Pubdate: Tue, 20 Jun 2006
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2006 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: John Kennedy, Tallahassee Bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

GOP GOVERNOR CANDIDATE GALLAGHER ADMITS USING POT, CHEATING ON FIRST WIFE

TALLAHASSEE . Republican Tom Gallagher admitted Monday that he smoked 
marijuana more than 25 years ago and had an extramarital affair, two 
startling revelations stemming from court documents in his 1979 divorce.

Gallagher's acknowledgment of smoking pot prompted his GOP opponent, 
Attorney General Charlie Crist, to remind voters that he, too, had 
once used the drug, as Florida's race for governor suddenly turned 
confessional.

During a conference call with reporters, Gallagher, who has built his 
campaign for governor around his devotion to family and faith, spoke 
publicly at length for the first time about the breakup of his 
earlier marriage.

"I take full responsibility for my actions being the reason for the 
divorce, and they speak for themselves," said Gallagher, 62. "I made 
some mistakes in that marriage, and I regret those."

Joined on the call by his current wife, Laura, a somber Gallagher 
said he decided to come forward after the Tampa Tribune showed his 
campaign about 25 pages of documents accumulated in his divorce from 
Ann Louise Gallagher.

The documents included a transcript of a combative exchange between 
lawyers over what appears to be his estranged wife's request for a 
restraining order, as well as a former legislative aide's account of 
an affair she had at the time with Gallagher, then a state 
representative from Miami-Dade County .

"I've done some things earlier in my life that were not right," 
Gallagher said Monday. "And I'll never defend them or make excuses. 
But I've learned from those mistakes, and I believe I've become a 
better person for them."

Laura Gallagher said her husband told her about the circumstances of 
his first marriage's break-up before they wed in 1998. The couple has 
a 7-year-old son, Charlie.

"Tom and I have discussed all of these issues before we were married, 
including his divorce and even that he tried marijuana," Laura 
Gallagher said. "It's difficult to acknowledge past mistakes like 
this, but it's something we all have to do and I'm proud of Tom for 
doing that. I love my husband."

Gallagher said he never used any illegal drugs other than marijuana.

His conservative supporters were quick to praise him for confronting 
the missteps of his past during an era when he was known as a 
freewheeling partier.

"The electorate is very forgiving as long as a person is honest and 
straightforward," said John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer and 
president of the Florida Family Policy Council. "Everybody knows 
about Tom's past; it's no surprise. But I'm very impressed by the way 
he's responded."

The revelations, though, clash with the political turf Gallagher has 
tried to claim as his own in his Republican primary fight with Crist, 
who continues to lead in most polls.

Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, said 
marijuana use isn't the same political stigma it once was for voters; 
nor are they shocked by most details that emerge in divorce cases.

"I don't think this is going to be very damaging," Coker said. "But I 
think the campaign was already facing bigger hurdles before this came along."

On Monday, Crist's campaign said the candidate had smoked marijuana 
during his college days but came to consider it a mistake he now 
regrets. Crist acknowledged the drug use during his 2000 campaign for 
education commissioner, the campaign said.

Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, said little about 
allegations contained in the June 13, 1979, transcript of a court 
hearing in which he was accused of being drunk, breaking a door lock 
to enter his wife's home and threatening her mother in an effort to 
retrieve his sheepdog named Samantha.

But he insisted he wasn't intoxicated or acting in a belligerent manner.

"I went to get my dog. It was the wrong thing to do and I shouldn't 
have done it, and I regret that I did it," Gallagher said. "It's 27 
years ago, and lawyers on both sides get all worked up in these things."

Vivian Myrtetus, a Crist spokeswoman, replied "absolutely not," when 
asked if the Crist campaign had provided the Gallagher documents to 
the newspaper. Myrtetus also said she was not aware of any Crist 
supporters who might have obtained the documents and passed them on.

In the transcript released Monday, the unidentified judge presiding 
over the Gallagher hearing at one point tells him the judge didn't 
want to have anything in the record that could be used "against you 
in the future in one of your future campaigns."

After several more pages of fierce exchanges between the lawyers, the 
judge said, "It's a lucky thing that these two litigants have got me 
as a judge to protect them against you two lawyers."

To which Gallagher responded, "Amen."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman