Gore Camp Elated by Fla. Decision

Within the vice president’s mansion known informally now as The Bunker, Al Gore, his wife, Tipper, and daughter Kristin were alone in the library Friday afternoon. No aides. Not even running mate Joseph I. Lieberman was there.

The top advisors soon would show up. Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, would arrive within an hour, just before sundown on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath. But at this moment, when his battle to gain the White House hung in the balance, Gore, wearing a black sweater, was alone with his family. He wanted it that way.

“It was a private family moment,” said spokeswoman Julia Payne. At that moment, Gore heard the Florida Supreme Court’s decision that kept his presidential quest alive.

The day had begun with allies in the Democratic Party warning publicly that, if the court decided against him, Gore would have no choice but to concede defeat. It was advice Gore did not need because, in that case, concession seemed inevitable.

But after the announcement in Tallahassee, one early-arriving visitor said, Gore’s face betrayed a range of emotions--all positive. He greeted one aide with a faint smile, another with a playful wink. There were telephone calls to be made. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has complained vocally about what he saw as efforts to keep African Americans from the polls, got one of the first calls.

And there was a statement to be issued.

That chore went to Bill Daley, Gore’s campaign chairman. He, with other top aides to the vice president, had made a hasty trip to the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. Daley had been at Democratic National Committee headquarters across town near the Capitol when the court decision was announced at 4 p.m. EST.

“Today’s ruling by the Florida Supreme Court is an important victory for what has been Al Gore and Joe Lieberman’s basic principle since election day, and that is a full and a fair count of all the votes,” said Daley, his demeanor dead neutral.

“This decision is not just a victory for Al Gore and his millions of supporters, it is a victory for fairness and accountability and our democracy itself,” he said, 90 minutes after the Florida court had issued its ruling.

But, signaling concern that subsequent legal appeals and potential action by the Florida Legislature and Congress could yet undermine the victory Friday, Daley added:

“We urge everyone to let the counting, supervised by the independent judiciary, proceed without interruption to a speedy conclusion. All of these matters should be resolved by the Florida judiciary, not by the politicians.”

He said that Gore and Lieberman would “respect the results” of the new count. And, he said, “we urge everyone to respect the will of Florida’s voters and honor the results of the count.”

He made a point of thanking the American people “for their patience.”

In a brief exchange with reporters as he walked back toward the vice presidential mansion, Daley was asked whether he was confident that the Florida decision would withstand a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We feel very good about this decision,” he said.

Would there be enough time for the count?

“Sure,” he replied. Asked how that could be done, he offered the campaign’s newly coined catchwords: “Let the count begin.”

One aide who has been at Gore’s side throughout the last year said that the campaign was “very optimistic” about what the additional counting would show. He cited the belief that many votes, which may have been missed in earlier counts, are in poorer precincts, where older vote-counting machines were more likely to have malfunctioned and voters were more likely to be Democrats.

Another Gore aide, deputy campaign manager Mark D. Fabiani, happily pointed out that the court in effect had opted for a course Gore proposed shortly after the election--a statewide recount, albeit, in this case, just of the ballots on which no presidential vote was picked up by vote-counting machines.

In Tallahassee, campaign spokesman Doug Hattaway said “we’re obviously thrilled and ready to do whatever we can to facilitate a quick and accurate count.”

Tom Nides, who managed Lieberman’s campaign, had one word to describe the mood: “Jubilation.”

Still, the Gore team recognizes that the likely legal challenges, the steps by the Florida Legislature to anoint a slate of electors who would vote for Texas Gov. George W. Bush and, not least of all, the count itself, all pose obstacles.

Using measured, understated words, Payne, the spokeswoman, said: “The vice president is quite pleased with the decision. But we know there’s a lot of work to do. It’s not champagne glass-clinking time.”