HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Al Gore's people blame the environmentalists, although some admit they didn't think much of Gore's fence-sitting strategy. The environmentalists blame Gore, although some admit to twinges of regret about kneecapping one of the most earth-friendly presidential candidates in history. But both sides agree that in the closest state in the closest election ever, the bizarre swamp politics of the Everglades sent George W. Bush to the Oval Office. In a presidential race decided by 537 votes in Florida and one in the Supreme Court, there were plenty of tipping points. But the refusal of Democratic candidate Gore to denounce an airport proposed at the edge of the Everglades -- and his subsequent loss of local support to Green Party candidate Ralph Nader -- was certainly one of the bigger ones. Nathaniel Reed, a prominent South Florida conservationist who served in the Nixon administration, said the airport issue cost Gore "conservatively, at least 10,000 votes." Even Nader, in his book "Crashing the Party," described it as "another what-if that might have brought Gore the state of Florida and the White House." "That's the election right there," grumbled Robin Rorapaugh, a former Gore operative in Florida. "Usually in politics, you try not to kill your friends." To some Democrats, the story of Gore and the airport shows how the environmental movement eats its own. "The enviros were nuts to beat up Gore on this," said Bruce Babbitt, Clinton's interior secretary. To some enviros, it shows how Democrats take their green base for granted. "Gore was an idiot to blow the election over this," said Alan Farago, a Sierra Club activist in Miami. In any case, the airport is a cautionary tale for 2002, 2004 and beyond; if the unpredictable politics of the Everglades could trip up Gore -- who personally delivered the administration's Everglades plan to Congress in 1999 -- it could trip up anyone. It is also a classic tale of Florida politics. Now it can be told: Democratic stalwart Joe Browder, another leading Everglades environmentalist and a former Carter administration official, leaked information about the airport to Nader in order to ratchet up the pressure on Gore. "There's a great novel to be written about that airport," said Carol M. Browner, a longtime Gore ally who was administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration. The novel might begin after Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in August 1992. Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas and the Democratic candidate for president, visited the decimated Homestead Air Force Base and promised to push for economic development at the site. It soon became clear the local political wheels were greased for HABDI -- a consortium of Cuban American developers, including relatives of the late community leader Jorge Mas Canosa -- to build a commercial airport there, just 10 miles from Everglades National Park and two miles from Biscayne National Park. The Air Force approved the plan in 1994. Then the wheels fell off. Outraged environmentalists protested that 600 flights a day would ruin the parks. Under intense pressure, the Clinton administration acted after the 1996 election, ordering the Air Force to redo its analysis. "Al Gore saved the day," said Kathleen McGinty, who ran Clinton's White House Council on Environmental Quality. "Without him, there would've been a commercial airport long ago." Still, when 2000 rolled around without a decision, environmentalists began leaning on Gore to make an anti-airport speech. Browner and Babbitt had publicly declared their opposition. But the Transportation Department was in favor, and HABDI's lobbyists at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand -- a firm with such rainmakers as former Senate majority leaders Robert J. Dole and George J. Mitchell -- were working the issue hard. Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, a key Gore ally in Florida, was also a fervent supporter of the airport. When Gore's opponent in the Democratic primary, Bill Bradley, denounced the airport, Gore's response was canned and bland: "I would urge continued discussion of how a balanced solution can be found that can help the community without hurting the environment." Gore's closest allies say he stayed mum on principle: If he had come out strong before the analysis was done, the analysis might have been challenged in court as a White House sham. Other former Gore aides attribute the decision to a mix of principle, politics and Gore's natural inclination to seek middle ground. But many environmentalists believe he kept his silence to appease Penelas and influential Miami donors -- even after the Elian Gonzalez saga dashed his hopes of making inroads in the Cuban American community. "We kept telling the Gore people he couldn't win the Cuban vote if he landed the 82nd Airborne in Havana," Reed recalled. "They kept telling us: Don't worry, he's with you, he's going to make the speech. He never did." Norris McDonald, a District of Columbia activist, said he warned Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile that Gore was losing environmentalists to Nader over such issues as Homestead. "She said they should go [expletive] themselves," McDonald recalled. Brazile said that she did not recall the exchange but that she did tell the White House that Homestead was causing heartburn in South Florida. Especially for Browder, who had been through a fight like this before. In the 1970s, he helped block a plan for an Everglades jetport, in part by persuading his friend Marjory Stoneham Douglas to launch a grass-roots group called Friends of the Everglades. In 2000, Browder kept hearing that the Gore team was focusing on "the Dade political machine" because it thought Florida environmentalists had nowhere else to turn. So Browder turned to Nader. "The word from the White House was clear that 'Hey, this is politics -- get real and learn to live with it,' " Browder said. "I take no joy from what I did to the Gore campaign. But how can you let someone be so hypocritical about a place you love so much?" The Gore team eventually realized that even pro-Gore green groups were not doing much get-out-the-vote work in South Florida. So three weeks before Election Day, McGinty flew to Miami to plead with environmental supporters. She came with Fort Lauderdale lawyer Mitchell Berger, a Gore fundraiser active on Everglades issues. The meeting was a disaster. McGinty wanted to rally the troops for Gore; they wanted to talk about Homestead. Berger begged the activists for trust; they grilled Berger about his legal work for the Mas family. Gore's loyalists argued that neither George W. Bush nor Jeb Bush, Florida's Republican governor, had taken a position on the airport, that the opposition of Babbitt and Browner should signal Gore's true feelings. But when they asked whether Gore would face protesters if he held a rally in the Everglades, the environmentalists coolly replied that they could not control their members. "Gore spilled blood for these people for eight years," Berger said. "Where was the trust?" Karsten Rist, a Tropical Audubon Society activist, said he was stunned by the Gore team's trust-us approach. "I remember Katie saying Gore would really feel hurt if his own people didn't trust him," he recalled. "It was a strangely sentimental and unrealistic statement." So Gore never made that trip to the Everglades. But three days before the election, Nader was in Miami bellowing about the airport. "Al Gore is waffling as usual," he shouted. Nader also sent a letter to environmentalists around the state, saying Gore had cut deals to allow "major development around this national treasure." Nader got more than 96,000 votes in Florida. Penelas, meanwhile, did not make a single appearance for Gore in the fall of 2000. He was virtually invisible during the post-election controversy, offering no objections when Miami-Dade election officials shut down the manual recount that Gore had requested. "Gore screwed up both ways on Homestead," says J. Allison DeFoor II, Jeb Bush's former Everglades czar. "He lost enviros, and he sure didn't get any help from Penelas." Ultimately, Penelas did not get help from Gore, either. Four days before the Clinton administration left office, the Air Force rejected the airport plan as "inappropriate." President Bush let the decision stand. Articles from "The Swamp" series:
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