Enjoying the sunshine but sweating the politics

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 15, 1996 | by Lisa Leiter

The political climate way down South is anything but languid. Floridians are worried about Cuba-US. relations and Medicare, and many of them are casting a very skeptical eye toward presidential politics as usual.

The mood was anything but political in Key West before the Florida primary. Spring breakers, nursing draft beers in plastic cups, partied on historic Duval Street, oozing out or renowned joints like Sloppy Joe's and Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. Manory Square -- the dock where crowds gather at dusk to watch amateur performers and the breathtaking Key West sunsets -- seemed more rough than romantic with the sunburned, drunk frat boys mixing with the tattooed, leather-clad bikers on their own semiannual trek to the country's southernmost point.

But on the northbound drive up U.S. Highway 1 in Tavernier, near Key Largo, politics suddenly popped into the scenery. A painted sign along the road read: "Make a Difference -- Join the Republican Party."

That's what more people are doing up in Broward County, long considered one of the state's most liberal locales and now one of the nation's top-10 growth areas, according to recent census figures. After Hurricane Andrew decimated the homes of many young -- and Hispanic -- families, they began settling into sprawling developments southwest of Fort Lauderdale in cities called Pembroke Pines, Miramar and Weston. Thousands of pink-stucco, zero-lot-line homes sit in huge developments bordering the Everglades. And their owners are boosting the GOP's membership, reports Jim Kand, a pollster and editor of Florida Voter, a bimonthly newsletter. "The county will likely become bipartisan in five to 10 years," he says. "This is no longer strong Democratic territory"

Maybe not strong, but still dominant. Democrats outweigh Republicans 53 to 34 percent here, largely because of two major liberal bastions, the dual Century Village condo developments. On opposite ends of the county, these huge complexes supply a total of more than 15,000 almost-guaranteed Democratic votes. Many of the residents are retired Northeastern New Dealers who fled to Florida in the sixties and seventies but now are dying and being replaced by young, more conservative, families and Canadian snowbirds. More than 50 percent of Broward's likely Democratic voters are over age 65, with a mean age of 78, Kane says. Widows who once disappeared from the political process keep voting, he explains, because many condominiums have their own precincts. "Even with a bad walker, they can make it," Kane quips.

The Century Village in Pembroke Pines was chaotic on Super Tuesday (which by Florida mid-March standards was cool but sunny), although many Democrats stayed home as expected because of the state's closed primary system. About 7,000 Democrats and 1,000 Republicans are registered here, estimates Kitty Thibault, a city commissioner and resident. Little pink trolleys hauled the hordes of senior citizens from their condos to the clubhouge, where they could conveniently cast their vote in the municipal elections -- if nothing else.

Clinton narrowly lost Florida in the 1992 election, but those who picked him say, among other things, they voted for change they're not getting. Jerry Feldman, a registered Democrat and younger Century Villager, supported Clinton but "is looking forward to four years of Bob Dole" he says, while carrying cases of soda and sandwiches for precinct workers. "We need someone who knows how to get things done." Feldman insists his main concern is whether Social Security will be around when he turns 65 in three years. (Join the club, Jerry.

At nearby Hollybrook Condominium in Pembroke Pines, Democratic activist Rhoda Lustgarten immediately recognizes this reporter among the senior citizens voting at the two precincts here. While she is on a coffee break from distributing fliers for a Democratic mayoral candidate in the crowded condo cafe, we kibitz about the politics of Medicare. Although most of her friends and neighbors are not fully dependent on the government for health care, she fears the GOP Medicare-reform plan will force people into undesirable health-maintenance organizations.

Lustgarten's friend, Sylvia Landow, joins our frequently interrupted conversation to agree, but adds that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has been butchered by the Republicans. "She tried so hard to reform health rare, the perfectly coiffed Landow says sympathetically. "The way they treat her really bothers me' " Neither woman has confidence in Dole. They think' he's too old, not strong enough.

But Sylvia's talkative--and Republican--husband, Al, disagrees. Before he and his longtime friend, Mac Pollay, start their spiel, Al immediately reveals his pal's Republican commitment. But Pollay whispers: "Not so loud . . . they'll lynch us." Hollybrook, like Century Village, is packed with retired New Deal Democrats. Dole is the most capable, most experienced, these men say, but like m supporters, they want him to put some life into the campaign or--they gasp--Clinton will beat him.