Jeb Bush wins big in Florida
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Jeb Bush
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(AllPolitics, November 3) -- Republican Jeb Bush, the second son of former President George Bush, won the Florida governor's race, defeating Democrat rival Buddy MacKay easily and propelling yet another Bush family member into the nation's political landscape.
The win also makes up for a failed 1994 bid, when Bush lost to Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, who is now retiring. Bush moved to the center and reached out to more Democratic constituencies, courting Hispanic voters and exploiting a rift among blacks in the Democratic Party to build an impressive lead over MacKay.
MacKay closed in on Bush in the polls during the final week, after trailing the Republican candidate in previous polls anywhere from 10 points to 17 points. With a big campaign war chest and as a veteran gubernatorial candidate, Bush entered the race as the favorite.
Florida is the fourth most-populated state in the nation and one of the most diverse and dynamic as well.
MacKay has had a long career in state and national politics, serving in both houses of the state Legislature and in the U.S. Congress for three terms. He also narrowly lost a bid for the U.S. Senate.
But MacKay's gubernatorial campaign had trouble getting off the ground, stumbling from the start by a split among black Democrats. That split came in January, when white House members expelled state Rep. Willie Logan of Opa-locka as their speaker-designate. The move led Logan and other blacks to support Bush's candidacy.
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Buddy MacKay
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As an underdog in the polls, MacKay could not afford to turn down a visit from President Bill Clinton, even at the height of the White House sex scandal.
Both the president and first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, paid another visit in the final week of the campaign, giving MacKay a much needed financial boost.
The Republican National Committee gave $400,000 to the state GOP in Florida to help Bush's campaign.
Courting the key elderly vote
Both men courted the votes of older people. Floridians over 65 represent about 25 percent of the state's population but make up 40 percent of the voters who turn out at the polls.
The two candidates vowed to hold the line on taxes, protect the rights of the elderly to choose their doctors, control untimely placements in nursing homes and halt Florida's reign as the scam capital of the United States.
During one September outing, Bush spent four hours at a Largo nursing home and in Leisureville, a popular retirement community. That's a lot of time answering questions on the state intangibles tax, health care and immigrants. Bush traded on the appeal of his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush.
"I'm the apple of my mom's eye," he told the Largo audience.
MacKay, 65, stressed his lengthy public service and military experience in his campaign commercials. He also released a comprehensive "elder plan."
Florida's political history has favored Republicans. Democrats have made inroads in the 1990s. Florida was one of two states that Clinton lost in 1992, but then won in 1996. Arizona was the other.
If Jeb Bush's brother, George W. Bush, wins in Texas, the Bush brothers would become the first siblings to govern two states at the same time since Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller ran New York and Arkansas in the 1970s.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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