Quayle Hopes to Lure Democrats on Florida Tour

Vice President Dan Quayle on Sunday led a bus caravan through central Florida in search of the “Reagan Democrats” that the Republican campaign believes it needs to win this key state in November.

Sounding his well-tested themes of traditional values, small government and low taxes, the entourage of Quayle and his wife, Marilyn, rumbled through Lakeland, Claremont, Leesburg and Ocala.

“Florida is key for us, and this is somewhat of a swing area,” Quayle told reporters. “This is the heartland of the Reagan Democrats. . . . They’ve got to come home and stay home (with the Republican ticket) in 1992.”

In registration, Democrats outnumber Republicans by 12% in Florida. But Republican strategists believe they may be able to capture the state by focusing on appeals to onetime Democrats who began voting Republican with Ronald Reagan.

They believe that central Florida, with a thick concentration of Southern Democrats and retired Northerners, offers particularly rich pickings. In two of the four counties visited Sunday, Democrats hold a 10% registration plurality. In the two others, registration is about even.

The vice president, appearing cheered by his party’s post-convention “bounce” in the polls, told an audience of several thousand on the shores of Harris Lake in Leesburg that the two presidential candidates are not the same.

President Bush and Bill Clinton “are miles apart on the important issues of the day,” Quayle said. “You don’t create jobs by raising taxes. . . . Furthermore, you don’t strengthen families by raising taxes.”

But lowering taxes to spur initiative and “having safe neighborhoods and safe streets strengthens the family,” Quayle said.

The audiences were receptive, prosperous and virtually all white, fitting the profile of the crowds the vice president has addressed in recent weeks. Nonetheless, Quayle’s appearances drew small knots of protesters.

Quayle was welcomed to Lakeland by a small group of supporters including Jim Bull, who said he moved to nearby Brandon six years ago after selling his house in Arkansas at a $6,000 loss. Bull held a sign that read: “I know how Clinton is--I lived in Arkansas.”

“Tell the whole world,” Quayle told Bull as he shook his hand.

Quayle’s visit to the Lakeland Baptist Church was interrupted by an AIDS protester identified as Josie Parker of the group ACT UP in Tampa.

“I want to thank you for 150,000 AIDS deaths,” said the protester, who jumped up while Quayle was speaking. “I’m dying of AIDS. . . . God loves me. Jesus loves me. I know this.”

Quayle was applauded when he replied: “We spend more per capita on AIDS than on cancer, heart disease and other life-threatening diseases.”

Along with Parker, two other ACT UP members were arrested outside the church for disobeying a police officer.

At the Leesburg rally, which brought out several thousand people in a town of 15,000, a knot of protesters chanted “No second term!” In response, some of Quayle’s fans chanted: “Four more years!”

The protesters held up signs that said, “We Love Hillary” “NOW,” and “Potato.” At a spirited rally in Ocala’s central square, a man lofted a sign that said, with apparent irony: “We hate who you hate.”

Herb Dillman, a 72-year-old retired printing shop owner, was among those in the crowd at Leesburg. He said that he strongly agrees with the Republican ticket’s arguments that the Republicans have superior morality and leadership abilities.

As the caravan--led by a bus nicknamed Asphalt II--moved from town to town through 90-degree heat, Quayle at times stopped to speak briefly to waiting groups of party faithful assembled by local GOP organizations.

Dottie and Bernie Rupp were having a pancake breakfast at a Perkins Family Restaurant in Davenport near Interstate 4, when the Quayles strolled in and sat down at their table.

After 10 minutes of conversation--and a jam of reporters and photographers that caused gridlock in the kitchen--Bernie Rupp, 52, said: “I voted for Bush four years ago but I was thinking of myself as independent this year. But this has helped. I liked what he (Quayle) said about health care. I’m leaning their way now.”

Richter is a Times staff writer and Clary a special correspondent.