MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. - In his speeches and ads, GOP senatorial candidate Mel Martinez casts his life as a classic immigrant success story - a teenage refugee from Cuba who eventually reaches the height of political power as the first Cuban-American in a presidential cabinet.

Martinez's meteoric rise to the national stage is the political equivalent of actress Lana Turner being "discovered" while sitting on a soda fountain stool at Schwab's drugstore.

Few people outside the Orlando area knew of Martinez in 2000 when President Bush plucked him from political obscurity - he was chairman of Orange County government - and named him Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. And like an old-time budding starlet shaped by a Hollywood studio machine, Martinez has been groomed in national politics during the past three years by Bush and his Republican advisers.

The result is a changed politician - more partisan, divisive and willing to use hardball tactics, say some of those former backers from his days in Orange County politics.

Martinez, who faces Democrat Betty Castor on Nov. 2, stepped down from his cabinet post at the urging of the White House and Bush political adviser Karl Rove, who hoped his addition to the ballot would shore up the Cuban vote for the president and pre-empt U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., from entering the race.

"I think he has sold his soul to Karl Rove and he will do absolutely anything to win this race," said political consultant Dick Batchelor, a Democrat who once supported Martinez during his days in Orange County politics.

Exhibit No. 1, Batchelor said, was the Martinez campaign's tactics against primary opponent Bill McCollum, the former congressman. Martinez's campaign released mailings and a short-lived ad that described McCollum, an undisputed conservative, as a darling of the "radical homosexual lobby" because of his support of hate-crime legislation that covered gays among other groups.

Martinez blamed the tactics on staff members and he said he made staff changes as a result.

"It was not something I approved of ... It was wrong to do," Martinez said. "It was a mistake. It shouldn't have happened."

By contrast, Martinez earned a "Mr. Nice Guy" reputation as a pragmatist supported by both Democrats and Republicans when he was chairman of Orange County government between 1998 and 2000. Before winning elective office, Martinez had worked as a lawyer in a politically connected law firm.

As chairman, he funneled money into after-school programs for children. He started what became known locally as the "Martinez doctrine," an effort to limit development by linking population growth to whether schools in the area could absorb more students. He stood up to the powerful tourism industry by supporting efforts to divert tourism tax money meant strictly for the tourism industry to projects enjoyed by locals.

Orange County Commissioner Homer Hartage, a former Democratic supporter who worked with Martinez for two years on the Orange County Commission, said Martinez's experience in Washington changed him.

"After he was appointed to the position at HUD, he became more partisan, more Republican," Hartage said.

But U.S. Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., dismissed as "hogwash" any talk about a Martinez ideological transformation in Washington. He called the tactics against McCollum just part of the "street fight" of politics.

"Mel Martinez is not a mean-spirited guy," Keller said "He's the kind of guy you would want to drink a beer with."

For his part, Martinez said any suggestions that he has changed his views or manners since being in Washington are wrong.

"I'm the same person," Martinez said. "Those who oppose me in this campaign will try to paint me as somebody different and controlled by Karl Rove ... I don't think that's reality."

Martinez can credit a Cuban boy named Elian Gonzalez for helping give him a national profile four years ago. He argued on national television talk shows and before a U.S. Senate committee that the boy should stay in the United States. He also invited Elian to Walt Disney World before the boy was returned to Cuba.

Martinez's campaign came under fire recently for describing as "armed thugs" the federal agents who removed Elian from the home of his Miami relatives. The campaign later backed away from those words.

As HUD secretary, Martinez won praise from consumer groups for trying to make changes to simplify the mortgage settlement process during home purchases; HUD shelved the proposal after Martinez left. He also launched an initiative to reduce homelessness.

His critics said he lacked a comprehensive vision for the agency, favored helping moderate-income people become homeowners over building new public housing for the poor and that he failed to maintain and revitalize the public housing stock.

"Mel Martinez and Bush's HUD tried to walk away from their existing obligations," said Harold Simon, executive director of the National Housing Institute in Montclair, N.J., a research group. "They've really been absent from trying to think of ways to solve this national problem."

Martinez disregarded the criticism from housing advocates.

"Housing advocates tend to be from the extreme left side of the political spectrum and unanimously Democrats," he said. "We had a difference of opinion on how to approach housing."

Barbara Sard, director of housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank, faulted Martinez for a failed attempt to change the Section 8 voucher program so that states rather than local housing authorities would receive grants from HUD.

She also blamed Martinez for a proposed change in the 2005 budget that she claimed eliminates rules which ensure vouchers go to the neediest families and cap the amount of a rent a family with a voucher can be required to pay. Martinez left the agency last December and the budget wasn't presented to Congress until February, but Sard holds Martinez responsible for the proposed change since the budget takes several months to develop. The 2005 budget was $1 billion short of adequately funding the program, she said.

Martinez claims the change to the voucher program rules came after he left the agency last December.

"That wasn't on my watch," he said. "I think it would be terribly unfair to suggest that because I was HUD secretary in December, that I was responsible for the budget that was presented to Congress in February."

The voucher program is one of the only housing programs traditionally targeted to the poor. The change was made to justify a funding cut for the voucher program, Sard said.

"They claimed the program was broken, but there was no evidence of that. They made it up," Sard said. "It's fair to say (Martinez) didn't accomplish anything positive. The long term damage done to the voucher program could well be his lasting legacy."

ON THE NET

Mel Martinez at www.melforsenate.org