Subject: CALL REMINDER: Senator Dan Gelber, Democratic Candidate for Florida Attorney General
From: "DAGA Team" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:29:02 -0400

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  Links:
    1. http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=abe051504b44f0a5e420d445c&id=e0a1828a3c&e=a259a545aa

TO:               All DAGA Supporters
FROM:             Travis Berry
DATE:             August 31, 2010
SUBJECT:          Candidate Conference Call with Democratic Candidate
                  for Florida Attorney General Dan Gelber

Time is running out to join the call with Democratic Candidate for Florida
Attorney General Senator Dan Gelber. It’s not too late to RSVP. _If you have
not yet done so and would like to participate, please RSVP to Jenifer
Freeman Fuller at _[2][email-masked] _for the dial-in
information. _The call will be held on Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 11:00
AM Eastern. We have included some biographical and background information
about Senator Gelber and a news article about the race to help prepare you
for the call.
  Links:
    2. mailto:[email-masked]

We look forward to introducing you to the Democratic Candidate for Florida
Attorney General!

_About Dan Gelber_
Dan Gelber has led a life of exemplary public and community service. The son
of a prosecutor and a schoolteacher, he grew up in Florida – in Miami and in
Tallahassee.

Chosen as Florida’s Truman Scholar when he was in college, Dan was appointed
one of the nation’s youngest federal prosecutors when he joined the South
Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office. For nearly a decade, Dan handled some of
Florida’s most significant public corruption, civil rights and narcotics
prosecutions. He rose to be head of the civil rights division ultimately
becoming a top deputy where he managed hundreds of prosecutors and thousands
of investigations.

Dan was noticed by then U.S. Senator Sam Nunn who asked him to take the helm
of the United
State Senate’s investigations committee as its Chief Counsel and Staff
Director. Dan led delegations around the world and throughout the former
Soviet Union where he investigated terrorism and worked on ways to stop
dangerous weapons and weapons technology from being smuggled to terrorist
groups and rogue nations in the Middle East. He also led investigations and
hearings, published reports and testified before the congress on a wide
array of domestic security issues.

In 2000, Dan was elected to the Florida House and in 2006, he was
unanimously selected by his Democratic colleagues as their Democratic
Leader. In 2008, he was elected to represent the residents of district 35 in
the state Senate, where he serves today. In his decade in the legislature
he has been one of the most prominent advocates for public education, health
care and children’s issues.

Dan is an accomplished attorney who has the highest rating (AV) from the
Martindale Hubbell rating service and has been recognized in various
peer–review publications including Best lawyers in America and Florida’s
Legal Elite.

Dan has been a Big Brother volunteer with the Big Brothers, Big Sister
program for 25 years, including 20 with his current little brother Travis.
He has also spent nearly every summer at a camp he helped create 25 years
ago for children afflicted with cancer. Dan lives with his wife, Joan, a
career federal prosecutor, and their three children, Sophie, Hannah and Max
in Miami Beach.

_[3]Gelber, Bondi appear headed for November battle_
Miami Herald - By JOHN FRANK, COLLEEN JENKINS AND LAURA STAMPLER
TALLAHASSEE -- A stark partisan choice in the race for attorney general
awaits voters who gave Democrat Dan Gelber and Republican Pam Bondi
vicotries in Tuesday's primaries.
Gelber, a Miami Beach state senator, took a sizeable lead early against
state Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres.
  Links:
    3. http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/24/1790820/gelber-bondi-appear-headed-for.html

Preliminary results gave Gelber a solid double-digit advantage prompting
Aronberg to concede an hour and a half after the polls closed.
``I am not going to be timid, I'm not going to be docile and I'm not going
to be compliant as the attorney general,'' said Gelber, as 100 supporters
cheered at a Miami Beach golf club.

But the three-way Republican contest remained close. Bondi held a
single-digit edge over Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp with former state Rep. Holly
Benson in third place, the initial results showed.

``When I started this journey nine months ago I said we can change the face
of politics,'' Bondi told a roomful of supporters. ``Tonight score one for
the people.''

The hotly contested races held all the intrigue of the major contests with
political attack groups, a fair share of mud slinging and endorsements from
national political figures.

But the candidates were largely overshadowed by the Democratic U.S. Senate
campaign and the Republican governor's race. A poll conducted a week
earlier, found the majority of voters undecided -- more than 40 percent in
the Democratic race.

The huge pool of uncommitted voters built drama into the final day, leaving
candidates anxiously scrambling to win last-minute voters as they visited
polling sites across the state.
A number of voters at precincts in Tampa couldn't even recall which
candidate they picked just moments after casting a ballot.

Erica House, a 26-year-old Tampa nursing student, voted for Aronberg in the
Democratic primary. Why?
``Honestly, I don't know,'' she said. ``That's the only one that stood out.
You stop listening when you see them going back and forth with all the
negative ads.''

Gelber and Aronberg ran a close race with relatively few policy differences
between them. But they spent thousands on television advertisements and
mailers to brand each other as ``a typical politician'' who took money from
special interests and voted against consumers.
The differences came in style.

Aronberg's legislative record is more moderate compared to Gelber, a
firebrand former House Democratic leader.

Gelber, 49, doesn't hide his politics. Upon election, he promises to sue the
Legislature for under-funding education and drop the lawsuit against the
federal government concerning the federal health care law. He believes that
he won the primary because the people of Florida trust his 10 years of
experience as a federal prosecutor.

``Floridians understandably feel anxious about their future and they're
looking for a champion,'' he said in his victory speech.

Aronberg vowed to support Gelber in the general election. ``I think Pam
Bondi is a formidable candidate and Dan will need the Democratic party
united behind him to win this race,'' he said.
On the Republican side, Bondi, 44, carried momentum into the final days as
she touted the endorsement of Sarah Palin and held a slight lead in the
polls.

The first-time candidate, who spent 18 years in the Hillsborough County
prosecutor's office, ran as the anti-politician and stressed her
crime-fighting credentials. She pledged to continue the state's health care
lawsuit.

But at times she stumbled to explain her previous life as a Democrat and her
positions on controversial issues.

At a May event, Bondi deflected a question on the issue of gay adoption by
bringing up a couple who adopted a child and ``are in a loving, committed
same-sex relationship.'' Then she had to clarify earlier remarks by saying
she will continue the state's effort to uphold Florida's unique gay adoption
ban.
Throughout the campaign, she tarnished her two opponents by linking them to
Gov. Charlie Crist.
Kottkamp, 49, served with Crist, but distanced himself after the governor
bolted from the Republican Party. Under Crist, Benson, 39, ran the
Department of Business and Professional Regulation and the state Medicaid
program as secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration.

The candidates all drew big support from their respective turfs: Tampa for
Bondi, Fort Myers for Kottkamp and Pensacola for Benson.

Kottkamp conceded and pledged to help Bondi.

``Too much is at stake this election cycle to sit on the sidelines and do
nothing,'' he said.

Bondi and Gelber wasted no time setting the stage. Bondi said Gelber ``is an
Eliot Spitzer type of Floridian, who is painting a bullseye on every
business, every paycheck and every job.''

Gelber retorted with his own comparison: "Florida doesn't need a Sarah Palin
with a law degree for attorney general.''

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