Democrat Alex Sink to run for governor

By Aaron Deslatte | Tallahassee Bureau
6:49 PM EDT, May 13, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink jumped into the 2010 governor's race today, a day after Gov. Charlie Crist set off a flurry of political course corrections by announcing he would run for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election.

Sink, 60, becomes the instant front-runner for her party's nomination, with more than $1.1 million already raised. Party activists, still energized by President Barack Obama's Florida victory, see her as their best chance to gain control of the governor's office for the first time in 12 years.

"In the short time I've been here in Tallahassee, I've gotten a chance to see how Tallahassee works and really had some amazing accomplishments," Sink said in an interview Wednesday. "I think the state needs new and different leadership in these economic times."

Sink is the first of numerous politicians who are expected to shift gears thanks to Crist's move but will likely be the lone Democrat running for governor.

Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum is expected to announce his gubernatorial candidacy next week in Orlando, while Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson -- who's term-limited in his current office -- also wants to run.

As a result, 2010 will be the first year in more than a century with no incumbents seeking re-election to any Cabinet post, according to the Secretary of State's office.

Sink, from the Tampa area, was the only Democrat elected to statewide office in 2006, running on her experience as Florida president of Bank of America and her "common sense" business record.

She had previously indicated she would seek a second term, declining to jump into the race to replace retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Orlando.

Republicans quickly laid out their case against Sink, attacking her background with Bank of America, one of the large banks that needed a federal bailout after massive losses caused by "sub-prime" mortgage lending.

State Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer claimed that Sink "played a leading role in tanking Florida's economy" as a Bank of America executive and accused the bank of "predatory" lending.

During her career, Sink did oversee consolidations and job losses; for instance, she helped oversee a merger with Jacksonville-based Barnett Bank in 1997, which the company said at the time would lead to 6,000 layoffs. But she left in 2000, well before the escalation and later crash of the sub-prime mortgage market.

Sink called Greer's comments "just more examples of how people in Tallahassee care more about attacking people that taking on the challenges we face."

She added: "I retired from banking 10 years ago."

Still, Republican political operatives say her financial experience could be a significant vulnerability that McCollum, her likely GOP challenger, can capitalize on.

"She ran Florida's largest bank, and there's never been an examination of how she ran that bank," said Brian Ballard, one of several prominent GOP fundraisers who are backing McCollum.

"I think it's fair, if you make that the centerpiece of your campaign," Ballard said. "The environment has changed from what it was [when Sink ran for CFO.]"

Adelaide A. "Alex" Sink was raised on a farm in Mt. Airy, N.C., the town that inspired the iconic American hamlet of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show. She is a descendant of the famous conjoined "Siamese Twins," Chang and Eng Bunker, who died in 1874.

She earned a mathematics degree from Wake Forest University and lived with her first husband in Africa for three years, where she taught English. After divorcing and moving back, she launched a career with NationsBank that would eventually make her Florida's top banker.

Her husband, Bill McBride, won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2002, beating former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. But McBride, a trial lawyer, was easily defeated by incumbent Gov. Jeb Bush. She has two children, both in college.