Florida...Again?

Florida...Again?: "He made a decision right there and then to do something about it. Already a political rep for a local baggage handlers union, he decided that Step One was to run for President of the Southern Florida AFL-CIO. Four years later, now 48 and having already achieved that first goal--twice, to be exact--he's embarked on Step Two: to do everything in his power and that of his 150,000 members to defeat George W. Bush--and by a whole lot more than a contested 537 votes.

As staffers bustle around outside his office, rushing to get out the federation's first round of targeted political mailers (six months earlier than usual), Frost brims with confidence. President Bush has had a pleasingly lousy month, battered in the polls by missing WMDs, missing National Guard records and missing jobs. 'I'm more optimistic as each day goes by,' Frost says, slapping his desk. 'I've never felt so much enthusiasm coming from the unions.' And not just from the unions. Liberal and progressive activists, civil rights groups and community organizers are eagerly girding for yet another Battle Royal in Florida this November. 'This is going to be a fierce, fierce fight,' says former Democratic state chair Bob Poe, 'just like it was in 2000.'

Florida remains, by all accounts, the most evenly divided state in a deeply polarized America. 'Florida is 40/40--40 percent Democratic, 40 percent Republican, with that 20 percent swing vote in the middle, and most of that in the middle of the state just full of registered Independents and ticket-splitters,' says Congressman Alcee Hastings, who describes his home state as the New Peoria. 'We now so closely mirror America that national marketers use our central corridor for consumer testing. In November it's going to come down again to every single vote.'"