Tampa Tribune, March 25, 2001, Section: BAYLIFE, Page: 9
LELAND HAWES, Memo: HISTORY and HERITAGE
Politics in the spring of 1968 were overshadowed by turbulent events nationally and internationally. The Vietnam War was stirring widespread student protests, and Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" programs were creating controversy as well. In Tampa, 33-year-old Paul Antinori Jr., finishing up a term as a high-profile state attorney, was challenging 48-year-old Sam Gibbons for his House seat in Congress. Both Tampa natives, the two candidates slugged it out in the Democratic arena while three Republicans attempted to make headway in the GOP primary. Although Claude Kirk was serving as the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction, his election was considered somewhat of a fluke because of disarray in Democratic ranks. Antinori, who spends much of his time nowadays with a civil practice in maritime law in Massachusetts, spoke recently of his recollections of the 1968 campaign in a Tampa interview. Gibbons, now retired from Congress but away in Washington regularly as a lobbyist-consultant, remembered fewer details because the '68 run was only the fourth of 17 successful races he made for the lower house. Both men look back upon the '68 congressional fray as a hard-fought effort with no hard feelings in the aftermath. In fact, Gibbons said Antinori became a contributor in a later campaign, and Antinori confirmed this. Incidentally, the reported costs of their 1968 confrontation were less than $100,000 - Antinori a little more than $50,000, Gibbons a little more than $45,000. In contrast to today's million-dollar campaigns, there was little reliance on television advertising. Instead of 30-second "spot" commercials, candidates still relied upon newspaper advertising to a great extent. And the personal touch counted much more. When was the last time you saw a motorcade blaring through town with loudspeakers urging support for a candidate?
ANTINORI REMEMBERS the crack-of-dawn handshakes at cigar factory shift changes and the campaign rallies to draw out potential supporters. Until then, Gibbons had coasted through campaigns with minimal opposition. "I wondered whether Sam would come home to campaign in Tampa," Antinori said. He got the answer every time he hit the streets. Gibbons was there. "He stayed here the entire race. We ran into each other everywhere. It was understood you had to go out on the streets - to homes, businesses and supporter groups." Gibbons remained in Tampa for the entire race, Antinori said. The incumbent's stands on Vietnam and the antipoverty program provided points of contention on the stump. Gibbons said he had not supported going into Vietnam, but once it happened he backed the Johnson administration. Antinori considered his own approach "more hawkish." For example, he advocated blockading the port of Haiphong in North Vietnam. "Sam was part and parcel of the Great Society," Antinori asserted. "That was what divided us more than anything. He was for setting up Neighborhood Service Centers, which were basically teaching people how to work." That issue "may have contributed to my downfall," Antinori said recently. "It brought either anger or passion." Areas of minority population Antinori expected to win came to believe that he would abolish Neighborhood Service Centers and cost thousands of jobs. "We're going to be out of work," he heard. Antinori started out as a Republican when he turned 21, then switched to the Democratic Party when he anticipated running for state attorney. He was philosophically a conservative all along, he said. "You had conservative Democrats then that would make Republicans blush today."
THE DEMOCRATS HAD been the traditional party of power in Florida, so Antinori felt he had to make the change if he were to succeed politically. That, and his stand on capital punishment, left him vulnerable to criticism of inconsistency. Antinori had opposed the death penalty, but his experiences in prosecuting "some horrific crimes" had modified his position. He considered an advertisement in The Tampa Tribune captioned, "Will the Real Paul Antinori Please Stand Up!" one of the potent blows against him in the campaign. In speaking engagements, Gibbons called him "a jumping jack." And Antinori accused Gibbons of "flip-flops" in his public statements on a Tampa race riot in 1967 and on the capture of the spy ship U.S.S. Pueblo by North Vietnam. Columbia University buildings had been occupied by student antiwar activists in early May, and both candidates were questioned on their views of civil disobedience and dissent. In a Law Day speech at East Bay High School, Antinori lambasted advocates of civil disobedience. "Let's take the law into your hearts and not in your hands," he urged. Gibbons made an appearance at the University of South Florida, saying unrest at Columbia "tears down the ability to meet the needs of coming generations." The two candidates clashed on other issues. Gibbons jumped on Antinori for his failure to personally prosecute any of the 63 people arrested in the wake of the 1967 riots. "There was only one jury conviction, and Mr. Antinori did not show up in court to prosecute that case or any other other riot case," the congressman said. Antinori claimed, "Mr. Gibbons has surrendered our representation to Lyndon Johnson and has fallen in line with the ultra-liberal philosophy represented by LBJ and Hubert Humphrey." On the Sunday before the May 7 election, Tribune editor James A. Clendinen said Antinori "has a silver tongue, a handsome profile and an elastic philosophy."
THE EDITORIAL PRAISED Gibbons' challenge of longtime congressional power Adam Clayton Powell, "the king of Harlem." It said, "No one in the House had the courage to challenge Powell. No one, that is, until Sam Gibbons came along." The Tribune endorsed Gibbons. As voters went to the polls, Gibbons said he thought he had a lead of 5 percent to 7 percent, making it "a real horse race." But when the tallies came in, a Tribune headline labeled the result "a cakewalk." The vote: Gibbons with 48,312 votes, Antinori with 31,874. That fall Gibbons went on to win re-election over the Republican nominee, Paul Saad. Looking back recently, Antinori mused: "That race was so neat. The differences were so clearly delineated. We were arguing about ways to curb inflation, Social Security questions and civil rights questions." "Sam beat me soundly," Antinori added. "It was written in the stars for Sam to win and me to lose." Antinori returned to a private criminal law practice with Al Cazin, Barry Cohen and Joseph Thury. But in 1980 he decided his tastes had turned to civil law. In 1990 he attended a National Trial Lawyers seminar in Boston and "became enamored" with New England. "I wanted new challenges," he said. He and his wife of 40 years, Louise, and two of their three children now live in North Andover, Mass., in a home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Most of his clients are sword fishermen out of Gloucester, Mass. At 65, Antinori said he's "working harder than ever." He still maintains an office and a home in Tampa. "But I'm busier there than here," he said.
(2) Sam Gibbons greets supporters in Tampa in May 1968 after hearing primary election results. Gibbons defeated Democratic challenger Paul Antinori and went on to win re-election. At left, Antinori responds to a reporter's question while serving as Hillsborough County state attorney. Later, Antinori took on Gibbons, critizing the incumbent's stands on Vietnam and President Johnson's antipoverty programs.
(2) Newspaper advertising predominated in political campaigns in the 1960s.
At left is a Gibbons ad; at right, an Antinori
counterattack.