Giuliani campaigns with Martinez and other GOP candidates

MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. - Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani helped Mel Martinez on Wednesday by using the popularity he built after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and his national profile to draw crowds at campaign stops for the Republican U.S. Senate candidate.

During a speech before about 200 Republican supporters in Orlando, Giuliani praised Martinez, the former U.S. Housing Secretary, for cutting through bureaucratic red tape to help New Yorkers with housing after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"He spent a lot of time with us. He made sure all the bureaucratic barriers were knocked down so that we could find housing for our people," Giuliani told reporters after his speech. "I would have to list him as one of the people who helped us the most."

Martinez said Giuliani's endorsement meant a great deal because of the mayor's popularity.

"He has such credibility," Martinez said after the speech. "You saw how that crowd reacted. His validation will speak to a lot of people."

Martinez is in close race with former education commissioner Betty Castor, who received the endorsement of the Florida Professional Firefighters Wednesday during a tour of a Tampa firehouse. During her tour, Castor said the Bush administration hadn't provided enough resources for first responders since the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The federal government must understand that homeland security is hometown security and make first responders our first priority," Castor said.

During his speech, Giuliani also offered a blistering attack on John Kerry. Following the playbook of President Bush's re-election campaign, he portrayed the Democratic presidential candidate as a flip-flopper on the war in Iraq and the embargo on Cuba.

"We need a leader in a time of war who can stand firm and not change every time the wind blows," Giuliani said.

Giuliani's visit to Orlando, in the heart of the crucial Interstate 4 corridor, came a day after Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards led a rally of several thousands supporters in the arena where the Orlando Magic play basketball.

Magic player Grant Hill and former 'N Sync member Chris Kirkpatrick introduced the Democrats at the rally at which Kerry accused Bush of not leveling with the American people about the reasons for and the cost of the Iraq war.

-- Miami Herald

Kerry Appeals To Blacks In Florida Swing

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Democrat John Kerry made his second campaign trip to north Florida Tuesday, hoping to build on a strong base of support among this city's blacks -- a key to his hopes of carrying the state in the presidential election.

While Kerry was pushing his health care reforms in Jacksonville, Sen. John Edwards, his running mate, was campaigning in Tampa. Kerry and Edwards held another rally in central Florida late Tuesday. Today, they're in South Florida talking about health care.

Many Florida Democrats have claimed since Bush's razor-thin win by 537 Florida votes in the 2000 presidential race that the president stole the election when voting recounts were halted by a divided Supreme Court.

Among the disputed ballots were about 27,000 in Duval County -- most of them in four city precincts which were predominantly black and Democrat. A poorly worded punch card ballot instructed voters to vote for a candidate on each page. However, the presidential candidates were on two pages. Voters who followed the instructions had their ballot tossed out for "over voting."

Speaking at a rally in downtown Jacksonville before about 750 people, Kerry pledged that this time, "every vote will count and be counted."

Former State Rep. Mike Langton, speaking before Kerry's address, told the crowd he knew that the race was stolen from us and we "are not going to let it happen again."

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, first elected to Congress in 1992, said she believes blacks will support Kerry in droves and she exhorted those attending the rally to ask Kerry "to take off the gloves" in his campaign against the president.

"The African-American community is going to be behind Kerry. The African-American community knows what is at stake in this election," Brown said.

"So many of the policies of the Bush administration, we feel it directly, including Medicare, the war in Iraq and cuts in housing," said Brown, seeking her 7th term in Congress. "When America has a cold, the African-American community has pneumonia."

Debra Edwards, 48, a church secretary, listened to Kerry's speech from the hall after fire marshals said the room was too full and she couldn't enter. She said she plans to support the Democrat.

"He's the lesser of two evils," she said. "As an African-American woman, neither party has been good to us."

"If the votes are all counted, Kerry wins," she said of the Massachusetts senator.

Bush carried Duval County by 44,000 votes over Democrat Al Gore, who never made a campaign trip to northeast Florida. Although registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans, 225,182 to 175,382, the county has not supported the Democratic presidential nominee since 1976, when Jimmy Carter carried the county by 31,000 votes.

An Orlando rally late Tuesday was attended by about 10,000 supporters in the arena where the Orlando Magic play basketball. It featured endorsements from Magic player Grant Hill and former 'N Sync member Chris Kirkpatrick.

During his speech in Orlando, Kerry expressed sympathy for Florida residents who have suffered from the hurricanes and promised there wouldn't be a repeat of the botched 2000 election.

Brown told the Orlando crowd she was disturbed from news reports that said black voters weren't excited about the election. She feared that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas would be named chief judge if Bush were re-elected and had to make an appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, she said.

"You know what that means, African Americans?" she said. "Civil rights -- over!"

In Tampa, John Edwards addressed the issue of black voters in response to a question.

He said it is important to reach out to the black community and get more people registered.

"We understand exactly what the Republicans understand -- when more people vote, we win," Edwards said.

Louis Muhammad, 46, operations manager for the media company, Tampa Broadcasting Inc., said he was an independent black voter because Democrats don't feel like they have to work for his vote.

"I think it is a mistake for the black community to look at voting for the Kerry-Edwards ticket just to get Bush out of office rather than finding out what Kerry and Edwards bring to the table," he said.

Karen Porter, a 32-year-old postal worker, said she is not hearing the candidates talk about issues important to blacks.

"Back in the '60s, the things the older blacks fought, bled and died for, we're not taking advantage of a lot of those opportunities that we have as black people. Things are being snatched away from us right under our noses and we don't realize it," said Porter, who was waiting in line to see Edwards in Tampa.

At the Tampa rally, Edwards said millions of Americans have lost health care and fallen into poverty while Bush was president.

"They had four years to do something about it, and they did nothing," Edwards said.

-- Local10.com