Pubdate: Tue, 20 Jun 2006
Source: News-Press (FL)
Copyright: 2006 The News-Press
Contact:  http://www.news-press.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1133

GALLAGHER ADMITS POT USE, INFIDELITY

Candidate Comes Clean After Paper Gets Divorce Transcripts

TALLAHASSEE -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Gallagher 
admitted Monday that he used marijuana as a young man, cheated on his 
first wife, and broke into her home to retrieve a dog during their 
messy divorce.

Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, chose to make the 
announcement in a conference call with reporters after being 
contacted over the weekend by a newspaper that had obtained 
transcripts from Gallagher's 27-year-old divorce proceedings.

"I've done some things earlier in my life that are not right and I'll 
never defend them or make excuses," Gallagher said. "But I think I've 
learned from them."

The documents are partial transcripts from his 1979 divorce in which 
his then-wife Ann Louise Gallagher was seeking a restraining order.

Gallagher was then a young Republican from Miami serving his third 
term in the Florida House of Representatives.

In the transcript, Ann Louise Gallagher's attorney alleged that in 
the summer of 1979, an intoxicated Gallagher tore a screen off a 
window to get into their home, and that police were called to the scene.

The transcript then alleges Gallagher returned the following evening 
and "steals the dog." The transcripts also contain testimony from a 
former House employee who said she was having an off-and-on affair 
with Gallagher during the two years prior to the divorce.Monday, 
Gallagher denied being intoxicated but admitted entering the house, 
taking the dog and having an affair with the former House employee. 
He also admitted to smoking marijuana, but did not specify when, 
saying it was more than 25 years ago and that he had never done any 
other illegal drugs.

Gallagher, 62, married his second wife, Laura, in 1998, and they have 
a 7-year-old son, Charlie.

"Over the weekend, I had to sit down with my son and Laura and 
explain to him his dad has done some things that are wrong that he's 
not proud of," Gallagher said Monday.

The candidate for governor refused to speculate on who he thought 
might have leaked the records to The Tampa Tribune, or whether he 
thought it was an attempt to smear his name.

Gallagher said he hadn't released the information earlier because he 
didn't have the records from his divorce.

"I disclosed them to who I felt I should disclose them to, and that 
was my wife before we were married," Gallagher said

"I don't regret that these documents are out. What I would say is I 
made some mistakes back in my first marriage and do regret those 
actions that I did in the first marriage that caused those remarks."

Gallagher has made his family a central selling point of his campaign 
against Republican Charlie Crist, who is divorced with no children.

He was joined Monday in the conference call with wife Laura, who said 
her husband had changed his ways since his earlier days in politics.

Long considered a social moderate, Gallagher has sought to re-invent 
himself as a born-again conservative in his campaign.

Last April, he announced support for his campaign from more than 100 
Christian evangelical and social conservative groups, and has signed 
on to support placing a ban on gay marriage into the state constitution.

Gallagher says his life and political leanings turned around when he 
was remarried and became a Christian in 1998.

"The central point of our belief is repentance, redemption and 
forgiveness. I don't think this is going to be a huge issue," said 
John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer spearheading the gay marriage 
amendment and a Gallagher supporter.

"We're not electing a priest or a pastor, we're electing a governor. 
We all have issues in our past that we're not proud of."

A spokeswoman for Crist declined comment, saying, "It's up to the 
people to decide who is the best candidate to become Florida's next governor."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman