The 2000 Presidential Election What Really Caused Al Gore to Lose?
The 2000 presidential election was surrounded by question after Al Gore lost by a very small margin. As told to former Washington Post reporter Michael Grunwald, Al Gore admitted that an obscure issue in south Florida might have caused him to lose the 2000 presidential election. Who knew that the eight-year struggle to redevelop the Homestead Air Force Base would impact the year 2000 presidential election? It did not start out that way, and no one involved in defending two national parks from degradation wanted it to end that way.
Everglades Betrayal - The Issue that Defeated Al Gore chronicles the saga from the base’s destruction by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 to the astonishing 2000 presidential election and the final decision rendered just three days before George W. Bush took office. The Everglades Betrayal is a detailed account of the misguided local efforts that eventually required national intervention. This was because the proposal was in the middle of the greater Everglades ecosystem when Congress approved the largest restoration program to date. In the end, the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) played an oversight role. Considering what was at stake, it was surprising that no one controlled the timing to the Vice President’s advantage.
Youwill learnthat the final decision on this issue and the 2000 presidential election collided in south Florida, an undecided state. Al Gore’s disappointing stance on the proposed redevelopment turned conservationists away, and Ralph Nader earned over 70,000 votes in the state. In Florida, every one of the third party candidates earned more than the number of votes separating Al Gore from George W. Bush.
Would the 2000 presidential election have turned out differently if Al Gore had pursued another strategy? Read Everglades Betrayal and decide if the Homestead Air Force Base saga determined the outcome of the 2000 presidential election.
