McCollum Up in Florida

Human Events, Apr 12, 2004 by Gizzi, John

As in South Carolina, Republican voters in Florida, where venerable Democratic incumbent Bob Graham is retiring and three lesser-known, liberal Democrats are vying for nomination, seem poised to give their valuable nomination for the Senate seat to the most familiar of their candidates, who also met defeat in his last trip to the polls.

According to a just-completed survey conducted by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, former Rep. (1980-2000) Bill McCollum is the strong favorite for nomination to the open Senate seat in the primary this August. Among likely primary voters in the Sunshine State, McCollum-best known nationally as one of the House managers in the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial-leads the five-candidate pack with 33%. He is followed by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez at 14%, State Sen. Dan Webster 6%, political newcomer and Coral Gables mortgage technology entrepreneur Doug Gallagher 6%, and House Speaker Johnny Byrd 3%. The "wild card" in this field is the latest candidate to get into the race: Gallagher, who has sunk $1.2 million of his own wealth into the political race. Although he is a political novice, he is the brother of Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher. And many pundits and pols believe that Doug Gallagher may benefit from the residual name recognition among voters of brother Tom, who has been running for various offices (and often winning) for 30 years.

For all the criticism of so-called "experts" that he is "Mr. Yesterday," that he lacks charisma, and that his defeat in the 2000 Senate race by Democrat Bill Nelson is a sign of vulnerability in the fall, 59-year-old Central Florida lawyer McCollum retains a fiercely loyal following among conservatives throughout the state. His campaign chairman, for example, is possibly the most revered figure in the Florida GOP: former Sen. (1988-2000) Connie Mack. With support from Mack and other conservatives and some name recognition from the 2000 race, McCollum, his supporters believe, can top the field of lesser-known candidates in August (when, for the second time in history, Floridians will nominate candidates outright with no run-off).

Since he left the Bush Cabinet last year, former Orange County (Orlando) Chairman Martinez has raised $1.7 million (or about $700,000 more than front-runner McCollum). But Martinez has been forced to play defense over his past history as president of the Florida Trial Lawyers Association-a hotbed of Bush-bashers-and for making donations to a string of Democratic senators ranging from Joseph Biden (Del.) to Florida's Graham.

Taken increasingly less seriously are veteran legislators Webster and Byrd. The most tangible sign that they are running out of steam and may not even go the distance is that both of their chief political operatives-in-residence have gone elsewhere. Timmy Teepul, who left a position at the Republican National Committee to manage Webster's campaign, recently relocated to Louisiana to oversee former gubernatorial nominee Bobby Jindal's race for an open U.S. House district. Seasoned Byrd political operative Todd Harris took a leave last year to work on Arnold Schwarzenegger's winning gubernatorial campaign and has decided to remain with the new governor's political team in Sacramento.