Word: mcbrides
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...George W. Bush needed Governor Jeb Bush to safely deliver the state. He famously couldn't, and Bush had to be towed across the finish line by the Supreme Court. Now it's Jeb who needs rescuing in an unexpectedly tight race for re-election against political neophyte Bill McBride, and Big Brother George is doing everything he can to help him, short of commuting to work there. He has made 11 trips (a 12th is planned for this week), helped raise at least $6 million (Bush is spending $30 million to McBride's $10 million) and directed millions more...
Despite the high-caliber help, Jeb finds himself in a statistical dead heat with McBride, a former Marine with a Bronze Star and a folksy manner who gave up a student deferment to go to Vietnam. Last year, when he found himself "screaming at the TV set, frustrated" at where the state was headed, McBride quit his post as managing partner of Holland & Knight, which he had built into the fifth largest law firm in the U.S. (his wife was once head of Bank of America in Florida), and launched his long-shot bid for Governor. McBride dresses like Columbo...
...McBride has made education the centerpiece of his campaign and vigorously supports a referendum, expected to pass, that would reduce class size. In a tax-phobic state, McBride has proposed a 50¢-a-pack cigarette tax and unspecified spending cuts to pay for the school initiative. Bush, on the grounds that he doesn't support the referendum, offers no clue as to how he would pay for it should the measure pass. He had to apologize after he confided to concerned Republican lawmakers, unaware a reporter was present, that he had a "couple of devious plans" to thwart the proposal...
...only election-night story, a reminder of the 537-vote margin in 2000. Democrats are throwing money into the race as if it's already 2004, sending hundreds of lawyers to monitor ballot troubles. (Bush blamed inept Democrats for snafus on primary day.) Heavyweights, including Bill Clinton, are helping McBride. Party chairman Terry McAuliffe vowed last week, "We're going to knock off one Bush at a time." If it's close, it must be Florida...
...headlines have often been messy. Bush went after McBride for not apologizing enough for remarks made by a black minister who said the Bush family was "on a neo-Nazi right-wing mission." Even though McBride hadn't initially heard the remarks and condemned them as soon as he did, he wouldn't vow never to talk to the minister again. For his part, Jeb was embarrassed when a reporter caught him telling legislators that he had "juicy details" concerning the sexual orientation of the former caretakers for Rilya Wilson, the foster child who has been missing for 21 months...