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 Bid for Governor's Race Fund Raising Event Draws the Party's Central Florida Officials Candidate: A Winner Must Emphasize 'Bush Stole the Election' |
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By Jack Nichols
Democratic officials in other parts of the state, catering mainly to former Attorney General Janet Reno, Pete Peterson, and Lois Frankel, had refused until now to recognize the controversial and colorful Kunst as a candidate, although he'd been properly registered as such two months beforehand. Orange County Democrats, however, became the first to break ranks, providing him with a venue to deliver his popular message. The state Party's number-one choice, Janet Reno, has not yet officially declared her intention to run, although she has appeared on numerous occasions hinting that she might. Her possible candidacy, and those of the others, Kunst told his listeners, will be doomed to lose if there is a failure to address the grass roots constituency's widespread anguish about the state's stolen Election 2000. Kunst, energized and confident after two successful weekend pitches he'd made to crowds of disaffected Democrats, told the assembly: "I'm a loyal American and I'm a loyal Democrat. I'm a loyal American first."
Addressing those few who insisted that only a moneyed candidate could win, this reporter recalled Kunst's 1986 primary run against now-Senator Bob Graham. In 1985 Kunst had founded Cure AIDS Now, called by TV-anchor Peter Jennings "the most successful grass roots AIDS organization in the state third hardest-hit." "Armed with only a singular five-thousand dollar contribution and a borrowed pink Mary Kay Cadillac sporting a 'Cure AIDS Now' bumper sticker, Kunst ran in the 1986 primary on an AIDS platform-raising AIDS consciousness in Florida-- persuading 150,000 Democrats to vote for him in the primary. "He was able to do this on a shoestring budget simply because he is, as you've heard, a magnificent orator. His abilities were demonstrated most recently when he raised the 'Bush Stole the Election' issue just before Lois Frankel was scheduled to speak to Cocoa Beach's Democrats about her gubernatorial candidacy. While respectful of Ms. Frankel, the Beach crowd hooted a much more vigorous support for Kunst, making him, as she discovered, an almost impossible act to follow." Kunst noted that there seems to be a total disconnect between Florida's Democratic Party officials and their grass roots constituents on the issue of the stolen election . Allaying the fears of some who worried that he might focus only on the stolen election, candidate Kunst proffered a multi-tired platform which promised to protect Florida from the "over-developers"; to save its water systems from Jeb Bush's embrace of lowered arsenic and sewage standards; to fight the Bush attempt to divert public school tax moneys for education to private religious schools and to overturn Florida's so-called "right to work" policy which pays workers only minimum wages throughout the state while granting power to employers only. Following Kunst's address, Orange County's Democratic stalwarts engaged him in spirited exchanges hinting strong agreement with the forthright candidate's presentation of the issues. He outlined for them his strategy for winning the primary through the gain of a plurality of votes. |
