Reno struggling for cash

By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Political Editor

Thursday, July 11, 2002

Janet Reno's campaign for governor is struggling to raise money and with its coffers embarrassingly low, some Democratic leaders are privately wondering whether she should abandon the race.

Reno's campaign has just $224,000 left in the bank after raising only $369,095 during the three months ending June 30, according to campaign finance reports filed with state Division of Elections Wednesday.

With the Sept. 10 primary less than nine weeks away, Reno faces the very real possibility that she will not have enough money to run campaign ads. Political consultants say that one week of statewide television ads costs from $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

Reno's leading rival for the Democratic nomination, Tampa attorney Bill McBride, not only raised more money than Reno but has salted away nearly $1.2 million.

As impressive as that figure is, however, the still largely unknown McBride will need at least several million dollars to buy enough television time to both increase his name recognition and give voters a reason to choose him over Reno.

So McBride is counting on significant help, as much as $1 million, from two groups that endorsed him early: the Florida Education Association, the state teachers' union, and the AFL-CIO, both of which plan to spend the money on television ads that will help McBride.

In addition, McBride is hoping to get more than $800,000 from the state campaign finance program that matches candidate contributions to candidates who agree to hold spending to less than $7 million. Reno can expect a similar amount.

With $1.2 million in the bank and $800,000 from the state, McBride will have $2 million plus whatever money he raises in the next two months. With the help of the the unions, McBride could have as much as $3 million for television ads.

McBride still lags as much as 25 points behind Reno in both public and private polls. And Reno remains strong in the voter rich South Florida condos where seniors adore her. She also is popular among black voters.

"Despite all that McBride has done, he has not moved," said Mo Elleithee, Reno's campaign manager. "There is enormous support for Janet among Democratic voters. I don't see how he overcomes that in just two months."

As for television ads, Elleithee said "Whether we need to run television ads in the primary remains to be seen."

Not running television ads in the final weeks of a campaign would be highly unusual, but some political observers say that if anyone could pull it off it might be Reno.

"You rarely have a candidate with 98 percent name recognition and it takes a lot more than a few million dollars to buy that kind of recognition," said Jim Krog who managed Democrat Lawton Chiles' successful campaigns for governor.

"Janet Reno gets free press everywhere she goes," Krog said. "If they are smart they would do another truck tour and bring in the celebrities. Then they have to figure out why they are not doing a better job raising money."

'Not just the dollars' While party leaders, mostly big contributors who wanted Reno to stay out of the race, are unhappy, Krog said Florida has had a long history of ignoring the handpicked candidates.

"These are the same people who wanted Bob Shevin to be governor and Bill Gunter to be a U.S. senator," Krog said. "The 'smart money' is often wrong."

Mitch Ceasar, chairman of the Broward County Democratic Party, said, "McBride needs to raise substantially more money if he wants to level the playing field in name recognition. Reno has the name recognition, now she needs to carve out an image."

Ceasar says that despite McBride's work in Broward County, "I would say this is still significantly Reno's base." McBride is spending today in Broward County where he will attend a fund-raiser and go to a meeting with 40 Democratic Club leaders at the home of County Commissioner Lori Parrish.

Some worried Democrats are also pointing to an internal poll suggesting that if Reno gets the nomination, not only will she lose handily to Republican incumbent Gov. Jeb Bush but the party could lose up to eight state House seats, two state Senate seats and one Congressional seat.

Reno supporters say the complainers are the same party leaders who became incensed when Reno entered the race without consulting them. The well-known former U.S. attorney general quickly scared off several lesser known-candidates including former U.S. Rep. Pete Peterson who was being courted by U.S. Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson.

Earlier this year, some party leaders tried to discourage Reno from entering the race. But the harder they tried, the more determined Reno became to prove them wrong. Now, with her campaign flagging, there is a swirl of talk about having another meeting with her.

"Leadership wants her out, but she won't budge," said a Reno loyalist familiar with the activity.

One top Democratic party official said that past experience has shown that pushing Reno is the wrong approach.

"There are people who have met with her and will meet with her but they won't directly tell her to get out," said the official. "All you can do is show her what is happening and than let her decide. Everybody has sort of learned the lesson -- don't tell her what to do."

On Monday, Reno hinted to a crowd of Palm Beach County Democrats that money would not be her strong suit. As she has done with Elian Gonzales and Waco, Reno tried to turn a potential negative into a positive.

"It is not just the dollars," Reno told the crowd at the South County Civic Center. "People ask about the dollars but it time to show people that this is Florida and that bringing your brother here every other week to raise money and taking corporate dollars is not going to convince people that you are right about the issues when you are wrong."

Bush, with help from his brother, President George W. Bush, has raised more than $5.6 million for his campaign -- with nearly $5 million unspent. Bush will also benefit from a state Republican Party bank balance of more than $20 million. The Florida Democratic Party has less than $1 million.

Jeb Bush's most recent Democratic gubernatorial opponent, Buddy McKay, had raised far more than Reno at this point in the last campaign, but he had been raising money for six more months. Still, by June of 1998, he had raised $2.35 million and had $1.69 million in his bank account.

McBride confident of upset Another concern among Democratic legislative leaders is that the unions told them that they were going to spend less on House and Senate candidates because of their commitment to help McBride.

Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, who is leading the Senate election effort, was upset over the decision, according to one top party leader. On Wednesday, Klein said he was not concerned and that his candidates would have enough money to compete effectively.

Tony Welch, a spokesman for FEA, would not comment about the organization's political plans beyond saying, "We plan to do everything we can to help Bill McBride."

It also was unclear what form the union ads will take. They could either be a direct endorsement of McBride or "issue ads" which avoid an endorsement but applaud McBride for helping teachers or unions or education. The unions will not funnel the money through the Democratic Party to pay for the ads.

Reno recently shuffled her campaign staff. Several senior aides departed including field director Helen Strain, campaign coordinator Steve Fitzer and Ed Dixon, who was handling black voter outreach.

Reno brought in Bob Ellzey, who worked with Graham and Chiles, as deputy campaign manager and James Harris, who will work with black voters as he did for Nelson two years ago.

"I think Janet is seeing that she needs to do a few things differently," Krog said. "She has brought on some good people."

McBride's campaign staff has remained largely intact. They are growing increasingly confident that they might pull off a major upset.

"We have out-organized her and we have out-raised her," said McBride's campaign manager Robin Rorapaugh. "They believed she could walk across water and just win the election. That's not going to happen."

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2002

Answers

If she manages to win I think we'll have to move out of Florida. I don't think I'd want to stay in a state that would have her as a governor.

I wish she would retire to obscurity, preferably in another state.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2002

She might yet take the primary, but do you really think she could beat Jeb? I think her managers would have to do everything possible to keep her out of a debate, especially late fall. I don't think she is mentally or physically up to it.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2002

And nobody thought this was a story about Reno wrestling someone for money? Y'all are slipping.

-- Anonymous, July 12, 2002

She better be able to debate. If she can't do that, then how the hell does she think she can run a state?

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2002

She's in no state to run. . .

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2002

I will be very surprised if Reno doesn't bow out of the race by the end of the summer. The last time that I saw her on TV, she looked about as hale and hardy as the Pope.

Barefoot, I wish you would consider moving somewhere safer, not necessarily out of state. As the economy worsens and the weather turns colder, the Northern riff-raff will find its way into the sunbelt cities. This is good for us, but not for you. I know that Miami is a prime destination for Cleveland criminals. Hey, I know we ought to lock them up, but it's cheaper for us if you guys lock 'em up. (:

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2002

The migration of the northern riff-raff has been going on for some time.

We know winter is here when we start seeing Canadian license plates on the roads and the waiters on SoBe start getting surly due to stingy tourists.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2002

I don't approve of the cruelty I'm about to describe, but Rush Limbaugh has been known to play "Shake, Rattle, & Roll" as a leitmotif for her.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2002