South Florida Democrats Want Strong Show of Unity

By William E. Gibson and Anthony Man, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jun. 4–WASHINGTON — Imagine Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigning side by side in South Florida, former rivals teaming up to reach out to voters and heal the divided Democratic Party.

This is the vision Democratic leaders in Florida are hoping to make happen to help put a hard-fought nomination race behind them.

As Obama closes in on the Democratic nomination, Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, hold the key to overcoming bitterness in a state that voted for her and remains partially punished for holding a January primary.

Some Democrats hope Obama will put aside the occasional nastiness of the campaign and pick Clinton to be the party’s vice presidential candidate.

"An Obama-Clinton ticket would combine the best of their experience and balance their strengths," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, who helped Clinton, a senator from New York, win the Florida primary. She said the two candidates will be talking over the next several days.

Joint appearances by these two candidates — running mates or not — would be the most effective way to fuse the party, said Mitch Ceasar, Broward County Democratic chairman.

"It would be great to have the two campaign together in South Florida. That’s a guaranteed winner," said Ceasar, an uncommitted superdelegate.

The party took the first step toward healing by recognizing Florida’s Jan. 29 primary and agreeing to seat the Florida delegation at the national convention in August. That was accomplished on Saturday, though the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee decided to give Florida delegates only half a vote, stirring protests.

The next step, Ceasar said, should be a decision by the nominee to restore Florida’s full votes at the convention.

Obama backers are looking to the Clintons to help restore party unity and rally voters for the general-election campaign against Republican John McCain. Nowhere is this more important than in South Florida, where Democrats trooped to the polls in record numbers to give Clinton a clear primary victory.

"When we in fact have a nominee, I believe what will happen is Senator Clinton will endorse Senator Obama in the strongest of terms, and she herself will provide the foundation for unity," said Rep. Robert Wexler, of Delray Beach, a state co-chairman of the Obama campaign. "And no one can do that more effectively than Senator Clinton. And then President Clinton will weigh in. And when President Clinton weighs in with a strong endorsement that too will help enormously."

Wexler found out first-hand on Tuesday how much healing must be done when he met the most unfriendly crowd of constituents he has encountered. The popular six-term representative as jeered at Wynmoor Village, a Coconut Creek bastion of retiree voting strength for him and the Democratic Party.

"I’ve never seen this much hostility in a Democratic room toward Democrats," state Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland, said afterward.

It was a tough audience, and some voters made clear they will not easily shift their support from Clinton to Obama.

"I think it’s a disgrace that [Wexler] went for Obama. What about the people? Is he only thinking of himself?" asked Evelyn Newman, 86, who added that she might not vote for Obama in November. "I’d vote for Hillary any day."

But others said they would remain loyal to the Democratic nominee.

"We all respect Wexler," said Ruth Weinstein, 89. "His choice of Obama over Hillary has been a puzzle to us. My choice was Hillary from the beginning. I would vote for Obama. There’s no other choice."

Much of Obama’s task in Florida will be to close a generation gap.

The 46-year-old front-runner can reach older voters by appealing to the idealism of the 1960s, when political power was passed to a new generation, said Mitchell Berger, a top Democratic fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale.

"These older voters are the same ones who elected John Kennedy, supported Bobby Kennedy and marched with Martin Luther King," Berger said. "The spirit that Barack Obama encapsulates is still alive with these older voters."

William E. Gibson reported from Washington; Anthony Man reported from Coconut Creek.

William E. Gibson can be reached at wgibson@sun-sentinel.com or 202-824-8256 in Washington. His blog, Juice, can be found at sun-sentinel.com/juice.

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