Jeb Bush Says Will Seek Re-Election in Florida Jeb Bush Says Will Seek Re-Election in Florida
Friday June 8 1:48 PM ET
By Jim Loney
MIAMI (Reuters) - Six months after his state delivered the White House to brother George W. Bush, Florida's Republican Gov. Jeb Bush announced on Friday he will run for re-election next year, setting the stage for what is likely to be a high-profile governor's race. Jeb Bush, whose state took center stage in the bitter aftermath of the November 2000 presidential election, may find himself pitted against former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who is considering a Democratic bid for governor.
Announcing his bid for a second term on the lawn of Coral Park Elementary School west of Miami after congratulating students on achieving a ``A'' grade in statewide school testing, Bush said education would be his top priority. ``I believe we have unfinished business,'' Bush said. ``There's a window of opportunity in our state to really change the things that need to be changed -- protection of the environment, delivery of social services in a compassionate way, tax relief for small businesses, reforming our education system, making sure it's our first priority.''
Bush's re-election bid was expected to spark an intense campaign amid lingering bitterness in the state over the presidential election. The vote in Florida was so close it was followed by a dramatic six-week legal and political battle, with President Bush eventually defeating his Democratic rival, Al Gore, by just 537 votes to capture the White House. Asked if he expected a backlash from the bitter presidential election, Jeb Bush answered bluntly, ``No.'' But he acknowledged later that Democrats would be massed against him, noting that they intended to raise money for the Democratic candidate from across the country in a bid to make the Florida race a national campaign.
``My interest is to serve Floridians. So I'm going to make it a state race as best I can,'' he said. Reno said in mid-May that she was considering a bid for the governor's mansion but set no timetable for her announcement. She was a state prosecutor in Miami before spending eight years as attorney general during the Clinton administration.
POLL SHOWS CLOSE BUSH-RENO RACE A poll published recently by the Miami Herald indicated a Bush-Reno race would be close, with 49 percent favoring the incumbent, 43 percent for Reno and 8 percent undecided. In his comments to reporters on Friday, Bush addressed only briefly the possibility he might be running against Reno, saying ''I have enormous respect for Attorney General Reno.'' Douglas ``Pete'' Peterson, who resigned as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam in May, is also considering a run for governor, according to the state Democratic Party.
Bush's re-election announcement comes in a week when the presidential election controversy has been revisited because of a report by the Democratic-led U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that is critical of the way the election was handled in the state and blames the governor and other state officials. Bush criticized the report as partisan. But the Florida contest is certain to revive memories of the presidential election drama. State Democrats are eager for revenge against Bush for perceived irregularities in the election that cost Gore his chance at the White House. Republicans fought fiercely in court to prevent vote recounts that Democrats believed could have given Gore the victory.
The governor was already in hot water with many black Floridians, who are largely Democrats, for his efforts to do away with affirmative action in state university enrollment. Perhaps indicating how bitter the race is likely to be, Democrat voters Wade and Amy Perry of Miami heckled Bush, shouting ``liar, liar,'' as he left the school. ``The Bushes make us sick. But we're really just against people stealing elections,'' Amy Perry said. Jeb Bush, a Miami real estate developer before entering politics, also faces a difficult battle with his own brother on the issue of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida coast.
The White House has indicated it favors offshore drilling as part of a national policy to increase domestic energy production, while the governor sides with a vast majority of Floridians in opposing it. Jeb Bush acknowledged he was not seeing eye-to-eye with his brother the president on the Gulf drilling issue. ``We're going to continue to advocate a position that says that our beaches and our natural environment has a value that far exceeds that of offshore drilling,'' he said.
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