Thompson Brings Reagan's Style To GOP Race

By WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 16, 2007

LAKELAND - Fred Thompson is aiming his campaign at the conservative end of the Republican Party and he's shaking up the Florida presidential primary.

Drawing large, excited crowds during his first tour of Florida as a declared candidate last week, Thompson sought to offer Republicans something many feel has been missing in the GOP field - a Reaganesque communicator with the charisma to lift the party out of its deep political hole.

But his initial effort also showed rough edges: a reluctance to get specific on issues and an occasionally lackadaisical campaign style that left some wondering whether he can go the distance.

By comparison with his top primary competitors, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, Thompson is off to a late start - too late, some experts say.

Romney and Giuliani both have established Florida organizations with well-known campaign chairmen and networks of fundraisers. Thompson has barely begun setting up a Florida network and has ground to make up in fundraising.

But his supporters say that doesn't matter, because of the excitement Thompson will generate.

"I think the timing of his entry into the race was perfect for the kind of campaign he's going to run," said Sandy Safley, a former state House member from Clearwater and a Thompson Florida adviser.

Florida Republicans, he said, "are looking for something they haven't found in the current field of candidates. This is not going to be a conventional kind of campaign. The conventional measures won't matter."

On his side, Thompson has fame from his acting career, a claim to be the most authentic conservative in the race and the folksy Southern charm and blunt speech that supporters sense as leadership.

"People are looking for a man they can relate to," said state Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland, one of the first state legislators to endorse Thompson. "His appearance, his voice, his manner, his height," - he's 6-foot-5 - "and he doesn't sound too polished, or stiff or politically correct."

Judy Englehart of Lakeland, who saw Thompson on Saturday at the Lakeland Gun Show, called him "more real than the other candidates; he's been an actor, he can articulate where people can understand it."

Supporters endlessly compare Thompson to Reagan, including State Attorney Bernie McCabe, who heard Thompson at a GOP fundraising dinner in New Port Richey on Friday - "I kind of remember Reagan talking the same way."

It's a comparison either Romney or Giuliani would give anything to hear, but Thompson plays it down.

He reveres Reagan as all conservatives do, but tells crowds his political inspiration was Barry Goldwater, and his mentor former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker. Neither fit the mold of a modern social-issues conservative.

Nonetheless, Thompson loads his stump speech with red-meat conservative applause lines, starting with the two most likely to attract single-issue voters: "the importance of protecting the sanctity of life, the importance of the Second Amendment, lower taxes, less regulation, respect for private property."

That has an exhilarating effect on GOP voters.

"His whole speech, he's got strength in it," said Harry Celec of Pine Island, a gun rights advocate who braved heat and humidity along with several hundred others to see Thompson at midday in a park in Cape Coral on Friday.

Thompson also emphasizes in his stump speech that his conservative views haven't changed since he was elected to the Senate in 1994 - an indirect jab at Giuliani and Romney, both of whom have histories of moderate-to-liberal issue stands.

Missteps On Florida Tour

Not everything has gone Thompson's way during his Florida tour and early campaign. His vaunted speaking style occasionally wilted in the Florida heat and humidity, depriving crowds of the energy and excitement they craved.

Greg Truax, a volunteer political adviser for the Hillsborough County GOP who likes both Thompson and Giuliani, said after a Thompson speech in Pasco, "It was very well received and had a lot of applause lines, but was short on specifics."

During his Florida tour, Thompson's advisers largely shielded him from press questions, except for television interviews. When he did take questions, it appeared the reluctance may have been because he wasn't ready:

•In one interview, he declined to take a position on a national catastrophe fund, a high priority of Florida political leaders. He said later in the trip, "I cannot guarantee I would support a plan like that," and that the idea sounds to him "more like a fallback for insurance companies" that might be vulnerable to fraud.

•Thompson also declined to say how he reacted to the Terri Schiavo case, adding, "That's going back in history - I don't remember the details of it" - even though congressional intervention occurred in 2005 and Sen. Bill Frist from Thompson's home state of Tennessee was heavily involved.

•He implausibly blamed Hillary Clinton for bad publicity over a former statement of his that suggested Cuban refugees were likely to be terrorists carrying suitcase bombs. Some Miami Cubans found the comment offensive, but Thompson blamed the reaction on a Clinton press release criticizing his comment.

Thompson also made it clear he'd lean toward drilling for oil or gas in the Gulf of Mexico, while speaking at a park in Cape Coral only yards from the Gulf, and did so without any nod to Floridians' desire for visually unpolluted beaches.

"We've got to use all the resources available to us" to combat dependence on foreign oil, he said.

Thompson's advisers say he'll be announcing a full slate of Florida backers and fundraisers soon. Somewhere near the top will be U.S. Reps. Adam Putnam of Bartow and Jeff Miller of Pensacola.

Heading To Tampa

One of Thompson's initial fundraising events will be in Tampa on Tuesday, a $1,000-per-person lunch at a local hotel - but the event is being organized from Tallahassee, not by local volunteers.

One question Thompson faces, after Giuliani, John McCain and Romney have combed Florida for supporters for months, is whether he'll find uncommitted party activists and fundraisers.

As he began his tour with a stop in Jacksonville, he was greeted with news that influential Republicans, including Mayor John Peyton and prominent fundraiser John Rood, had signed up with Romney.

Prominent Tampa GOP fundraiser Al Austin, who stayed neutral in the race for months waiting to see Thompson's effect on the race, recently chose Giuliani.

In July, after the most recent campaign finance reports were filed, a Tribune survey indicated there were still plenty of uncommitted, top Florida fundraisers left. Of 66 individuals who raised $100,000 or more for the Bush presidential campaigns, 41 hadn't yet made a financial contribution to any candidate this year.

At least some have since made commitments, however. Those uncommitted at the time included Austin, Rood and Bob Martinez of Tampa, also now with Giuliani.

Nonetheless, Sharon Day of Fort Lauderdale, a Florida delegate to the Republican National Committee who's uncommitted, says there's room for Thompson in the race.

"If you look at the undecideds [in polls] there's still a large number," she said. "People are open. We're looking at all our candidates."

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.