Miami Herald profile series on Jim Davis (Part 1)

[seafan]

Jim Davis had a political 'itch'


James Oscar "Jim" Davis III


BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
Sun, Oct. 15, 2006

TAMPA - Shortly before her wedding in 1986, Peggy Bessent had questions for her fiancé, a young Tampa attorney named Jim Davis.
``What are you going to do when you grow up? Are you always going to be a lawyer?''
His answer -- ''I may go into politics'' -- barely registered, and Peggy says she ``kind of forgot about it.''

Jim Davis didn't.

He was making good money at Carlton Fields, a prestigious corporate firm, but he wasn't trying cases, which was unsatisfying for ``a lot of people like me who grew up with this vision of Perry Mason. . . . I got the itch to do something else.''
So, in 1988, when a Florida House seat opened up in his district, he told his wife: ``I'd like to try this.''

snip

In 1972, when Jim was 14 and his parents were divorcing, his grandfather took him to Washington.
They lunched with some of Big Cody's friends: Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, justices Byron White, Lewis Powell, and John Paul Stevens.
Davis says that their leadership qualities -- ''strength and humility as an expression of will, not ego'' -- left a deep impression.

``I saw giants who even cared what an awkward teenage kid thought.''

snip

Jim Davis is running for governor as the Everyman candidate: A dad who sends his kids to public high school, and takes them to Snakes on a Plane. A regular guy whose family lives on his $158,706 congressional salary. The driver of a 2003 Ford Taurus.
He reports a $405,031 net worth, mostly his home's value; he has chosen a lifestyle humbler than the one in which he was raised.

snip

In the mid-'80s, Davis got involved with Metropolitan Ministries, a church-based mission to the poor and homeless, an avocation that turned him toward politics.
''I could have decided to practice law and make money, but I got joy out of the community work, so I decided I'd reverse the two,'' he says.
An Episcopalian, he also grew more devout.
''We went to church every Sunday when I was a kid, more as a matter of duty. But Peggy'' -- raised Methodist -- ``is a person of very deep faith, had an impact on me. . . . I came to the conclusion that there were things I couldn't control. That's how I started learning to deal with pressures and anxieties.
``Now we attend out of devotion. . . . It's one of the ways I can sleep at night.''

(much more)

[flpoljunkie]

1. And Davis has never lost an election. He's 13-0, a savvy politician.

From a profile of Davis in the Palm Beach Post...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2006/10/15/m1a_DAVIS_PROFILE_1015.html

To doubters: He's never lost

The political experts say Davis can't win. That he can't beat Charlie Crist, the more telegenic, better-financed state attorney general who is blowing him away in the polls.

Davis is all too aware of the doubters. But he's quick to remind that he's never lost a race. He is 13-0 in professional politics, including his victory over state Sen. Rod Smith in September's Democratic primary.

His streak includes two upset victories in a 1996 primary to claim his first congressional seat.

In that race, he was overshadowed by Phyllis Busansky, a well-known Hillsborough County commissioner, and Sandy Freedman, Tampa's mayor.

But on the Labor Day weekend before the election, when Busansky and the other candidates assumed most voters would be at beaches and barbecues, Davis used his campaign war chest to flood the area with TV ads.

Today, Busansky credits Davis' last-minute TV gambit for a surge that allowed him win more votes than her and force a run-off election with Freedman, a race he won.

"No other candidate did that in the primary," Busansky says. "He was very savvy."

[seafan]

2. Sounds like Bob Graham, never losing an election. Great endorsement

from the Palm Beach Post today also!