MIAMI, March 12 (UPI) -- Former Attorney General Janet Reno, an underdog candidate for governor of Florida, wound up her 2,500-mile "Little Red Truck Tour" of the state Tuesday proclaiming it a success.
She started the tour Feb. 26 in the Florida Panhandle and ended at her family home in Miami-Dade County's Kendall section, where she gave a campaign speech and signed autographs..
"This trip has told me that Floridians are interested in who has experience, who has delivered, who is what they say they are, who will do what they say they will do, who will make the hard decisions and then be accountable to the people," Reno said. "The reception I got indicates that a lot of them might well vote for me."
Reno is running against four opponents in the Democratic primary election set for Sept. 10, and because of her pervasive name recognition gained during eight years as the nation's first woman attorney general is considered a shoo-in.
Her opponent in the November will be Gov. Jeb Bush, President Bush's younger brother, and he is considered unbeatable, at least by Reno.
But Reno supporters believe the trip and the stops in a dozen cities have helped solve one problem -- questions about her health.
Reno has Parkinson's disease and last month during an appearance at Syracuse University in New York she fainted at the podium and spent the night in a hospital. Doctors said the two were unrelated and Reno insisted the next day she felt fine.
Although she makes no attempt to cover up her palsied hands, her health did not appear to slow her down at all. That was punctuated by a two-mile march in a Strawberry Festival parade in Plante City during the tour.
She was asked about her health every day, but never wavered, insisting she was fine.
"They say what about your health? And I say I went to the doctors and the doctors assured me it won't affect my ability to be governor and I'm running hard," Reno said. "As one lady said, 'I'm not worried about her hand shaking. I'm just worried about her head and her head seems fine.' "
There were problems with her organization during the trip, but that didn't seem to bother her. There was a stroll through an all-but empty shopping mall in Jacksonville and a disappointing fund-raising dinner attended by only 12 people.
Her 29-year-old campaign manager Mo Elleithee and her 25-year-old publicity director Nicole Harburger are both new to Florida and apparently still learning the ropes.
Reno's message throughout has been to call for better pay for teachers, smaller class sizes, better health care and more care for the environment. She has criticized Bush's newness in Florida -- he arrived in 1980 -- and his record as governor, including a $350 million hit the state's pension fund took from the Enron debacle.
