Candidates in Close Race for Pepper’s Seat

A Republican hoping to become the first Cuban-American elected to Congress was in a tight race Tuesday with a Brooklyn-born Democrat to fill the late Claude Pepper’s seat following an ethnically divisive campaign.

GOP state Sen. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen faced attorney Gerald Richman, in his first run for elective office, in the election made necessary by Pepper’s death May 30 at age 88. Pepper, a Democrat, had held the seat since its inception 27 years ago.

With 39 of 146 precincts reporting, Ros-Lehtinen had 8,716 votes, or 50.3%, to Richman’s 8,622 votes, or 49.7%.

Tense Race

Ethnic-bloc campaigning dominated the short, tense race between Ros-Lehtinen, 37, and Richman, 48, for the remaining 14 months of Pepper’s term. Richman had come under fire for declaring: “This is an American seat.”

Elections officials predicted a turnout of about 43%, far higher than normal for a special election.

Richman, who is Jewish, hoped to capitalize on the 30,000-plus edge that Democrats, mostly blacks, Jews and retirees, hold in registration. Ros-Lehtinen, who was born in Havana, looked to the Latino community, which makes up 40%-plus of the vote.

Polls in the final week of the race all indicated it was too close to call.

Turnout was heaviest Tuesday morning in Cuban-American precincts, where Ros-Lehtinen was strongest. Central Little Havana voted at a projected 77.3% clip.

By contrast, north Miami Beach condominium precincts, where Richman was said to have the advantage, were projected to have a 46.3% turnout.

‘Very Controversial’

“It’s been a very controversial election,” Dade County Elections Supervisor David Leahy said. “There has been a tremendous amount of media exposure, and we think both camps are getting a lot more people out to vote.”

The GOP hoped to add to its 10-8 majority in Florida’s congressional delegation, while the state Democratic Party tried to erase its recent image of disunity and decline.

Ros-Lehtinen refused to appear with Richman during the campaign, charging his “American seat” message was bigoted.

However, the same charges were made against her campaign over a Spanish-language mailing that urged Latinos to show how American they were even though they were not born in Brooklyn and did not speak English like Richman.

Richman said his “American seat” remark was an appeal to voters to decide on qualifications, not birthplace. He said it was a response to GOP National Chairman Lee Atwater’s statement that the party wanted to elect a Cuban-American.

Ros-Lehtinen, whose husband, Dexter Lehtinen, is U.S. attorney in Miami, portrayed herself as tough on crime and drugs. But Richman argued that her legislative record against gun control showed softness on crime, because it allowed criminals easy access to guns.