Bush Stumps in Florida

MIAMI -- After a weekend at his Texas ranch, President Bush resumed his fund-raising drive Monday, picking up $3 million in two appearances in Florida, a key battleground state.

Separately, Vice President Dick Cheney brought in more than $1.1 million at fund-raising events in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Akron, Ohio.

Monday’s events ended a two-week fund-raising push for the 2004 Bush-Cheney reelection campaign that could reach $30 million by the time all the checks are counted.

The campaign also is soliciting funds over the Internet and has sent out more than 1 million pieces of direct mail. By next summer, the campaign expects to raise $170 million to $200 million -- far more than the eventual Democratic presidential nominee is likely to have to raise for the primaries.

Before attending the day’s first fund-raising event, a $2,000-a-plate luncheon, Bush stopped at a low-income senior center in this city’s Little Havana section to tout Medicare reform and Cuban independence, receiving rousing approval on both counts from several hundred elderly citizens.

Bush’s appearance at the Little Havana Activities and Nutrition Center was striking in at least one respect: In recent presidential campaigns, senior centers, especially in Florida, were a favorite stop for Democrats, who engaged in what Republicans denounced as “Medi-scare” tactics.

Voters traditionally have favored the Democratic Party on Medicare issues. But with a Republican-controlled Congress on the verge of finally adding prescription-drug coverage to Medicare, the political dynamics of the issue may be shifting.

And the president’s spirited appearance at the senior center here suggested that he and other Republicans believe that they, at last, are about to defuse Medicare as a campaign issue that perennially puts them on the defensive.

In the center’s low-ceilinged, jam-packed recreation hall, Bush called on Congress to quickly resolve the differences between the Senate and House versions of the legislation.

“There’s a lot of commonality between them,” the president said, urging a conference committee to “get a good bill to my desk, so that I can then say, and all of us can say, ‘We’ve done our jobs on behalf of America’s seniors.’ ”

Bush was joined at the senior center by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson and the agency’s assistant secretary for aging, Josefina Carbonell, who has rarely appeared with Bush outside of Washington. The Cuban-born Carbonell was a founder of the facility and served as its president.

Nicolle Devenish, the president’s chief campaign spokeswoman, said Bush raised $1.8 million at the Miami luncheon and an additional $1.2 million at a reception in Tampa on Monday night.

In both fund-raising speeches, the president covered familiar ground, emphasizing the dual themes of his reelection bid: national security and economic security.

The trip was Bush’s 15th to Florida as president. The only states he has visited more are Pennsylvania, another crucial battleground state, and Texas, his home state.