McBride pulls off huge Florida primary shock by beating Reno

POLITICAL novice Bill McBride has pulled off a huge upset in beating former US Attorney General, Janet Reno, in a Florida Democratic primary marred

McBride won Tuesday's primary and the Democratic bid to face Republican Governor Jeb Bush in November's general election by about 8,000 votes, according to a newspaper tally posted on the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's website.

The Florida Department of Elections website vote count lagged the newspaper totals. The 67 counties were required to report unofficial results to the state elections department by noon yesterday.

McBride, a Tampa lawyer and ex-marine who trailed Reno by more than 30% in the polls three months ago, garnered 600,425 votes, or 44.5%, to Reno's 592,434, or 43.9%, according to the newspaper. The third candidate in the race, state senator Daryl Jones, had 156,165 votes, or 11.6%.

If those vote totals hold, McBride's 8,000-vote margin would not trigger an automatic recount. State law mandates a recount if the winning margin is 0.5% or less of the total votes cast.

Reno's camp was not ruling out a legal challenge, saying the legitimacy of the election could be in question because of the polling station problems.

A McBride victory would represent one of the biggest upsets in Florida political history, according to analysts. He was a virtual unknown six months ago against a rival whose nearly eight years as US attorney general gave her a huge advantage in name recognition.

But McBride, focusing his campaign on education, the critical issue with Florida voters, gained the backing of many of the state's unions and swept endorsements from major newspapers.

Renowas perceived by some Democrats as too liberal to beat Bush.

The close primary and the ballot-box troubles were an embarrassing reminder of the 2000 presidential election in Florida, won by President Bush by 537 votes over then-Vice President Al Gore after a fierce legal struggle.

After that campaign, marred by problems with antiquated punch-card ballot systems, differing interpretations of election laws and manual recounts, Democrats vowed to defeat Jeb Bush. Tuesday's voting problems ranged from technical to human error.

Workers had problems starting up new touch-screen voting machines; ballot cards tore and couldn't be read on optical scanning machines; and technical problems delayed processing the electronic cartridges used in the new touch-screen voting machines. Some poll workers failed to turn up, several polling places opened late and some voters were wrongly turned away for not showing a picture identification. In response to complaints, Florida governor Jeb Bush extended polling by two hours but that led to yet more abuses. W orkers at one precinct who had not been told of the extension held the door shut and swore at voters.