It was my usual weekly TV interview with ABC/WTXL/27 anchor Anne Imanuel. The program was branded Political Insight with Senator Bob McKnight, and aired in the North Florida and South Georgia market.
Former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Miami Lakes, knows politics. Other than his race for president, Gov. Graham has never lost a campaign. He is also a constant student of effective politics. So, when he came up to me in 1986 and described a campaign in which I was involved as textbook, I took notes.
It was May 1980. The annual session of the Florida Legislature was wrapping up and on this day, most of the members were back in their legislative districts getting ready for their re-election campaigns.
In 1978, there was only one Tiger Bay Club -- the original at the famed DuPont Plaza Hotel on the mouth of the Miami River.
As a 35-year-old first-term senator in Florida, that message had a chilling effect on me. It was conveyed by a telephone call from Marvin Rosen, a longtime friend and supporter of the Kennedy family.
In Florida, historians generally agree that the 1960 Census -- and the subsequent legislatively proposed reapportionment plans crafted during the decade -- paved the way for the most significant governance change in state history.
The campaign for speaker of the Florida House of Representatives for the 1978-'80 term was more closely watched than normal.
In 1978, Sen. Phil Lewis, D-West Palm Beach, took office as Senate president. The very first appointment President Lewis announced was to make his opponent for the presidency, Sen. Jack Gordon, D-Miami Beach, the important chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
