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Florida U.S. Senate 2004

Candidate Backgrounds

Background

During his appointment as HUD Secretary, the White House encouraged Martinez to run in this election. After winning the primary, officials gave him a 10-minute speech preceding the President’s at the GOP National Convention in an effort to closely align him with President Bush. Here, he emphasized his rags-to-riches story, a fulfillment of the American Dream (Clark and Davies 2004). Republicans expect Cuban-American voters to turnout and help Martinez become the first Cuban-American elected to the U.S. Senate and the President hopes these faithful Republicans will help him win the much needed swing state (Buckley 2004).

However, Betty Castor has popular Democrats such as Bob Graham and Senator Nelson rallying behind her (Buckley 2004). As a state senator, she served as the first female president protempore. During this time she initiated the successful Healthy Kids insurance program, which she plans to expand. Education has also always been a strong issue for her, given her experience as a teacher, university president, and Florida’s Education Commissioner. During the primary, Castor was the only candidate who had previously won a statewide election (All About, 2004). Throughout her campaign she has remained moderate and her stance on issues should appeal to the undecideds of this election (Hollis and Kleindienst 2004).

Possible Pitfalls

One of Martinez’s biggest challenges will be overcoming his primary campaign, during which he resorted to attacking his opponents, gaining a reputation as a bigot. Also, Martinez appealed to the most conservative voters in order to win the nomination, and may have trouble returning to the center (Hollis and Kleindienst 2004). Another point of criticism for Martinez has been his background as a trial lawyer. Subsequently, Republicans may have to restrain from criticizing John Edwards for his similar background to avoid seeming hypocritical.

For the most part, Castor was able to stay above attack ads in her Primary campaign, but she did face some malicious accusations from Democratic opposer Deutsch regarding her handling of a situation at USF. (Ad Spotlight ) As president of the university, she initiated the suspension of Sami Al-Arian, a professor with terrorist ties. However, Martinez may have trouble if he brings up the issue due to the fact that Al-Arian campaigned for Bush in 2000 (Buckley 2004). Another point of contention could be her opposition to Bush's No Child Left Behind act (Buckley 2004).

Works Cited

Pledged

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Created: 9/8/04. Last updated: 9/10/04.