SARASOTA, Fla. (SNN TV) – Governor Lawton Chiles’ old Florida charm went up against a polished and young Jeb Bush in the 1994 Florida governor’s race, and the differences showed. The first debate was brought to voters by the Florida Economic Development Council in Bush’s home county of Miami-Dade.
“And that was a Latin council. There were a lot of Latinos on there,” said Lawton Chiles’ son, Ed Chiles. “And I remember Jeb coming out very sharp, speaking Spanish.”
In fact, Bush seemed to catch the audience off-guard during the first debate when he said, “As it relates to Central America and South America, yo hablo español con nostros clientes.” And after finishing a few sentence in Spanish, he turned to Chiles and said, “Governor, what I said is a governor needs to lead and a governor needs to be able to sell.”
“If I might reply to you in cracker,” Chiles responded.
In the next debate, Ed Chiles admitted it wasn’t a good night for his father.
“He didn’t do great in that debate either; I think Jeb absolutely won both of those. The momentum was building,” he said. One of the exchanges showed the difference.
“Florida State Troopers are endorsing me,” Bush told Chiles in the second debate, “30 of the 67 sheriffs are, which is unprecedented that that many sheriffs would get involved in a governor’s race.”
“How many of those are Republican?” Chiles laughed.
“Twenty-three of them are. I have seven Democrats. How many Republicans do you have, sir?” Bush responded, followed by cheers from the audience.
Bush’s campaign rattled Chiles.
“He was a little bit offended,” Ed Chiles explained, “that he had a record, that he could stand on that record, and that this young guy that is first out of the box is going to try to be the governor of Florida? So I think that got under his skin a little bit.”
“Let me tell you something,” Governor Chiles snapped at Bush in the second debate, “Let me tell you what I feel. I love the state of Florida. I have given my life in serving the state of Florida. It is not a toy. It is not a place to allow somebody to experiment, to start a political career with no experience, and I will do everything I can to see that Florida elects the proper person to run it.”
Ed Chiles reminisced about the last stage of the campaign and the pivotal last debate. “I was the debate coach for that debate. He was so hard to coach. You couldn’t pull him out. You couldn’t get him to go through a rote thing.”
Bush had attacked Chiles, as Martinez did to his opponent in 1986, on crime.
“I do believe [Chiles] has been a liberal on crime and soft on crime,” Bush said. But on the topic of the death penalty, that ended up being a mistake.
Bush launched an ad targeting Chiles on the death penalty. It involved the mother of a dead little girl, with the ad saying “her killer is still on death row and we’re waiting for justice. We won’t get it from Lawton Chiles because he’s liberal on crime.”
“Later you acknowledged that Governor Chiles had, in fact, executed eight criminals,” said debate moderator Tim Russert, “and in this particular case, he has not been presented the opportunity to accelerate the process on this guy.”
Bush uncharacteristically stumbled through his answer, saying that the ad was no longer being aired because it was on for a week, which “was enough for it to stay on.” But Chiles was ready.
“I’m ashamed that you would use the agony of the mother and the loss of her daughter in an ad like this,” Governor Chiles scolded Bush. “It is a new low. Your father had the record in the Willie Horton ad, but you’ve outdone that now.”
But the most memorable moment of the final debate came near its end.
“I want to call attention to this ‘old liberal.’ ‘Liar.’ You know, that goes on and on and on and on,” Governor Chiles told Bush. “My mama told me sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me. But let me tell you one other thing about the old liberal: the old he-coon walks just before the light of day.”
Bush nodded, looked a bit confused, and turned to the moderator for the next question. Ed Chiles laughed remembering that moment.
“Jeb didn’t know what to make of it,” he recalled. “It came from deep inside. It was [my father’s] righteous indignation that created that spontaneous moment.”
That saying of “the old he-coon” was one to which the “old Florida” would relate – just like a raccoon who depends on his resourcefulness to survive another day, regular Floridians could count on Chiles to defend their interests.
“In the end, he sent a message to folks in North Florida. They know when the old he-coon walks,” said Ed Chiles. “It stunned Jeb, and it was a hook and it got talked about. It bolstered up the campaign, and then we went to the finish line.”
Governor Chiles won the race by a tight margin of 1.6%. He walked up to his excited crowd and harkened back to the final debate.
“What time is it? It’s just before dawn!” Chiles shouted as he pulled out a coonskin hat and set it on his head.
Chiles’ victory was one of the few bright spots for Democrats across the country in 1994.
“You have to think about what happened nationally then,” Ed Chiles said, “That was when every big state Democratic governor fell. [New York Governor] Cuomo fell. [Governor] Ann Richards fell in Texas. That was a big red wave then and it was one of [my father’s] high points of his political career that he won that race.”
The governor’s supporters at his victory speech thought they had seen the last of Mr. Bush.
“Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!” they sang.
However, Bush was not finished in Florida yet. In part five of “Red, Purple, & Blue: A Sea Change in Florida Politics,” we’ll delve into Bush’s revival in the late 90s and some of the big changes he brought to the power of the governor and to Florida’s education system, some changes we’re still feeling to this day.
“Red, Purple, & Blue: A Sea Change in Florida Politics” airs every Sunday at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on SNN.
You can watch all episodes on snntv.com by hovering over “news” on the top of the page and click on “politics.”