E-mail a friendSen. Bill Nelson
airdate October 25, 2004
Bill Nelson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. A lifetime Floridian, he previously served six years as a member of the state Cabinet and 12 years as a congressman. Nelson is an expert on NASA who, after intensive training, spent six days on the Space Shuttle Columbia as a payload specialist. Since, he's worked to protect the environment and been an advocate for space exploration. Nelson is a Democratic Deputy Whip and serves on the Armed Services, Budget and Foreign Relations committees.
Sen. Bill Nelson
Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome back to this program Senator Bill Nelson. The former space shuttle astronaut is now of course an influential member of the U.S. Senate, serving on both the Armed Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee. He joins us tonight from Miami. Senator, nice to see you. Thanks for coming on again.
Senator Bill Nelson: Thanks, Tavis. It's always a pleasure.
Tavis: Glad to have you on. We all know the big news of today. Bill Clinton is back, earlier today in Philadelphia campaigning with John Kerry. As we speak tonight, and for that matter, Tuesday, he will be in your state of Florida. What kind of shot in arm is this for John Kerry. Is it too little, too late?
Nelson: No, sir. It's big. There's nobody that has the charisma like Bill Clinton. And I've seen him live already earlier today in--when he was in Philadelphia, and, boy, he looks great. He sounds great. He's naturally keeping his speech much shorter so he doesn't get so tired out, but he's got that old Clinton magic touch.
Tavis: This race in Florida is awfully tight, but if we're to believe the polls--and I guess depends on which poll you try to believe--but it seems there's a consensus building that the momentum, at the very least, is going Mr. Kerry's way in your home state of Florida and that if you can win Florida, you might be able to take it all. Do you agree with that assessment as we sit here tonight?
Nelson: Tavis, I do. I believe that Florida is ground zero, just like we were four years ago, and I do believe what you said is accurate, that the momentum is going to Kerry. I was with him all yesterday. We were in several churches. We were making--or John was making a major policy speech on his faith and values in America. That was exceptionally well-received, and the energy, enthusiasm that I'm seeing is really there for him. Now we've got to worry about this huge crunch of a turnout and whether or not there's going to be attempts to suppress the vote and take away people's right to vote.
Tavis: Since you went there, let me follow up on it, 'cause I suspect there are some folk who on the other side of the aisle watching this conversation right now and said there those Democrats go again, there Bill Nelson goes again talking about voter suppression, voter intimidation. Are you just now engaging in the politics of fear, Senator Nelson?
Nelson: Well, I hope we don't have to, Tavis, because we can't afford in this country to go through again what we did four years ago where people's votes were not counted, where 27,000 people alone in Jacksonville had their votes not counted, and they were primarily from the African-American precincts, and then of course you remember all the stories about confusion, the butterfly ballot in West Palm Beach and all of those things, and that led to a great deal of consternation about confidence in our democracy and in being able to count the votes and have them counted as people intended them to count. I certainly hope we don't go through that. I'm hoping and praying that the election is not close, because if it's close, we might go through that again. But this country doesn't need that.
Tavis: Well, you said a number of things I want to follow up on, but let me start by suggesting to you--I think we're on the same page here--if I never hear the phrase "dimpled chad" or "hanging chad" ever again, it'd be--it won't be too soon. That said, how concerned are you that we might have these issues appear again in Florida. I hear the argument you're making, but how concerned are you about that, really?
Nelson: Tavis, I'm concerned, because we've seen a lot of attempts of what I would characterize as trying to disenfranchise people. For example, the state of Florida's Secretary of State's office came out with what they said was an absolutely perfect list of convicted felons that were going to be stricken from the rolls. This was 48,000 people. And very conveniently, they were hiding behind a special law that had been passed by the legislature that said the public couldn't have access to those names. So CNN filed suit, I joined that suit, and a courageous judge threw out the law of Florida as unconstitutional, and guess what? When the ""Miami Herald"" got its hands on the list, they found over 2,300 legitimate registered voters that were not convicted felons that would have been stricken from the voting rolls. This is the kind of nonsense that's going on, and I can give you several more examples.
Tavis: Not to mention, as you well know, that the majority of the persons on that list happen to be African-Americans.
Nelson: That's exactly right, Tavis.
Tavis: Speaking of African-Americans, let me ask you how successful you think you all are going to be in Florida, reaching out to the African-American vote, certainly through the churches, because as you well know, much has been made of the poll that came out last week from the Joint Center that President Bush might pick up--might pick up double what he had four years ago with the regard to the black vote. That's going to come, one way or another, through many of the black churches. How successful are you going to be in Florida?
Nelson: I think it's going to be very successful, particularly in the African-American community of getting out the vote. And a new Florida law, and I give credit to the legislature for this, it's called early voting. We started voting here two weeks before the election. And the voting places are just, they're crowded, Tavis. People are really intent on expressing their right to vote, so that you don't have to have crunch time all on one day, election day, people can have the convenience of this. Now, another one of those monkey business things that's going on, one of the big counties in this state, Jacksonville, Florida, the city, they only have one voting place for early voting in the whole county, which is Duvall County of the city of Jacksonville. In other words, they're not trying to make it convenient for folks.
Tavis: But let me ask you, how is that possible? How can a place as big as Jacksonville have one location for early voting? Republican or Democrat. This is a nonpartisan issue, as far as I'm concerned. How can a place that big have one polling place for early voting?
Nelson: It defies common sense. Every other major county in this state has multiple places for the convenience of their voters and the last holdout was Volusia County, which is Daytona Beach and Deland, they had only one. People raised such a ruckus because they weren't going from one side of the county to the other to vote, early voting. And the people listened and they opened up three or four more places. But not Duvall County. Not the city of Jacksonville. As of today, now, finally, they've said they're going to open up some more, but as of the weekend, they still didn't have it open.
Tavis: Aren't you really telling me, without telling me, aren't you really telling me that it ain't really going to be over on November 2, even if they say it's over on November 2?
Nelson: Tavis, If it's close, what you just said is right. That's why I'm hoping and praying that it's not going to be close.
Tavis: What would it say if John Kerry could win in Florida? That he would win--I'm sorry. Don't mean to cut you off. What would it say if John Kerry could win Florida, that he beat a guy who because of hurricane season and because of his being in the Oval Office at that time, passed out a whole lot of money in Florida, a lot of money, his brother is still governor. If John Kerry can beat that guy, what would it say about John Kerry?
Nelson: It would say that he's a giant killer, and I think that's what's going to happen here in Florida. And so goes Florida, then I think will so go the nation in the Presidential election. You know, I give great credit to the President in responding as Senator Graham and I were urging him to do. We worked with his brother the governor. People were hurting in Florida after four hurricanes. I mean, that's unprecedented. Two in a row is unprecedented. But people are separating that as a function that the government ought to respond in times of disaster from the policies of this administration.
Tavis: Well, we will see whether God answers your prayers that it won't be a close election. I suspect there are a lot of people, one way or the other, who would like to see it happen that way just so we don't have to go through what we went through four years ago. But whatever happens, Senator Bill Nelson, I just wanted to talk to you again on this program in trying to dissect what did happen in the state of Florida and around the country. You're welcome back any time.
Nelson: Bless you, Tavis.
Tavis: Nice to have you on, Senator Nelson.
Nelson: Thank you.
Tavis: Up next on this program, another installment in our "Road to Wealth" series with best selling author Robert Kiyosaki. His 10 books in the very popular "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series have sold over 20 million copies. His latest book has some sound money advice for young people that most schools don't teach. Robert Kiyosaki is coming up right now.
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