Folksy Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, 68, Dies, Apparently of Heart Attack

Gov. Lawton Chiles, a folksy Southern Democrat scheduled to leave office next month, died at age 68 Saturday after apparently suffering a heart attack, an aide said.

Chiles was found next to his cycling machine in the gymnasium in the governor’s mansion, said Linda Shelley, his chief of staff.

Chiles wielded political power for almost 40 years, including 18 as a U.S. senator and eight more as governor. The onetime state legislator championed health care reform and unsuccessfully sought tax reform while governor.

He became a power broker as chairman of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, uniting fellow Democrats against the MX missile program and Reagan administration budget proposals. He quit the Senate over congressional gridlock before the phrase became a popular political excuse.

Chiles first won the governor’s office in 1990 over Republican Gov. Bob Martinez. He scored his most impressive and hardest-fought election victory in 1994, when he stood alone in statehouse races among large-state Democratic incumbents against a Republican tide, defeating presidential son Jeb Bush in the closest governor’s race in Florida history. Bush finally won the office in November over Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay, who will complete Chiles’ term.

Known for his folksy wit, Chiles was remembered by friends and foes alike as a politician who could make complex issues understandable to the people.

“He had no ego,” said friend Harold Lewis. “He was a Florida cracker and was proud of that.”

President Clinton, in a statement issued from Israel, where Clinton was visiting, said he and his wife were “deeply saddened” to learn of Chiles’ death.

“Gov. Chiles was, I think, in most Floridians’ eyes, the epitome of a fine and decent man, a throwback to the age when partisanship didn’t play the role it plays,” said Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat and member of the Judiciary Committee that Saturday approved a fourth article of impeachment against the president.

Chiles repeatedly capitalized on populist sentiment with a length-of-the-state walk in 1970, his self-imposed $100 limit on campaign contributions in the 1990 governor’s race and an early attack on the breadth of government agencies and their regulations.

He led Florida during its lawsuit to recover health treatment costs tied to smoking.

The tobacco industry eventually agreed to pay the state $11.3 billion in what Chiles called “the best fight of my life.”

Chiles became wealthy as an original investor in Red Lobster restaurants.

He is survived by his wife, Rhea, and four adult children.