Former Florida Governor Bob Graham dies aged 87: Three-term Democrat senator is remembered as ‘devoted person in public service’

Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who chaired the Intelligence Committee after the 2001 terrorist attacks and opposed the invasion of Iraq, has died. He was 87.

His family announced the death on Tuesday in a statement on X from his daughter Gwen Graham. His wife, Adele, was by his side when he died at a retirement home in Gainesville.

Graham, who served three terms in the Senate, made an unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, emphasizing his opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

But his bid was postponed due to heart surgery in January 2003. Unable to gain enough traction with voters to catch up, he bowed out in October. He did not stand for re-election in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez.

His wife Adele told the Tallahassee Democrat, “We are very attached and love him so much, so proud of him. He was an absolutely committed person in the public sector, to getting things done for everyone.”

Graham was remembered as a “visionary leader and dedicated public servant.”

A man of many idiosyncrasies, Graham perfected the political gimmick of the “workdays,” spending a day doing a variety of jobs, from horse stable mouse to FBI agent.

He kept a meticulous diary, recording almost everyone he spoke to, everything he ate, the TV shows he watched and even his golf scores.

But he closed the notebooks to the media during his short-lived presidential bid.

Graham was an early opponent of the Iraq war, saying it shifted America’s attention to the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. He also criticized President George W. Bush for not creating an occupation plan for Iraq after the U.S. military ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Graham said Bush drew the United States into the war by exaggerating claims about the danger of Iraqi weapons of destruction that were never found. Graham claimed that Bush had distorted intelligence data and that this was more serious than the sexual misconduct issues that led to President Clinton’s impeachment in the late 1990s.

It spurred Graham to launch his brief presidential bid.

“The Iraq quagmire is a distraction that the Bush administration, and only the Bush administration, has created,” Graham said in 2003.

As a politician, few were better. Florida voters hardly regarded him as the wealthy, Harvard-educated lawyer he was.

Graham’s political career spanned five decades, beginning with his election to the Florida House of Representatives in 1966.

A man of many idiosyncrasies, Graham perfected the political gimmick of the ‘workdays’, spending a day doing a variety of jobs, from horse stable mouse to FBI agent

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Graham, left, poses with his running mate Wayne Mixson, right, of Marianna, in Miami, as he watches the 1987 election results

Florida Senator Bob Graham waves to people in the Miami Lakes, audience on Tuesday, May 6, 2003

He won a seat in the Senate in 1970, was elected governor in 1978 and re-elected in 1982. Four years later, he won the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate when he unseated Republican incumbent Paula Hawkins.

Graham remained highly popular with Florida voters and won reelection by wide margins in 1992 and 1998, when he carried 63 of 67 counties.

Even while in Washington, Graham never took his eyes off the state and leadership in Tallahassee.

When Governor Jeb Bush and the Republican-controlled Legislature eliminated the Board of Regents in 2001, Graham saw it as an attempt to politicize the state university system. The following year, he led a successful petition for a state constitutional amendment that created the Board of Governors to take on the role of the regents.

Daniel Robert Graham was born on November 9, 1936 in Coral Gables, where his father, Ernest “Cap” Graham, had moved from South Dakota and built a large dairy business. As a teenager, young Bob milked cows, built fences and shoveled manure. One of his half-brothers, Phillip Graham, was publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek until he committed suicide in 1963, just a year after Bob Graham graduated from Harvard Law.

In 1966, he was elected to the Florida Legislature, where he focused largely on education and health care issues.

Former Florida Governor Bob Graham, right, signs an autograph for Maria Dulce before a campaign appearance at the Miami River Festival at Jean Marti Park, October 25, 1986

But Graham got off to a shaky start as Florida’s CEO, earning the nickname “Gov. Jello’ for some early indecision. He shook that label by his handling of several serious crises.

As governor, he also signed numerous death warrants, co-founded the Save the Manatee Club with entertainer Jimmy Buffett and led efforts to establish several environmental programs.

Graham pushed through a bond program to buy beaches and barrier islands threatened by development, and also started the Save Our Everglades program to protect the state’s water supply, wetlands and endangered species.

Graham was also known for his 408 ‘workdays’, which included stints as a housewife, boxing ring announcer, flight attendant and arson investigator.

“This has been a very important part of my development as a public servant, learning on a very human level what the people of Florida expect, what they want, what their aspirations are, and then trying to interpret that and turn that into policy that will make that happen. improve their lives,” Graham said in 2004 as he completed his last job as a Christmas gift wrapper.

After leaving public life in 2005, Graham spent much of his time at a public policy center named after him at the University of Florida, where he pushed the Legislature to expand civics classes in the state’s public schools. state to demand.

Graham was one of five members selected by President Barack Obama in June 2010 for an independent commission to investigate a massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that threatened marine life and beaches along several southeastern Gulf states.