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for those crossing Tampa Bay. Jdey. Our shell has the story in Washington. This man pushes bills in a three piece suit. Today he was pushing concrete in blue dungarees on the new span of the Howard Franklin. Changing roles for a day isn't new for Senator Bob Graham is used the workday technique since 1974 250 times.

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And he insists, it's no gimmick. It's real. You don't come out here and work eight hours leveling off concrete, uh, as a joke. There are no press agents. There are no AIDS there. Nobody between you, uh, and Larry and Gabriel, the two men that I'm working with today.

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Yesterday everybody was talking about the Senate supposed to work, and I don't believe it. Until he came today, everybody was all excited. It does more than just impress. Graham says. It focuses his attention today. It's on transportation. The the federal highway bill is up for reauthorization in 1991 and one of the things that I'm gonna be working on in the Senate is to see that we get adequate money for the maintenance and resurfacing of our interstates, which have already begun to crumble.

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So far, the former governor says he's been very successful at turning his work experience into legislative action. Maybe with the exception of the day that he worked as a pooper scooper at a horse stable. It's a job, but somebody's got to do. And if he ever needs a job outside of Washington, thanks to work days, he has plenty of offers.

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If you need a job with me, he can stop the date. But the only thing we got starting from the bottom moving up to the top on the new span of the Howard Franklin, this is Al Rochelle New Center 10. While the senator was hard at work on the Howard Franklin, the president of the United States was fishing, trying again to catch a prize bone fish.

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Course. Senator, I understand you made sandwiches back in 1977 here. Absolutely. And this is a great place for Cuban sandwiches, and I'm trying to regain my 1977 skills. I was just gonna ask you, Do you remember how to make these sandwiches? Got a quick refresher course here?

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I think I'm gonna be able to do it in Ybor City, making sandwiches at LA Tropicana and Porn Smith on the Howard Franklin Bridge is how Senator Bob Graham spent his 250th workday. According to Senator Bob Graham, It's tremendously important to understand the people of Florida if you want to serve the people, and there's no better way of doing this than to work with them.

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And that's exactly what the senator has done for the past 17 years by developing workdays. It started back in 1974 when I was chairman of the state Senate Education Committee, and a teacher said, If you want to find out what's really happening in schools, don't tell us about it.

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Don't listen at committee hearings in Tallahassee come into the classroom. So I taught 12th grade civics at a high school for 18 weeks, and it was a wonderful experience. I did learn more about education in those 18 weeks, and I had in the preceding eight years in the Legislature.

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I learned a lot about kids and parents, and but maybe one of the most important things was learning about the value of learning by actually doing something as opposed to having someone tell you about it. How does the interaction with helped you in the Senate. It's helped me in many ways.

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One of the ways is that it puts you directly with people but men and women that I work with today on the Howard Franklin Bridge. There was nobody in between us. It was just, uh, them and me. And we had talks about people's divorces, about their Children's schooling, about what they wanted to do in life.

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Uh, some people have had some really difficult problems to deal with and how they've gone about it, as well as learning something about pouring concrete. You learn more about life. Uh, then you do about anything else on these jobs. So the people that you worked with have been very positive is they've been very positive.

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And, uh, gentlemen with whom I work today, said Bob, if things don't work out in politics, we'd like to have you come back here and pour concrete. That's the highest compliment you can get out of the 250 jobs that you've worked, which one has been the most rewarding?

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I have four daughters. If you were to ask me which of my four daughters do, I love the most. I'd give the same answer. I'm gonna give that question. I love them all. I've liked all the jobs and have gained from each one of them. I'm not going to pick favorites.

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After a long, hard day of work on the Howard Franklin Bridge, the senator invited all of his co workers to celebrate his 250th workday. The owner of LA Tropicana, where the senator work as a sandwich maker in 1977 today was a hard working, dedicated employee. It's a very good worker, and, uh, but in a lot of hours did he make good sandwiches?

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Yes, very much so. He worked in line like everybody else. Enjoy yourself and he worked all day. Philip, cook all the boxes out there with Spanish back at all. Is this the first time you met the senator? Yes, it is. What did you think? He's a great guy.

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He's nice. It's really great guy. What do you think of the idea of politicians coming out? I mean, people like yourself. I think it's a great idea. I like it. It's really good. Senator Graham also worked in a toy shop at the Celebration Army. What was the response from working around him.

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They were. They were completely surprised that Senator would, uh, in a sense, stepped down from a position that he normally occupies and is willing to do some of the menial tasks that just common people do. Think of the idea that Senator getting out into the workforce and meeting the people.

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I think it's excellent. I think he's doing a good job, and I'm really proud to have been around with him today anymore. City Michelle, 10. Still in Your Interest You're watching Channel 13 Eyewitness News at five with Kathy Fountain and Denise Wipes. They're called work days.

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It's a way for Florida Senator Bob Graham to keep in touch with the needs and concerns of the voters here in Florida. Graham spent his 250th workday out on the job today, right here in the Bay Area, working on a construction crew on the new Howard Franklin Bridge.

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He joins us now live from a party in the war city where he's socializing with some of the many people he has met on previous work days. Thanks for joining us. Tell us what your workday was like today you poured concrete, Cathy. I worked as a concrete pour on the Howard Franklin Bridge.

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It was a very good day. It wasn't too hot or too cold. We had a good breeze and we poured a lot of concrete. That bridge is gonna be finished on, or maybe a little bit ahead of schedule. Why are you continuing to do these now, Kathy?

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There's a lot of benefits that I get. But one of the best is the fact that it is a way to meet people, to know people, to talk to them, to understand it's unfiltered. There's nobody between me and, uh, men and women that I work with today at Howard Franklin Bridge.

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And I not only learned something about building bridges important concrete, but also about single parents and some of their problems. Some people talk to me about their Children and what's happening in schools, issues of crime and violence. When you're on the job, people have a candor or willingness to open up and tell you what is really at the core of their concerns in a way that I haven't found any other.

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It means a duplicate Well, let's talk about something else. That is a great concern to people here in Florida. You know, the South is known to be lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of education standards. Yet we hear now that Florida's budget will be cut for education, teachers and staff going to be cut.

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What is your reaction to this and what, if anything, on your level can be done about this problem? Well, I'm concerned because Florida has had a commitment for a number of years to elevated standards of education, and we have made substantial progress, so anything that would tend to stagnate that movement towards greater excellence is of great concern.

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But this is a state local issue. The federal government should not try to impose a central education system on America. The federal government has some key responsibilities in terms of preparing Children to be good learners, uh, the way in which Children are raised, the kind of nutritional standards they have, whether there's a head start program for the Children that can take advantage of that.

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Those are some key things the federal government has to do. But what happens in the classroom should be as close to the community in which that classroom is located as possible about an environmental issue. You know, a number of lands that Martinez had targeted for purchase and preservation.

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We appear to be under severe budget restrictions, and possibly those lands are in danger of not being purchased and preserved. Is there anything you can do to get involved in that problem? I've introduced legislation on coastal protection in one part of that is going to be the recommendation of a federal involvement in a partnership in a program very much like to save our Coast program in Florida to try to identify those coastal areas which are under the greatest developmental pressure, which have special environmental qualities, or which could serve a an invaluable recreational purpose.

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And with some federal funds to assist state local communities and being able to acquire those coastal areas. Uh, one of the things that the preservation 2000 indicates is that if you're going to have an effective land acquisition program, you have to have a dedicated source of funding for that program so that it can be sustained over a period of time and not have the kind of fits and starts that we have currently experienced with our land acquisition in Florida.

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Okay, Senator Bob Graham. Thanks for joining us this afternoon, Denise. And now for check on traffic. Here's Eyewitness news. Metro traffic reporter Daryl Daryl, Daryl Cruz in Tallahassee and other political battle is starting to boil across the country. It is the battle between Democrats and Republicans.

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This watch, it's Diane Partner is in Ybor City, where Florida's highest ranking Democrat is putting in his 250th workday and speaking out about post war political success. Diane Bill. These people all share one thing in common. They have all labored side by side with Bob Graham as he put in periodic workdays across the state of Florida, first as governor, then as U.

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S. Senator. In fact, Brand made Cuban sandwiches here 14 years ago. He's behind the counter now, doing it again for the small reception here. A spirit of cooperation and single minded as though consumes the country in a different way now, following the success of Operation Desert Storm.

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But Senator Graham rejects the notion that the trend will benefit the party of the man who faced down Saddam Hussein. Bob Graham shed his blue suit for blue jeans today and left his political aides behind, too. The U. S senator instead took directions from the construction crew boring concrete on the new Howard Franklin Bridge, logging in his 250th workday.

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In the process, Graham considers these shifts a chance to experience the daily pressures and concerns of every man today. He didn't hear much talk about war in politics or the Persian Gulf. One of the things I like best about these workdays is that you don't go through anybody.

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There's no staff, there's no intermediary. It's just you and the person that you're working with. The Democrat runs for reelection in 1992 when Republicans hope to translate Postwar goodwill into another White House term and congressional landslide. But Graham's political consultant argues Republicans can't claim exclusive rights to patriotism.

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Remember when we went into this war? Uh, we were in a situation where the country was split about 50 50 and the fact is, without Democratic support in the Congress, since we're the majority party in the Congress, in both houses, the president would not have got his vote out of there.

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Still, Republicans note White House leadership already pays off in a measurable way. Some 6000 people a week are moving to Florida, and we're out registering the Democratic Party to to one. So we're at 41% in registration now and climbing, and we think the future looks good.

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Still, Senator Graham says it's too early to write off the Democratic Party. He points out that George Bush's political fortunes changed in just a period of months from a president criticized for his flip flopping on taxes to one praised for basically standing down tyranny. He considers work days like today the most effective service to his own constituents that he intends to use the information he collected today on the bridge to argue for more federal money for bridge projects here in Florida.

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Well, of the 250 days, this has had to be one of the more physically demanding he's done in a while. Absolutely. All right, Diane. Thank you, Diane. Perfect report. For some of us, this was just another typical work day. But