Bush Goes Out of His Way to Back Candidate

President Bush, taking a long detour on his way to a three-week summer vacation in Maine, traveled to South Florida Wednesday to raise money for the Republican congressional candidate seeking the seat long held by the late Democrat Claude Pepper.

Bush spent 2 1/2 hours flying to Miami for a 2 1/2-hour appearance at a $500-a-person fund-raising lunch before flying back north to his summer retreat in Kennebunkport, Me.

Unusual Schedule

The travel schedule was somewhat unusual, even for the peripatetic President, but the GOP candidate for Florida’s 18th Congressional District had more than the usual claim on Bush’s help: Her campaign chairman is Bush’s son, Jeb Bush. Moreover, GOP leaders see Florida, with its staunchly conservative Cuban-American community in the south and disaffected white conservative Democrats in the north, as prime territory for Republican expansion.

The Republican candidate, state Sen. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Cuba, will face a liberal Democratic attorney from Miami, Gerald F. Richman, in the special election for Pepper’s seat on Aug. 29. The contest has been shaping up as one that will highlight the sharp polarization between South Florida’s Latino and Anglo populations.

Bush plans to stay in Kennebunkport through Labor Day. While there, he will entertain the prime ministers of Canada and Denmark on strictly social, non-working visits. Otherwise, aides say, the President plans three weeks of relaxation.