TIME EUROPE
December 4, 2000, Vol. 156 No. 23
Mob Scene In Miami
We look at the players behind the 'spontaneous' protest that preceded the shutdown of Miami-Dade's recount
By TIM PADGETT
Marjorie Strayer insisted she was just a Virginian on vacation in Miami. She
had come to the downtown Stephen P. Clark Government Center to watch the
Dade County vote recount — something to do before the trip to the
Seaquarium. But Strayer, it turns out, is a top aide to New Mexico's
Republican Congresswoman, Heather Wilson, and was one of hundreds of paid
G.O.P. crusaders who descended on South Florida last Wednesday to protest
the state's recounts. "The system is unfair, inaccurate, fraught with human
error!" Strayer cried. In a Winnebago outside, G.O.P. operatives orchestrated
the ranks up to the 19th floor, hoping to halt the tally of the largest potential
lode of Gore votes. Republicans, not usually known for takin' it to the streets,
got what they wanted. Just two hours after a near riot outside the counting
room, the Miami-Dade canvassing board voted to shut down the count. Yet
the way the Republicans went after it, by intimidating the three-member board
or by providing the excuse it was looking for, gave Americans the first TV
view of strong-arm tactics in what was supposed to be a showcase of
democracy in action. If Jesse Jackson can do it, the Republicans argued, so
can we. But the G.O.P.'s march turned into a mob. The screaming, the
pounding on doors and the alleged physical assaults on Democrats suddenly
made a bemused public queasy. "I'm all for anyone's right to protest," says
Miami-Dade Democratic chairman Joe Geller, who had to have a police escort.
"These were Brownshirt tactics." It was the Dade vote counters, however, who
provoked the Republican machine. Seemingly oblivious to G.O.P. anger over
the Florida Supreme Court ruling to allow manual recounts, the canvassing
board tried an end run around the court's Sunday deadline by deciding to
recount only some 11,000 of Dade's 654,000 ballots. Those disputed ballots,
most of which did not register presidential votes in the machines, were
thought to favor Gore. Worse, the board moved into a smaller room that cut
off public observation. "They denied our legal rights," says Paul Crespo, an
ex-Marine and coordinator of a group called Young Professionals for Bush.
"We cried foul." In fact, the Republicans, who justifiably delight in throwing
1960s chants back at Democrats, began shouting, "The whole world is
watching!"
What the world watched was a G.O.P. melee. When Geller walked out of the
room with a sample ballot, the crowd accused him of stealing a real one and
responded as if he had just nabbed a baby for its organs. Geller says he was
pushed by two dozen protesters screaming, "I'm gonna take you down!" Luis
Rosero, a Democratic observer, claims he was punched and kicked.
Republicans dispute the charges, but video cameras caught scenes of activism
that had morphed into menace. The organizers in the RV outside, who G.O.P.
protesters have told Time were led by hardball Washington strategist Roger
Stone, had phone banks churning out calls to Miami Republicans, urging them
to storm downtown. (Stone could not be reached for comment.) One of them
was a fire fighter, Rob Eltus, 45: "What Americans are finally seeing is
Republicans fed up."
But what really may have given the canvassing board pause was a sight that
strikes fear in any Florida politician, especially elected Dade County judges
like Lawrence King, the board's chairman: angry Cuban voters. They marched
on the Clark Center after a conservative radio station, Radio Mambí,
broadcast interviews with two Cuban-American G.O.P. members of Congress,
Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who decried the board's moves.
For Miami's Cubans, almost 80% of whom voted for Bush, this election is
mostly about avenging Elián González. One of Judge King's paid political
consultants is Armando Gutierrez, the man who distributed the Orwellian
videotape of Elián denouncing his father last spring.
Democrats last week called for a federal probe of the incident. Sources close
to Democratic Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas tell Time that a G.O.P.
intermediary, Miami political consultant Herman Echevarria — at the behest
of state Republican leaders — tried to approach Penelas Wednesday morning
to see if the mayor "might talk" to the canvassing board. The sources say
Penelas preferred to stay out of it. (Dade elections supervisor David Leahy, a
board member, also works for Penelas.) Both Echevarria and Florida G.O.P.
chairman Al Cardenas deny such contact. But Penelas, a Cuban American, is
seen as vulnerable by G.O.P. leaders because he has been estranged from the
Gore campaign since the Elián debacle. Either way, Democrats are asking what
the board said — and with whom they met — while holed up in the Clark Center
waiting out the riot.
— With reporting by Kathie Klarreich / Miami
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Mob Scene In Miami
We look at the players behind the 'spontaneous' protest that preceded the shutdown of Miami-Dade's recount
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