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Bush Brothers' Election Strategies Republicans Masquerading as Democrats in the Sunshine State Florida's Independent Candidate Bob Kunst Sounds Off at Jeb
Referring to another Bush who is currently Florida's governor, independent gubernatorial candidate Bob Kunst continues to speak on the theft in his home state of the 2000 presidential election and is now citing Jeb's "vote fix" brazenly repeated in the September 10, 2002 Florida primaries. Kunst has recently been quoted in a number of Florida newspapers. Following Friday's Bush-McBride debate, Central Florida's ABC News television affiliate in Orlando carried Kunst's commentary, daring the "dull" candidates to include him in their debates. "Following two stolen elections in Florida," Kunst told GayToday, "Jeb Bush now faces off against me-since I'm still on the ballot and Janet Reno isn't-and against a Faux Democrat who ought to be called McBush (i.e. instead of McBride). "Nobody seems to wonder where this Phony McBush Democrat came from," notes Kunst warily. "He had no name-recognition before Jeb's TV commercials gave it to him. He's a lawyer and his firm donated $100,000 to the GOP. He also helped engineer the hijacking of Election 2000 by finding Jeb that Texas firm that was supposed to purge voter rolls properly, but expunged 57,000 legitimate voters that have yet to be replaced.
"Proper taxes to be paid by those oily corporations who've been lured to Florida because Jeb's now giving them huge tax breaks on the side of the over-developers, selling our beautiful paradise to a bunch of greedy corporate profiteers." Kunst, who found himself facing very few Florida Democratic Party operatives who'd allow him to speak prior to the September 10 primary, is now being accused by them - by virtue of being on Florida's November 7 gubernatorial ballot-of drawing votes away from Democratic primary "winner" Bill McBride. Miami Herald columnist Jim Defede wondered on September 24, however, about the entire McBride phenomenon: "His conduct in the days immediately following the primary was disgraceful, and his belief he was being honorable by waiting two whole days before declaring himself the victor makes his behavior all the more egregious. "When South Florida voters -- especially black voters in Miami-Dade County -- were being disenfranchised, when they were being told for the second time in two years that their votes weren't going to be counted, McBride was busy penning his victory speech." Tyler Bridges, also representing the Miami Herald, is already proclaiming that the "Education issue keeps Bush ahead," while Peter Wallsten (Miami Herald, September 29) tells us that Bill McBride is out of sync with a major Democratic constitunency, namely African-Americans, much-needed for any Democratic win. He cites a recent poll in the African-American community showing 25% who'd otherwise vote as Democrats plan to vote for Bush. He writes: "For a variety of reasons that were all perfectly avoidable, the new Democratic nominee for governor is just now introducing himself to his party's most important voters -- the voters who will have to turn out in huge numbers for him to beat Jeb Bush in six weeks. "For a man who actually believed long ago that he would be the nominee, one would think he would have wanted to at least attempt to forge a friendship…McBride grew up in segregated Leesburg in Central Florida and admittedly didn't have a lot of contact with black folks on the other side of town." Bob Kunst found that African-American voters in North Florida believed that McBride had stolen the September 10 primary. Kunst fervently believes that many top Democratic Party leaders in Florida are actually willing pawns of the corporatocracy "every bit as much as are the Republicans. We need a rebirth of the Democratic Party in Florida and across the nation," he told GayToday. "We need to be the new Democrats. The old Democrats are Republicrats -rats-who'll sell us down the river. You noticed on the national level how timid they've been. They're on the take from the corporatocracy, that's why they're so damned timid." To prove his point, Kunst produces a list of Florida mayors, county sheriffs and other prominent Democrats. Calling them traitors to the Democratic Party or "fifth column Republicans," guilty of openly supporting Republican Jeb Bush's re-election in November, Kunst at first ridicules their treachery. Then, in a more subdued mood, he describes it as "chilling." His list of Democratic "turn-coats" reads: Democrats for Jeb Steering Committee Pete Antonacci, Former Florida Statewide Prosecutor, Former Deputy Attorney General Milton Aponte, Attorney and Activist for the Developmentally Disabled Charlie Aycock, Osceola County Sheriff Paula Barton, Baker County Schools Superintendent Steven Bateman, Homestead City Council Member Harold Bazzell, Bay County Clerk of Courts Barney Bishop, Former Executive Director of the Florida Democratic Party Matti Bower, Miami Beach Commissioner Cornel Brock, Chairman of Bay County Commission Larry Campbell, Leon County Sheriff Theresa Ciummo, Pembroke Park City Commissioner Howard Clark, Pembroke Park City Commissioner Bob Crawford, Former Agriculture Commissioner David Dermer, Mayor of Miami Beach John Fugate, Desoto County Sheriff Luis Garcia, Miami Beach Commissioner Ernie George, President of the Police Benevolent Association Howard Godwin, Highlands County Sheriff Dick Greco, Mayor of Tampa Julia Johnson, Member of the Florida Board of Education Joe Klock, Chairman and Managing Partner, Steel Hector & Davis LLP Harold Knowles, Attorney and Trustee, Florida State University Dr. Bob Levy, Pembroke Park City Manager Raul Masvidal, Managing Director, Masvidal Partners, Inc. Manny Medina, CEO of Terremark Carson McCall, Lafayette County Sheriff John McDaniel, Jackson County Sheriff C.K. "Mac" McElyea, Dania Beach City Commissioner Frank McKeithen, Gulf County Sheriff Bob Milner, Bradford County Sheriff Wayne Mixson, Former Governor of Florida Herb Morgan, Former State Representative Jim Naugle, Mayor of Fort Lauderdale Leon Nettles, Wakulla County Commissioner R. Donahue Peebles, President and CEO of Peebles Atlantic Development Corporation Fred Peel, Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Porter, Homestead City Council Member James Rider, Glades County Sheriff Charles Shields, Mayor of St. Marks Roy Shiver, Vice Mayor of Florida City Emma Shoaff, Pembroke Park City Commissioner Ron Silver, Florida State Senator James Harold Thompson, Former Speaker of the House Don Tucker, Former Speaker of the House David Turner, Gilchrist County Sheriff Steve Uhlfelder, Former Regent, Florida Counsel Clinton/Gore 1996 Judy Waldman, Homestead City Council Member Keith Wasserstrom, Hollywood City Commissioner T.K. Wetherell, Former Speaker of the House Annette Wexler, Mayor of Pembroke Park W.A. Woodham, Gadsden County Sheriff Steve Worley, Hendry County Sheriff |
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"As the election nears," writes Frank Rich in Saturday's New York Times, "the Democrats want to talk about the economy, and every time they try, Mr. Bush drowns it out with 'Iraq,' a word so overpowering it can make grown Americans forget that their pensions are in the toilet."
Jeb Bush on the campaign trail