TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Former U.S. Senator and two-term governor of Florida Bob Graham, who rose to national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee following the 2001 terrorist attacks and as an early critic of the Iraq war, he died . He was 87 years old.
Graham’s family announced his death Tuesday in a statement posted to X by his daughter Gwen Graham.
“We are deeply saddened to report the passing of a visionary leader, a dedicated public servant and, most importantly, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather,” the family said.
Graham, who served three terms in the Senate, launched an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, emphasizing his opposition to the invasion of Iraq.
But his candidacy was delayed due to heart surgery in January 2003, and he never managed to gain enough traction with voters to catch up, withdrawing in October. He did not seek re-election in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez.
Graham was a man of many peculiarities. He perfected the “workday” political trick of spending a day doing various jobs, from stable cleaner to FBI agent, and kept a meticulous diary, writing down almost everyone he talked to, everything he ate, the TV shows who watched and even his golf scores.
Graham said that notebooks were a working tool for him and that he was reluctant to describe his personal emotions or feelings in them.
“I review them for calls to make, memos to dictate, meetings I want to attend, and things people promise to do,” he said.
Graham was an early opponent of the Iraq war, saying it diverted US focus from the battle against terrorism centered on Afghanistan. He also criticized President George W. Bush for failing to come up with an occupation plan in Iraq after the U.S. military ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Graham said Bush led the United States into war by exaggerating claims about the danger posed by Iraqi weapons of destruction that were never found. He said Bush distorted intelligence data and argued that this was more serious than the sexual misconduct issues that led the House to impeach President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. presidential candidacy.
“The quagmire in Iraq is a distraction that the Bush administration, and only the Bush administration, created,” Graham said in 2003.
During his 18 years in Washington, Graham worked well with colleagues from both parties, especially Florida Republican Connie Mack during their twelve years together in the Senate.
As a politician, few have been better. Florida voters hardly considered him the wealthy Harvard-educated lawyer he was.
Graham’s political career spanned five decades, beginning with his election to the Florida House of Representatives in 1966.
He won a state Senate seat in 1970 and was elected governor in 1978. He was reelected in 1982. Four years later, he won the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate when he ousted incumbent Republican Paula Hawkins.
Graham remained very popular among Florida voters – winning re-election by wide margins in 1992 and 1998, when he carried 63 of 67 counties. In that last election, he defeated Charlie Crist, who later served as Republican governor from 2007 to 2011.
“He surprised me and I discovered even more why during the campaign,” Crist said Tuesday night. “I learned to respect him even more than I already did and to love him for the good, decent man he was.”
Crist, who has since switched parties and most recently served as a U.S. representative, said Graham was an influence on him.
“I always felt that when he was governor, he was trying to govern for the people of Florida — not in a political or partisan way — and I took that seriously and tried to, in some ways, emulate him,” Crist said.
Even when he was in Washington, Graham never took his eyes off the state and leadership in Tallahassee.
When Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican-controlled Legislature eliminated the Board of Regents in 2001, Graham saw it as a move to politicize the state university system. He led a successful petition the following year for a state constitutional amendment that created the Board of Governors to assume the role of regents.
Daniel Robert Graham was born on November 9, 1936, in Coral Gables, where his father, Ernest “Cap” Graham, had moved from South Dakota and established a large dairy operation. Young Bob milked cows, built fences and collected manure as a teenager. One of his half-brothers, Phillip Graham, was editor of The Washington Post and Newsweek until he committed suicide in 1963, just a year after Bob Graham’s graduation from Harvard Law.
Graham was student body president of Miami Senior High School and attended the University of Florida, graduating in 1959.
In 1966 he was elected to the Florida Legislature, where he focused primarily on education and health issues.
Graham had a shaky start as Florida’s chief executive and was dubbed “Gov. Jello” due to some initial indecision. He shook that label by dealing with several serious crises.
As governor, he also signed numerous death sentences, founded the Save the Manatee Club with artist Jimmy Buffett, and led efforts to establish several environmental programs.
Graham promoted a bond program to buy beaches and barrier islands threatened by development and started the Save Our Everglades program to protect the state’s water supply, wetlands and endangered species.
Graham was also known for his 408 “days on the job,” including stints as a housewife, boxing ring announcer, flight attendant and arson investigator. They grew out of a stint teaching as a member of the Florida Senate Education Committee and then turned into a campaign gimmick that helped him relate to the average voter.
“This has been a very important part of my development as a public servant, learning on a very human level what the people of Florida expect, what they want, what their aspirations are and then trying to interpret that and make it a policy that it will improve their lives,” Graham said in 2004, as he completed his last job wrapping Christmas gifts.
After leaving public life in 2005, Graham spent much of his time at a public policy center named after him at the University of Florida and lobbied the Legislature to require more civics classes in the state’s public schools.
Graham was one of five members selected to an independent commission by President Barack Obama in June 2010 to investigate a massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that threatened marine life and beaches along several southeastern Gulf states.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
