Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Maybe someone out there knows what Sen. Bob Graham is going to do now that his presidential campaign has ended and his Senate seat is up for grabs in 2004. But the odds are that the only people who have a strong sense of Graham's next step are his wife, Adele, and his four daughters. After all, this is the same man who announced his decision on the presidency last week on CNN's "Larry King Live" to the shock of many members of his senior campaign staff. Graham spokesman Paul Anderson still expects his decision on the Senate...

MIAMI - Rep. Mark Foley formally opened his campaign for Senate on Tuesday, filing papers to seek the seat now held by Democratic presidential hopeful Bob Graham. Foley, a five-term Republican, filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission and paperwork establishing a fund-raising committee for his Senate campaign. Graham has said he does not "anticipate" running for re-election but has not ruled out another Senate race next year. Five Democrats have announced plans to run if Graham declines another term, but Foley was quick to focus on the three-term senator. "Floridians deserve a senator who will work...

In his quest for a seat in the U.S. Senate, Rep. Mark Foley has rankled a group that is barely covered in most elections: nudists. Foley, of West Palm Beach, has hit the national TV and radio talk-show circuit in recent weeks to bash a Tampa-area summer camp not unlike most camps -- except that the boys and girls, ages 11-18, are naked. Foley, a Republican hoping to replace Sen. Bob Graham, says that letting naked teenagers play together is immoral and potentially dangerous. But ''naturists'' who say the camp exposes their children to a perfectly healthy and wholesome education...

WEST PALM BEACH - U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, who's seeking the GOP nomination for Senate, held onto his large fund-raising advantage over Bill McCollum, his party's unsuccessful nominee in 2000. Foley announced Tuesday that he has raised nearly $3.2 million for the race and $734,000 this quarter, more than twice as much as McCollum, who brought in $315,000 in the past three months. McCollum has raised nearly $670,000 to date. But supporters of McCollum, a former U.S. representative from the Orlando area, say he gained valuable momentum, nearly doubling his overall fund-raising total with donations from 3,000 people in 59...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who has already said he's interested in running for U.S. Sen. Bob Graham's seat, may go to court to see if Graham would violate Florida law by seeking the presidency at the same time he's on the ballot for re-election to the Senate. In a response to a Deutsch inquiry, Tallahassee attorney Mark Herron said Florida law may not prevent Graham from qualifying for re-election to the Senate while he seeks the Democratic nomination for president, or possibly a vice presidential role at some point. Graham's bid for president does not qualify him...

TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, a North Florida Democrat, is organizing a campaign for the U.S. Senate on the premise that he is well-positioned to win a crowded party primary and then challenge any Republican statewide. Boyd has commissioned a poll that portrays a wide-open contest among Democrats who hope to replace U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., next year, and he has started lining up supporters before a campaign announcement. "Sometime after July 4, he will probably make an announcement," said Barney Bishop, a Tallahassee lobbyist, political consultant and Boyd friend. Boyd, a congressman from tiny Monticello since 1996,...

Former Education Commissioner Betty Castor, who left the Cabinet to become president of the University of South Florida 10 years ago, announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Monday. Castor named former Auditor General Charles Lester as her campaign treasurer. She also put together the nucleus of a campaign staff that will be headquartered in Tampa, Castor's political base as a county commissioner and state legislator. "After three weeks of exploring a candidacy, I have been encouraged both by friends and people I've never met before, in Florida and in Washington, to run for the U.S. Senate," she said....

Florida State Sen. Daniel Webster appears poised to enter the Republican primary to challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Graham next year. Webster would join former Rep. Bill McCollum, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2000, and Rep. Mark Foley in the contest. Webster was not available for comment. Webster, 54, is regarded as a principled social conservative. First elected to the Florida Legislature from central Florida in 1980, Webster came to preside over the House as speaker in 1996 when the GOP recaptured the chamber after 122 years. In 1998, he ran unopposed for the state Senate. Rep. Tom Feeney...

This may be just the campaign for Katherine Harris. Florida's looming election season offers Republicans a chance to cement a slim majority in the U.S. Senate. But few candidates could attract as much national attention -- and money -- as Harris, the newly seated congresswoman from Sarasota, former secretary of state and heroine for some, devil for others, from the fabled 2000 election. The beauty of Harris is her name, so well-known that she can afford to wait much longer than anyone else before entering any statewide race. "I always say I am famous or infamous," Harris says. Her best...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sens. John Edwards and Bob Graham may be busy running for president, but their fellow Democrats back home are in limbo as they anxiously await word on the pair's Senate re-election plans for next year. Edwards, a freshman from North Carolina, and Graham, a three-term veteran from Florida, have left open the option of running for the Senate again next year if their presidential campaigns do not take off. The uncertainty has left the Senate races in both states in suspended animation and complicated Democratic hopes of recapturing a Senate majority next year. "It has put everybody...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Democratic presidential hopeful Bob Graham said Tuesday that he's urging potential successors to start working on their bids to replace him in the U.S. Senate. The Florida lawmaker has not ruled out seeking a fourth term next year if his presidential campaign falters. Still, a handful of state Democrats have expressed interest in the race, and Graham said he has heard from several. "I've been encouraging them to get organized, start forming a campaign and be ready to go," he said during a campaign appearance. Graham also told reporters he expects to formally launch his presidential campaign...

TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Rep. Mark Foley of West Palm Beach has bolstered a fund-raising advantage in his campaign for the U.S. Senate, but former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum of Longwood has gotten off to a strong start in his bid for the office. Foley will report raising $706,000 in the three months that ended Monday, raising his total cash on hand to $2.34 million. With this head start, Foley hopes to secure the 2004 Republican nomination for the seat held by Sen. Bob Graham, a Miami Lakes Democrat planning to announce a campaign for president later this month. "The smart...

BOCA RATON -- In a private meeting with Richard Nixon in 1990, the former president warned Bill McCollum that America's next big threat would come from Muslim extremists. McCollum, a former Orlando-area congressman who is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Bob Graham, recounted that conversation to a Thursday gathering of the Boca Raton Republican Club, where there was much talk of America's war with Iraq. The club is planning a "Support America Rally" on April 10 at the South Palm Beach County Civic Center, at 16700 Jog Road west of Delray Beach. The 7 p.m....

TAMPA - Alex Sink, wife of defeated gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, is considering a run for the U.S. Senate. "I'm giving it real thought," said Sink, the former Florida chief for Bank of America. "I think I would have a chance, and I know I could put together a great team of people. I have friends all over the state. I don't have to say, 'I'm going to Pensacola - who does somebody know there?"' In November, McBride lost in his bid to prevent Gov. Jeb Bush from becoming the first Republican to be re-elected to Florida's highest office. The...

ALLAHASSEE - As Sen. Bob Graham heads for the hustings of presidential politics, Florida Democrats are obsessing over one question: Will Graham try to keep his U.S. Senate seat if his White House bid sputters next year? Graham's repeated refusal to entertain that question -- he jokingly raps querying reporters as ''pessimists'' -- is putting party strategists and would-be successors in an awkward position as they straddle the line between building their own campaigns and showing proper deference to a political icon. The issue is so sensitive that few are willing to openly acknowledge the tension, fearful they would alienate...

TALLAHASSEE - A conservative North Florida Democrat is close to opening a campaign for next year's U.S. Senate race, adding geographical intrigue to a field of hopefuls that so far hails exclusively from the party's South Florida base. U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, a ''blue dog'' Democrat from the rural Panhandle district once represented by Vietnam war hero and one-time gubernatorial candidate Pete Peterson, said Thursday that he would decide by June whether to begin fundraising to replace U.S. Sen. Bob Graham. Graham is expected to formally announce his presidential campaign next month. Boyd would join Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas,...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings and Mark Foley don't have much in common ideologically. Foley's support of the president's agenda is almost unwavering, while Hastings has been very critical of a number of Bush initiatives. But on one issue, their agenda is almost indistinguishable: both are taking a good hard look at the U.S. Senate seat Bob Graham might leave open in 2004. Hastings, D-Miramar, said he will "give active consideration" to running if Graham decides to run for president. Foley, R-West Palm Beach, is saying he's "moving closer" to a decision, and the response to his recent visits...

Sen. Bob Graham will not seek reelection to the Senate if he decides to run for president, his spokesman said Friday. The Florida Democrat's decision raises the likelihood that Democrats will lose a popular incumbent from one of the country's most competitive states to retirement. Graham, 66, postponed his decision on a presidential bid to undergo heart surgery last week. Insiders say he's leaning toward a presidential bid -- even though he would be virtually guaranteed reelection to a fourth Senate term. In making a president run, however, Graham would face stiff competition in an already crowded presidential primary race...

EITHER CONVICTED OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBERS Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were part of a conspiracy, possibly involving Middle Eastern and Filipino connections, or they were not. Seven years later, the authorities have still not fully examined this question. But taking on this issue would seem to fit the mission of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, which are jointly investigating intelligence failures by the FBI and CIA before 9/11. Chaired by two Floridians -- Republican Representative Porter Goss and Democratic Senator Bob Graham -- the Committees' began their closed-door work by focusing on two areas: U.S. investigations of terrorism since...