Jack Eckerd - Political Campaigns

Political Campaigns

In 1970, Eckerd entered the Republican gubernatorial primary to challenge incumbent Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr. A third candidate, State Senator L. A. "Skip" Bafalis of Palm Beach, later a U.S. representative, also entered the primary. Eckerd warned that the renomination of Kirk would produce a Republican fiasco in the fall campaign. In a primary endorsement, the Miami Herald depicted Eckerd as "an efficient campaigner with the ability to bring people together constructively. ... a common touch, dedication to high principle, and organizing genius."

William C. Cramer, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1970, was also at odds with Kirk but was attempting to preserve party unity at the same time. Though he voted in the primary for Eckerd, Cramer took no public position. Kirk received 172,888 primary ballots, but Bafalis's 48,378 votes were sufficient to require a runoff with Eckerd, who received 137,731. Kirk then prevailed in the runoff, 199,943 to Eckerd's 152,327, after he obtained Bafalis's reluctant endorsement.

Distraught that Kirk's antics had led to a fratricidal primary, Cramer said that he "customarily" avoided involvement in primaries outside of his own race. Kirk claimed that Cramer assisted Eckerd, whom Kirk assailed as "notorious for his ability to change the scope of the truth. He has an ego problem." In the campaign rhetoric, Kirk denounced Eckerd for having previously contributed to Democratic candidates, for allegedly running down a Cuban fisherman in a yacht race, and for spending lavishly from his personal fortune in the 1970 primary campaign. Though he defeated Eckerd, Kirk was then unseated, 57-43 percent, by the Democrat Reubin Askew, a state senator from Pensacola.

Eckerd said that though he had supported Kirk in 1966, he became disappointed and embarrassed with the governor: "I was offended by his public behavior and chagrined that he was a Republican." Despite Kirk's tactics, Eckerd said "time heals all wounds, and now I chuckle about it." He added that his primary runoff defeat in 1970 probably prolonged his life."

In 1974, Eckerd was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate against the Democrat Richard Stone. The conservative vote was divided that year with Dr. John Grady, nominee of George C. Wallace's former American Independent Party siphoning votes from Eckerd. Grady ran again in 1976 as the Republican nominee but lost to the Democratic incumbent Lawton Chiles of Lakeland, who had defeated Cramer in 1970.

In 1978, Eckerd defeated U.S. Representative Louis Frey, Jr., of Winter Park to win the Republican gubernatorial nomination, but he lost in the fall to the Democrat Bob Graham of Miami, later a U.S. senator. Kirk ran unsuccessfully for governor again that year, too, but as a Democrat after he failed to qualify as an Independent.