black votes, as he defeated Buddy MacKay, then Florida's lieutenant governor...
...The ceaseless criticism from black Democrats and the media coverage of it was a first-term nightmare...
...Yeah...
...Why has economic development in our cities failed for years...
...And the new testiness is Stephen F Hayes is a staff writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Bush labeled that effort "divisive," and said "I can't imagine doing what he's talking about...
...Florida Republicans had devoted significant time and resources to increasing their share of these votes, even assigning a full-time staffer to "African-American out reach...
...Election 2000 has reopened too many of the wounds of Republicans...
...Jeb Bush has a fantastic story to tell, and he's going to campaign across the state telling says one...
...One Florida" enjoyed support from a majority of the state's voters, but the protests against it foreshadowed the baseless but relentless accusations that Jeb Bush somehow conspired to fix the outcome of the election that made his brother president, and that he did so by "disenfranchising" thousands of black voters...
Vol. 6 • June 2001 • No. 39
