Popular Former Florida Governor Dies

Reubin Askew, one of the most popular and effective governors in Florida history and a fiercely determined advocate for tax reform, racial equality, managed growth and ethical government, died early Thursday in Tallahassee. He was 85.

 
In recent months, Askew had battled pneumonia and hip replacement surgery, and he suffered a stroke. On Saturday, he was admitted to Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
 
A Democrat who served from 1971 to 1979, Askew is a transformational figure in the modern history of Florida, and historians consider him Florida's second-best governor, behind only LeRoy Collins, whose temperate yet forceful manner helped Florida avert racial violence in the 1950s.
 
Askew's years were marked by explosive population growth, the opening of Disney World and school desegregation. In a memorable speech at the University of Florida in 1971, he pledged to support school busing as a means to end segregation, adding the phrase "and rightly so" to the text.
 
He also blunted the impact of an antibusing straw ballot question in 1972 by adding a second one that opposed a "return to a dual system of public schools," and voters approved both.
 
The Askew era also was the time of Watergate, which along with scandals that led to resignations of two Florida Supreme Court justices and indictments of three Cabinet members, strengthened his call for landmark ethics legislation, which many consider his most significant accomplishment.
 
Askew resisted pressure to be George McGovern's vice-presidential running mate in 1972 and ran an ill-timed and underfunded campaign for president in 1984, having passed up an earlier run in 1976 when voters had grown to distrust Washington and wanted an outsider. They instead chose another Southern governor, Jimmy Carter of Georgia, who later persuaded Askew to leave his high-paying job at a prestigious Miami law firm to hold the Cabinet-level post of U.S. trade representative.
 
Askew's last campaign, for an open U.S. Senate seat in 1988, ended abruptly when he walked away in disgust over what he said was the need to endlessly seek campaign contributions. Demeaned by having to constantly ask for money, Askew said he felt like a "panhandler" and a "professional beggar," and he also quit a high-paying job at a Miami law firm and turned to teaching in the state university system.
 
"He could never get elected today, for one reason: money," said lawyer-lobbyist Steve Uhlfelder, who met Askew in the 1970 campaign when he was a student body leader at the University of Florida.