Labor backs Deutsch, Castor (For Florida's Senator Graham's seat)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Mon, Jun. 28, 2004


Labor backs Deutsch, Castor

About 200 labor leaders attended the Florida AFL-CIO convention in Orlando over the weekend, lobbying for their preferred candidate to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Graham.

BY BETH REINHARD

[e-mail]


Florida labor leaders withheld exclusive bragging rights from Congressman Peter Deutsch and former state education commissioner Betty Castor, deciding Sunday to co-endorse the Democratic rivals for the U.S. Senate.

With Castor supported by most public school teachers and Deutsch backed by various teamsters, plumbers and other workers around the state, neither could muster the two-thirds super-majority needed to capture the AFL-CIO endorsement.
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''In the past there have been some pretty divisive battles about endorsements, so a decision was made to stand unified and keep our eye on the prize, which is of course the White House,'' said AFL-CIO spokesman Rich Templin. ``It dilutes the strength of the endorsement in the primary, but we're going to make sure one of these two is on the ticket.''

The labor organization ignored the other main Democratic contender, Miami-Dade Alex Penelas, largely because of violent confrontations between police and union protesters in Miami during last year's Free Trade of the Americas summit. While Penelas was not expected to win AFL-CIO support, the co-endorsement of his opponents reinforces his third-place standing in the polls.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/9028077.htm
(Free registration required)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Terrorism at fore in Senate race (Republican candidate, McCollum)

Posted on Mon, Jun. 28, 2004



Terrorism at fore in Senate race

McCOLLUM


Republican Senate race front-runner Bill McCollum said he warned the country for years that terrorists would strike but said the Clinton White House didn't listen.

BY MARC CAPUTO

[e-mail]


TALLAHASSEE - The tongue-twister names -- Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Ayman al-Zawahiri -- slip easily off Bill McCollum's tongue at any of his rapid-fire geopolitical campaign speeches that, in mere moments, sweep across continents and decades.

All of it is designed to convey the message that McCollum can talk terrorism better than the seven other Republican U.S. Senate candidates, each of whom supports the administration's war policies.

A frequent guest on cable news talk shows, McCollum has started campaigning with a copy of the new book Losing Bin Laden by Wall Street Journal writer Richard Miniter, which casts the former congressman as a prophetic voice ignored by a bumbling Clinton White House. Also, McCollum often cites alarming reports issued by the House Republicans' Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, which he helped found and lead while in Congress.

But while the pro-war, anti-Clinton speeches will play well with Republicans likely to vote in the Aug. 31 primary, they could just as easily blow back in any candidate's face -- particularly McCollum's.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/9027722.htm
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