Broward Herald

Published Sunday, June 3, 2001

Reno's talk raises Democrats' hopes for campaign

BY STEVE BOUSQUET
sbousquet@herald.com

When Janet Reno spoke to a group of grass-roots activists in Broward County Saturday, it marked a small but significant step in the evolution of what victory-starved Democrats hope will be a high-stakes campaign for governor.

Reno's appearance in Davie, punctuated by chants of ``Run, Janet, run,'' is another sign the former U.S. attorney general and Miami-Dade state attorney is tiptoeing toward a decision that friends say she badly wants to make. But potential roadblocks are everywhere.

They include the rigors of a statewide campaign in a huge state, the difficulty in matching the Republicans' ability to raise tens of millions of dollars for Gov. Jeb Bush's expected reelection run and the possibility that Reno's candidacy could open new ethnic wounds because of the Elián González case. But friends say Reno wants to run.

``I think it's something she definitely wants to do,'' said Hugh Westbrook, a Democratic fundraiser, Miami healthcare executive and close friend of Reno's who has dined with her on several occasions in recent months. He is encouraging her to run.

But Westbrook says Reno is still assessing. ``I would say she's moving in a more positive direction,'' he said, ``but this ultimately becomes a very personal decision that she has to make. I don't think you could say it's a given that she's running.''

Westbrook says Reno seemed taken aback when she returned to her native Miami a few months ago to hear talk that she was fading into retirement. She talked of getting a camper top for her Ford Ranger pickup and going on a sightseeing tour, but lately much of her travel, other than some college commencements, has been in and around Florida.

``She's talking to friends, she's talking to activist Democrats, and trying to ascertain whether this is something that's doable for her,'' Westbrook said. ``It's no light matter to take on an incumbent governor. She understands that.''

The state's top Republican Party leader said he expects Reno to run, unless Democrats mount an effort to dissuade her.

``It's the most aggressive assessment process I've ever seen,'' Republican Party Chairman Al Cárdenas said Saturday. ``She's had a very aggressive booking effort over the last three weeks. I think she's making every effort to run.''

Cárdenas called Reno ``a strong candidate in Southeast Florida.'' With the two parties so close in overall voter registration, the GOP leader said Reno's problem will be attracting votes from moderate Republican voters and conservative Democrats.

Reno, ever cautious in her statements and given to a terse, just-the-facts speaking style of a career prosecutor, has not tipped her hand. She declined recently to list the positive and negative factors tugging both ways.

``I'm just trying to look at the whole picture and look at all the factors. If I comment, I don't think that's conducive to keeping an open mind,'' Reno said.

POLITICAL SETTING

But her willingness to talk to the Broward Council of Democratic Club Presidents puts Reno in a partisan political setting among the grass-roots organizers who get out the vote, and it is sure to raise Reno supporters' hopes even more.

Reno, 62, is one of no fewer than nine Democrats who are considering running for governor next year against Bush, 48, who has not announced but is expected to run. But while Reno is by far the best known of the possible challengers, what concerns some Democrats is that if Reno were to run, she, and not Bush, could be the central issue in the campaign.

Even Westbrook, who has had extensive talks with Reno, worries her candidacy could open new ethnic divisions in her hometown, because of lingering hostility over the way her U.S. Justice Department handled the seizure of Elián in April 2000.

``She is a person who loves Miami, and I think she has to make sure that people are not going to use her in a way to exacerbate issues around anti-Cuban sentiment or bigotry, and exploit those issues. That's my personal point of view,'' Westbrook said.

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, declined to discuss Reno. ``There's nothing to be gained. We have no comment on Janet Reno's potential candidacy,'' Garcia said.

The Elián issue is likely to be less controversial as Reno moves upstate.

But upstate, she's viewed by some as a polarizing figure because of the order to storm the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, in 1993, a move that left 82 people dead, including some children, or what critics see as an unwillingness to investigate former Vice President Al Gore's fundraising practices in 1996.

Another issue certain to cause Reno trouble in North Florida is that she is personally opposed to the death penalty, which Floridians voted overwhelmingly in 1998 to add to the state Constitution, but which was later stricken by the state Supreme Court.

Reno says she would carry out the death penalty if elected, and said that as Miami-Dade County's chief prosecutor, she sought it ``on a regular basis.''

``She's such a lightning rod, the whole thing will be about her and what she's done, or not done. She would polarize the state immediately,'' said Gary Ross of Port St. Joe, chairman of the Gulf County Republican Party in the Panhandle, an area that has become increasingly tough for Democratic candidates.

Some Democrats feel the same way. ``Janet Reno? Janet Reno? You'd better find someone else to ask,'' said an incredulous Carl Fox, a Democrat and a Gulf County commissioner. ``I think she's against guns, and anyone for gun control ain't for me.''

Sally Malone, 71, ``born and raised a Republican'' in upstate New York, but registered a Democrat in the Panhandle ``because otherwise your vote doesn't count,'' said she's impressed with Reno and wants to see her run.

``She speaks her mind, and she's not afraid to take a stand,'' Malone said. ``She's got good strength.''

Another longtime friend of Reno's, former Miami-Dade School Board member Janet McAliley, described Reno as ``authentic,'' and said that her greatest asset as a candidate would be her lack of artifice. But McAliley says she, too, sometimes wishes she had a clearer sense of Reno's thinking.

``It is confounding at times, but it's also very admirable,'' she said. ``She talks to people, listens to what they have to say, and she absorbs that into some kind of internal mix. She will be her own person, and it will frustrate a lot of people. She stands up with such honesty and authenticity.''

BOOST NEEDED

But Reno is not a candidate yet, and if she tests the waters and chooses not to run, some Democrats say, it could send the message that even Reno didn't think she could beat Jeb Bush.

That won't do much to boost the morale of a party that has watched most of its influence in state politics disappear, bit by bit, over the past decade.

``I think it will deflate the balloon a little bit,'' said state Sen. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston.

But Wasserman Schultz says Reno's decision to accept the speaking date with Broward Democrats is the strongest indication yet that she's positioning herself to run.

``That's the base,'' she said, referring to the club leaders. ``You go to your base to shore up your strength, and then you move on from there. I think she's much further along than she's letting on.''

Herald staff writer Lesley Clark contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2001

Answers

From the Republicans' standpoint, this could lead to a really destructive primary for the Dems.

-- Anonymous, June 03, 2001

newsmax.com may bear watching. One of their contributors, Jack Thompson, knew her well from when he ran against her, I think for Florida AG, years back. He became a rather popular commentator here in New England last November, where one of the talk radio hosts who knew him featured him regularly. I recall one of his beefs about her is that he had challenged her in a previous election to do something about the voting booth/chad problem. She refused then, of course.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2001

Hmmm, maybe she could have Gore as a running mate, and go for the white house instead?

ROTFLMAO

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2001