by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
Robert Kunst wants to be the next governor of Florida. So do Janet Reno, Bill McBride and a dozen or so other Democrats.
What separates Kunst from the apparent frontrunners is as simple as categorizing them as the “haves” and the “have-nots.” Reno has name recognition. McBride is getting it. Kunst has none. Reno and McBride are collecting fistfuls of campaign contributions. Kunst has about $5,000. Statewide Democratic groups, including locals, openly court Reno and McBride. Kunst has to push and shove just to get his foot in the door.
“Half the Democratic Party won’t even allow me in,” said Kunst at a Duval County Democratic Party fundraiser last week. “I think it is because they’re full of [bull].”
Kunst isn’t shy. He’s assertive, driven and speaks in expletives when necessary for punctuation. The fact that Jacksonville’s Democratic Party invited him to an open house last week featuring gubernatorial candidates McBride and Daryl Jones was a concession. Kunst had long complained that Jacksonville wouldn’t give him a chance to present himself and even posted complaints on the Jacksonville Democratic Party website. Local party leaders, while they wouldn’t openly admit the concession, shrugged their shoulders and grinned.
Kunst isn’t exactly the stuff traditional gubernatorial candidates are made of, especially on a local level.
“I’m gay,” he added. “Big time.”
In a town not celebrated for its liberal mindset, Kunst’s sexuality could be a problem. But he looks beyond that and hopes others will, too.
“My revolution has already been successful,” he said. “Are they worried about my sex life or are they worried about looking for an honest person?”
He wants to legalize marijuana, too. But more on that later.
Like some Democrats, he is still deeply bitter about the 2000 presidential election. Although he has never held office, he opposed Bob Graham twice in the 1980s in the governor and U.S. senate races. A marketing and promotions specialist by profession, he assumes the role of activist when it comes to politics.
“Well, that’s my advantage because I’m not a politician,” he said. “My issue is to say everything. I started with the stolen election issue and I’ve come to a whole range of everything under the sun that I’m picking up right now.”
Kunst divides his campaign into four concepts: stolen election, stolen paradise, stolen freedom and stolen lives.
Stolen election: Kunst says he’s determined not to let another election like 2000 happen again.
“It’s how to prevent the next step now since they [Republicans] already know how to do it,” he said.
Stolen paradise: the gradual degradation of Florida’s environment.
“Let’s take what’s happening in your neck of the woods,” he said. “Take the St. Johns River. My approach is very simple: if you want to do business in Florida, clean up your act. You’re not here to destroy paradise.
“I don’t want any drilling in the Everglades. I don’t want any drilling in Big Cypress. I don’t want any drilling off the coast. I’m not here to jeopardize Florida’s security because we have one oil spill. That’s all it takes. It would destroy the state’s tourism economy.”
Stolen freedom: Kunst’s advocates legalization of marijuana.
“We have so many police that are worried about who’s smoking pot that they couldn’t find a terrorist if their life depended on it . . . or ours,” he said. “My argument is really very simple. I’m pulling for legalization. Get the politicians and the police and the courts and the attorneys out of the business.”
Kunst’s rationale takes him where no other political hopeful has gone before — legalize pot for the security of the state.
“Where are our priorities?” he questioned. “We only have so many police. We only have so many tax dollars. Where are we going to put them? Do you want them going after the pot smokers or going after the [terrorists] of the world that are doing business in our state? You have to make that decision.”
Stolen lives: Kunst is sickened by bureaucracy and status quo when it comes to protecting and saving lives of Floridians.
“When I look at this expendability factor on stolen lives, I look at the five-year-old missing for the last 15 months out of Miami,” he said. “That’s the tip of the iceberg of what’s going on in this state. The elderly are expendable. They have to choose between food and drugs. People with AIDS are expendable. They get no drugs.
“They have these agencies that are supervised by people that are building empires and cutting up the money pot. They could care less if any of us live or die.”
It seems Kunst has no friends to lose, especially with the Democratic Party. At a time when most candidates are still guardedly friendly toward each other, Kunst aims between the eyes early and often, starting with Reno.
“My argument with Reno is she was attorney general when the election was stolen and kept her mouth shut,” he said. “Now, when you’re the No. 1 cop, I’m not here to forgive you. You have to obey the law like I do. If it doesn’t mean anything to you, you have no right being governor.”
Kunst advocates more corporate taxes, or at least assessing taxes on the hundreds of groups that currently pay little or no taxes. A similar initiative was recently introduced by State Sen. John McKay and drew harsh criticism statewide.
“You guys have to pay your fair share or don’t do business here because we have more important things to do in terms of saving paradise,” he said. “If you save paradise, you have clean fishing and boating and tourism and hotels and people working.”
So how does he expect to beat favorites Reno and McBride and eventually incumbent Bush?
“I represent the protest on all of it,” he explained. “What are we doing? This is the state that the terrorists like to come to and do business before they do damage everywhere else. It is a disaster zone. We don’t need the multi-millions [in campaign money] that everyone’s claiming.”