In Florida, 2004 Hopefuls Denounce the 2000 Vote

Contenders for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination returned Saturday to the most heated battleground of campaign 2000, stoking the embers of Florida’s disputed vote count three years ago and lashing President Bush before a huge crowd of partisans.

Speaking at the state Democratic Party convention, the candidates mixed familiar criticisms of Bush’s record with jabs evoking the widespread sense among party activists that Bush stole the White House with his controversial 537-ballot victory in Florida.

“We will never forget what happened to [Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees] Al Gore and Joe Lieberman almost three years ago,” said Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Similarly, retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark said Bush had divided the nation “by trying to take an election that I think any reasonable person would say he hadn’t actually won.”

Such sharp reminders of 2000’s bitter battle highlighted an enthusiastic convention that provided another demonstration of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s powerful appeal to many of his party’s faithful.

Dean supporters put on the most impressive show of strength among the more than 5,000 Democrats who gathered in a hotel at the edge of Walt Disney World. When he spoke, the hall filled with an instant forest of pro-Dean signs -- a larger presence than any of the other candidates mustered.

Sticking to his usual stump speech, Dean said less about the 2000 recount than most of the other contenders, though in remarks after his speech he called what happened in Florida “a subversion of democracy.”

Bush won the state -- and the election -- after the U.S. Supreme Court stopped a recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court. The ruling left in place Bush’s 537-vote edge in the state out of nearly 6 million ballots cast, and gave him a razor-thin majority in the electoral college.

Speaking to reporters in a hallway outside the convention hall, Ralph Reed Jr., former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party and former executive director of the Christian Coalition, said Democrats were miscalculating by looking back so ardently to the 2000 furor.

“George W. Bush won Florida; he was elected president, and I think the Democratic presidential candidates’ failure to acknowledge that fact and offer a positive, optimistic vision for the future of the country is just a sign of their weakness,” Reed said.

Florida Democrats tried to use the recount issue to fuel anger at Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, the president’s brother, in his 2002 gubernatorial reelection campaign, but he won in a landslide. Nonetheless, apart from Dean and Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri -- who avoided the subject in his speech -- the other leading Democratic candidates poked at the wounds from 2000.

Edwards and Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts both used the Florida backdrop to raise questions about Diebold Election Systems Inc., a company that manufactures ATM-like touch-screen voting machines scheduled for use in several states in 2004. Kerry and Edwards charged that the machines raise questions of potential fraud, in part because the company’s chief executive officer, Walden O’Dell, has been a major Bush fundraiser.

Implying that the machines could be used to disenfranchise minority voters, Kerry declared: “We are going to guarantee that every vote is counted. We did not break the back of Jim Crow in order to find it restored in Jim Crow.com.”

David Bear, a spokesman for Diebold, said such criticisms were unjustified. “We know that [the machines] are secure, accurate ... and when voters have an opportunity to vote on them ... they find them very user-friendly,” he said.

Lieberman, the U.S. senator from Connecticut who was at the center of the 2000 dispute as Gore’s running mate, did not speak on Saturday because he does not campaign on the Jewish Sabbath. But according to excerpts of his speech for today provided to reporters, he will also jump on the pile, arguing that Bush’s tactics during the recount fight were “a sign” of polarizing tactics he charged the president has used to govern.

Clark raised the same argument Saturday, emphasizing the issue more than any other speaker. Yet after his remarks, Clark faced questions from reporters who asked why he had not spoken out during the recount itself -- and praised the Bush administration during an appearance at a GOP fundraiser in 2001. “Because I believed that this country needed to move on, just like ... Gore said” in conceding the election, Clark replied.

The convention provided the Democratic contenders one of their largest audiences so far outside of Iowa and New Hampshire, the states where the nominating contests begin in January. Aside from Lieberman, two other Democratic hopefuls missed Saturday’s gathering -- the Rev. Al Sharpton and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois. Neither planned to attend today’s session.

Florida is unlikely to play a major role in settling the Democratic race because, most experts believe, the nominee will almost certainly be apparent before it holds its primary March 9. Yet the leading candidates viewed the convention as an important stop. Florida is a major source of campaign funds, and Democratic strategists almost universally consider the state crucial to their hopes of unseating Bush in November.

A statewide Miami Herald-St. Petersburg Times poll released Friday showed Dean (at 16%), Lieberman (at 15%) and Clark (also at 15%) in a statistical tie for first, with Gephardt (9%), Kerry (6%) and Edwards (3%) lagging.

If enthusiasm at the convention is any gauge, Dean has made the largest inroads among Florida activists, with Clark a clear second and Kerry probably next behind.

Dean supporters swarmed the convention center, distributing stickers and posters and wearing buttons that read, “Give ‘em Hell, Howard.” Dean is a former physician, and some of his backers wore nurses’ scrubs or doctors’ lab coats. As in other states, Dean’s support appeared based largely on his opposition to the war in Iraq at a moment when most of the Democratic contenders were backing it.

“He told the truth when everyone else was putting their fingers up to the wind to see which way the wind was blowing,” said Jerry Buechler, a firefighter from Miami Beach.

Clark also generated a significant presence; when he arrived at the convention, about 250 sign-waving supporters surged outside to greet him. One man’s sign read: “Support the Soldiers: Elect One.”

Almost without exception, Clark supporters said they preferred him because they believed he has the best chance of defeating Bush.

Sheila Lederman, a computer consultant from Parkland, Fla., termed Clark’s rivals “all wonderful men,” but added, “I don’t think they have the credentials to beat this president.”

At one point, it appeared the Dean and Clark campaigns might come to blows. Outside the convention hall, the two sides stood virtually face to face, barking at each other with competing chants of “We Want Dean!” and “Go, Wes, Go!” Then a Clark supporter began chanting, “No More Bush!” After a moment, both sides picked up the cry, and the two groups of Democrats united, for a moment at least, in their shared antipathy toward the president.