In 1994 Lawton Chiles was running against Jeb Bush for governor of Florida. The race was razor thin and too close to call. In the final weekend before the election, Chiles ran some negative phone calls to seniors. This pushed the race into Chiles' favor. Moral of the story: right now Florida is in play. We can win. But I wouldn't mind if Obama pulls a fast one on McCain and does something, anything legal, to push this state into the blue column. It would guarantee victory!
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n6_v28/ai_18383049/pg_3"One Hansbrough client in 1994 was Florida Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles, who ran a successful race for re-election against Republican Jeb Bush, son of former President George Bush. After the election, Republicans claimed that Chile's narrow victory (65,000 votes out of 4.2 million cast) was due to these negative telephone scripts, read to tens of thousands of Floridians shortly before the election.
Script 1: Hello. This is
calling on behalf of the Florida Association of Senior Citizens. We are calling to let you know that Jeb Bush is no friend of seniors. Bush's running mate has advocated the abolition of Social Security and called Medicare a welfare program that should be cut. We just can't trust Jeb Bush and Tom Feeney. Thank you and have a good day/evening.
Script 2: Hello. My name is calling from the Citizens for Tax Fairness. I am calling to remind you that, unlike thousands of your fellow citizens, Jeb Bush failed to pay local and state taxes, and he has profited at the taxpayers' expense from business deals involving failed savings and loan properties. Mr. Bush doesn't play by the same rules like the rest of us, and we want to make sure you are aware of this before you cast your vote on Tuesday. Thank you and have a good day/evening."