Seasoned Democratic Army Hits the Shores of Florida
Partisans: Boston's Whouley leads troops in Florida to oversee recounts. The party
operatives have one goal--whittle away at Bush's slim vote margin..
By ELIZABETH MEHREN and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN, Times Staff Writers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--This is the Democrats' last, best stand--their final
hope to find non-tallied votes that could put Al Gore in the White House. Here in
Broward County, a Democrat can hardly take a step without running into a party
operative from somewhere else in the country.
To scrounge for every last vote, Gore has flooded Fort Lauderdale with tough,
seasoned Democrats, the sort who are used to keeping wafflers in line and to count and
recount votes until they know exactly what it will take to outdo their opponents. Many
of the hired hands speak with a Boston brogue--no accident considering the man who
was dispatched here to do the impossible for Gore one more time.
To win in Broward, Gore summoned his best on-the-ground political operative:
Michael Whouley, the Boston political consultant who helped deliver Iowa and New
Hampshire for him during the Democratic presidential primaries and who, on election
night, vigilantly phoned the vice president at the last minute to head him off from
delivering a concession speech to supporters in Nashville.
Whouley's loyal Massachusetts contingent is only the most visible in a small army of
pros, all camped here for the biggest trove of all: virgin, non-retallied votes.
Broward is perhaps the strongest Gore county in the state, a seaside enclave where
68% of the 588,000 votes cast in the Nov. 7 election went for their man. Democrats feel
that if they're going to pick up more votes for Gore anywhere, it is here in a resort town
known best for its yearly invasion of party-obsessed college students.
For the last week, Whouley--a largely invisible presence here but whose name is
reverently whispered by the Bostonians doing his bidding--has led a team of as many as
500 loyalists assigned to do whatever is necessary to whittle away at Bush's 300-vote
statewide margin.
Whouley Dispatches Aides, Issues Orders
In the chaotic first day after the election, the first contingent of Whouley's
Minutemen, many of whom have worked together in the political trenches for decades,
began arriving in Florida. Whouley began issuing orders from Palm Beach, deciding each
day where to send fresh troops.
"It was a visceral reaction for Whouley to get here, to get us all here immediately,"
said Boston lobbyist Paul Pezzula, one set of Whouley's eyes and ears here.
Whouley, 42, is a former ward boss whom Gore calls "the Brain." He whipped the
vice president's faltering primary organizations into shape earlier this year and was
reported to be the architect of Gore's successful town hall meetings.
In Broward, Whouley has tapped John Sasso, a longtime Boston political consultant,
as his point man. Sasso, who was the top aide in Michael S. Dukakis' 1988 presidential
campaign, was deliberately vague about the precise details of his assignment when
interviewed briefly Thursday.
"Who knows what I'm doing here, exactly?" he said. "I'm helping with the recount."
Enough Boston lawyers have descended on Broward County that one Massachusetts
lawyer guessed that they could field a quorum for a meeting of the Boston Bar Assn.
Responding to a mass e-mail seeking help in Florida, some fanned out to Tallahassee to
plot court strategy to keep the hand counts going. Others filed motions and fired off
memos every time this state's Republican secretary of state, Katherine Harris, set up
what Democrats saw as another roadblock to Gore's march to an electoral college
victory.
Imported Democrats Go After Votes
But at the Broward County Emergency Operations Center, the Bostonians and other
imported Democrats were doing what they had learned years ago at political conventions
and primary nights: going for the votes.
Inside a hulking, custard-colored building that serves as an emergency shelter for
hurricanes, from 50 to 100 tables were set up. With two county employees and two
party observers--one Democrat, one Republican--at each table, the scene resembled a
high-stakes bridge tournament.
The fiercest battles of the day were waged on the steaming hot blacktop of the
parking lot in front of the recount center. Every hour or so, Democrats and Republicans
dispatched lawyers into the thicket of waiting reporters to fire off accusations.
First they bickered over the chads found on the floor. Then the Democrats accused
the Republicans of stall tactics. Then came the Republican lawsuit seeking an injunction
against Broward's canvassing board. Then the two sides argued over the injunction's
chances.
Suddenly, they all paused to gaze upward. High above, a small white plane towed a
banner. It trailed a Republican message that played on the ultimatum delivered by the
wicked witch in the "Wizard of Oz": "Surrender Gorethy."
In Broward, even some Republicans were impressed with the Democrats' ferocity.
"They're definitely beating us at the spin game," said lawyer Shari McCartney, part of
the Broward Republican legal team. "We're being made out to be the antithesis of the
democratic process."
Not far away, in an abandoned Payless shoe store, vanloads of AFL-CIO staffers and
Gore loyalists from New York, Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia, San Francisco and
elsewhere had disembarked to learn how to observe the ballot count.
"Our goal," said one lawyer as he patiently lectured his new charges, "is to preserve
the Al Gore vote." The volunteers nodded. "It's very, very important that if you see any
kind of mark--a scratch, a dent, a pinprick in Al Gore's column--that you challenge."
When someone then asked what they should do if they found a Bush ballot with an
indent, the lawyer said: "Keep your lips sealed."
It was hardball that the Bostonians and other imported pros understood well.
But by day's end, after canvassing 90 of 604 precincts, Democrats had garnered just
21 net votes. Not a good sign, the hired hands knew.
Putting a voice to the frustration, Pezzula said: "Whatever we can get, we get. But it's
like sipping swamp water out of a flavored straw. You're involved in the minutiae of the
process, looking for any vote you can get. So you get one vote here and one vote there
and hope they'll add up to make the difference."
Despite their numbers, despite their thick-skinned professionalism, the Bostonians
and other imported Democrats are looking for any angle, any last coin under the carpet.
"We only need 301 votes," the Democratic lawyer reminded his volunteer observers,
"to win this."
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