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December 24, 2009

Bill Cotterell: Cracks appear in GOP unity

Bill Cotterell
Capital Curmudgeon

There's an old bit of sage philosophical wisdom — Chinese, I think — that goes something like,
"Choose your enemies carefully because that's who you will become."

The Florida Republican Party has finally become accustomed to being the dominant force in state
government. Perhaps predictably, it is now becoming more like the Democrats — not in positions on
issues, but in style.

Republicans are not as good at hair-splitting as the Democrats, who can argue furiously for an hour,
then pass a motion 112-3. Although Democrats remain the largest party by registration, they fell from
power partly because of their inability to reunite after sharply dividing over things the average working
Floridian doesn't care about.

Nearing 20 years of increasing power, Republicans are starting to demand ideological purity on the
right as avidly as the Democrats used to excommunicate apostates on the left.

It used to be that the only way the Republicans could win statewide was for the Democrats to start the
race by slashing their own Achilles tendons. And Democrats were happy to do so.

Claude Kirk was our first GOP governor since Reconstruction because Mayor Robert King High of
Miami beat Gov. Haydon Burns in a bitter 1966 Democratic primary. The Democrats couldn't get back
together in November.

So they learned their lesson, right? Are you kidding? They're Democrats.

In 1968, former Gov. LeRoy Collins and Attorney General Earl Faircloth split the party, and a
Republican congressman, Ed Gurney, went to the U.S. Senate. Democrat Dick Stone regained the
seat in the post-Watergate washout of 1974, but he was defeated in 1980 by Insurance Commissioner
Bill Gunter — who went on to lose the general election to the late Sen. Paula Hawkins.

She, incidentally, had won her first statewide race in a 1972 Public Service Commission contest,
preceded by — you guessed it — a fratricidal Democratic primary.

Attorney General Jim Smith and state Rep. Steve Pajcic of Jacksonville did it again in 1986, giving us
Republican Gov. Bob Martinez. Two years later, Gunter and then-U.S. Rep. Buddy MacKay continued
the tradition, and Republican Connie Mack won the U.S. Senate race.

Except for 1970, when Kirk had to beat two Republicans for renomination, the GOP has been fairly
monolithic. Even when Jeb Bush had three challengers in 1994, the nomination was never in doubt.
Mack had a token challenge from his right in 1988, and Martinez won renomination over a similarly
weak opponent in 1990, but the Republicans have had generally tidy little primaries, when necessary.

Until now. Now, the roles have reversed.

The Democrats have only one real primary, with state Sens. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach and Dave
Aronberg of Greenacres vying for attorney general. Their contest has been polite, so far, and so have

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the Democratic races for the U.S. Senate, governor, agriculture commissioner and — assuming
Democrats find a candidate — chief financial officer.

That last one is the Republicans' only tranquil primary. Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm
Beach, has a challenge from Rep. Pat Patterson, R-DeLand, though you'd hardly notice it.

The most interesting Republican race, right now, is between Chairman Jim Greer and a growing
number of GOP state committee members who want to fire him. Democrats wore out a series of party
chairmen — Simon Ferro, Terrie Brady, Mitch Ceasar, Bob Poe, Scott Maddox — during the years of
their demise.

If the only way Greer can keep the gavel at a special meeting next month is by ruling an election out of
order, his job won't be worth keeping. As it is, Florida Republicans are in the awful position of starting
an election year with either a new chairman, or one who virtually forces the party to keep him.

Gov. Charlie Crist, Greer's supporter-in-chief, has seen his lead over Marco Rubio evaporate in the
U.S. Senate race. U.S. Reps. Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, this week withdrew their
endorsement of Crist, without switching to Rubio — saying only that the governor knows why they did
it.

Aside from the sluggish state of party finances, the other thing that got Greer in trouble with GOP
state committee members was his attempt to avoid having major primaries. On paper, this was smart;
you don't need the expense and divisiveness of intra-party fights.

But apparently tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of rank-and-file Republicans wanted a
fight. They get more like the Democrats every election cycle.

Greer and the national Republican leadership endorsed Crist as soon as the governor announced for
the Senate. Greer also attempted to clear the field for Attorney General Bill McCollum, running for
governor, and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, running for attorney general.

McCollum and Kottkamp, like Crist, both have very serious primary challengers. All three men still have
huge advantages of quasi-incumbency, name recognition and money, so they remain front-runners —
for now.

But they don't have the star power or grass-roots loyalty that Jeb Bush or Connie Mack could count
on, just by entering a race. It's likely that GOP nominees will emerge from tough, expensive primaries
in late August with 10 weeks to reunite their party and go up against a unified and reasonably
well-financed Democratic slate.

Contact Senior Political Writer Bill Cotterell at (850) 671-6545 or at bcotterell@tallahassee.com.

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