Gore Allies Plan Rally to Pressure Fla. Legislature

Civil rights and labor leaders have summoned thousands of protesters to Florida’s state capital on Wednesday to pressure the Florida Legislature into staying out of the presidential election.

After a month of daily protests across the state by Republican supporters of George W. Bush, an array of groups backing Al Gore hopes to upstage them with the biggest rally since the Nov. 7 election.

The organizers, led by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said the court setbacks that Gore suffered on Monday would only embolden the protesters.

“We want to send a message to the Florida Legislature that voters have been appalled by the . . . suggestion to call a special session to essentially handpick the next president of the United States,” Sweeney said. “I think such a session would be outrageous and shameful.”

Gore advisors and Democratic Party leaders are backing the demonstration, a sharp turnabout after weeks of discouraging rallies for the vice president.

“We’re going to ask our people to rise up and let their voices be heard,” said Greg Simon, a senior Gore advisor. “What the Legislature is doing is a bunch of bullhocky, and the people won’t take it.”

Florida’s Republican House speaker, Tom Feeney, has voiced support for a special session this week to name a Bush slate to the electoral college. The move would nullify any potential Gore victory in his battle to win Florida.

But Senate President John McKay, also a Republican, has not agreed to convene the session. If Gore drops or loses his court fight, GOP lawmakers could spare themselves the voter backlash they might set off by mandating Bush as the winner of the Florida election.

Regardless of what the lawmakers ultimately decide, Gore allies were determined Monday to keep up the pressure.

“I think our elected officials would be very foolish to overstep the will of the people,” said Marilyn P. Lenard, the president of the Florida AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO is the rally’s main organizer. The labor federation has 445,000 active and retired members in Florida, including teachers, flight attendants and construction workers. Many of them “don’t want a state Legislature shortchanging the system,” Lenard said.

Unions have dispatched buses to Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and other parts of South Florida to pick up protesters starting tonight at midnight for the ride north to Tallahassee on the Panhandle. Sweeney said he expected up to 20,000 people to fill the state Capitol plaza.

Some Republican lawmakers seemed unfazed.

“I’m sure they’re going to raise quite a fuss,” said state Rep. Johnnie Byrd, a central Florida Republican. “They’re entitled to that. It’s a free country.”

Jamie Wilson, the executive director of the Florida Republican Party, sidestepped the question of whether Bush supporters will stage a counterdemonstration.

“This isn’t about rallies,” he said. “This is about the state Legislature and its independently elected members upholding their duties and obligations to the Florida Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.”

Labor leaders have been scrambling since Friday to put together the rally. Among the groups helping are the Sierra Club and the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

The purpose is not just to keep the Legislature out of the election.

Jackson said it would also be a protest against the faulty voting machines, illegal ballots and other election day troubles that blocked African Americans from having their votes counted.

“You can afford to lose the election, but not to lose your franchise,” Jackson said. “This is what Selma and Montgomery were all about.”

“People are really fired up,” said Monica Russo, an executive committee member of the NAACP’s Miami-Dade branch. “We are outraged that many of our votes haven’t even been counted.”

She cited data suggesting outdated voting equipment and improper ballots in low-income black precincts caused a disproportionate number of African Americans to cast votes deemed invalid.

“Frankly, at this point, it isn’t about Al Gore,” she said. “It’s about disenfranchisement of the people, and the votes that have been thrown away.”