GOP GOVERNOR CANDIDATE GALLAGHER ADMITS USING POT, CHEATING ON FIRST WIFE

TALLAHASSEE . Republican Tom Gallagher admitted Monday that he smoked
marijuana more than 25 years ago and had an extramarital affair, two
startling revelations stemming from court documents in his 1979 divorce.

Gallagher's acknowledgment of smoking pot prompted his GOP opponent,
Attorney General Charlie Crist, to remind voters that he, too, had
once used the drug, as Florida's race for governor suddenly turned
confessional.

During a conference call with reporters, Gallagher, who has built his
campaign for governor around his devotion to family and faith, spoke
publicly at length for the first time about the breakup of his
earlier marriage.

"I take full responsibility for my actions being the reason for the
divorce, and they speak for themselves," said Gallagher, 62. "I made
some mistakes in that marriage, and I regret those."

Joined on the call by his current wife, Laura, a somber Gallagher
said he decided to come forward after the Tampa Tribune showed his
campaign about 25 pages of documents accumulated in his divorce from
Ann Louise Gallagher.

The documents included a transcript of a combative exchange between
lawyers over what appears to be his estranged wife's request for a
restraining order, as well as a former legislative aide's account of
an affair she had at the time with Gallagher, then a state
representative from Miami-Dade County .

"I've done some things earlier in my life that were not right,"
Gallagher said Monday. "And I'll never defend them or make excuses.
But I've learned from those mistakes, and I believe I've become a
better person for them."

Laura Gallagher said her husband told her about the circumstances of
his first marriage's break-up before they wed in 1998. The couple has
a 7-year-old son, Charlie.

"Tom and I have discussed all of these issues before we were married,
including his divorce and even that he tried marijuana," Laura
Gallagher said. "It's difficult to acknowledge past mistakes like
this, but it's something we all have to do and I'm proud of Tom for
doing that. I love my husband."

Gallagher said he never used any illegal drugs other than marijuana.

His conservative supporters were quick to praise him for confronting
the missteps of his past during an era when he was known as a
freewheeling partier.

"The electorate is very forgiving as long as a person is honest and
straightforward," said John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer and
president of the Florida Family Policy Council. "Everybody knows
about Tom's past; it's no surprise. But I'm very impressed by the way
he's responded."

The revelations, though, clash with the political turf Gallagher has
tried to claim as his own in his Republican primary fight with Crist,
who continues to lead in most polls.

Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, said
marijuana use isn't the same political stigma it once was for voters;
nor are they shocked by most details that emerge in divorce cases.

"I don't think this is going to be very damaging," Coker said. "But I
think the campaign was already facing bigger hurdles before this came along."

On Monday, Crist's campaign said the candidate had smoked marijuana
during his college days but came to consider it a mistake he now
regrets. Crist acknowledged the drug use during his 2000 campaign for
education commissioner, the campaign said.

Gallagher, the state's chief financial officer, said little about
allegations contained in the June 13, 1979, transcript of a court
hearing in which he was accused of being drunk, breaking a door lock
to enter his wife's home and threatening her mother in an effort to
retrieve his sheepdog named Samantha.

But he insisted he wasn't intoxicated or acting in a belligerent manner.

"I went to get my dog. It was the wrong thing to do and I shouldn't
have done it, and I regret that I did it," Gallagher said. "It's 27
years ago, and lawyers on both sides get all worked up in these things."

Vivian Myrtetus, a Crist spokeswoman, replied "absolutely not," when
asked if the Crist campaign had provided the Gallagher documents to
the newspaper. Myrtetus also said she was not aware of any Crist
supporters who might have obtained the documents and passed them on.

In the transcript released Monday, the unidentified judge presiding
over the Gallagher hearing at one point tells him the judge didn't
want to have anything in the record that could be used "against you
in the future in one of your future campaigns."

After several more pages of fierce exchanges between the lawyers, the
judge said, "It's a lucky thing that these two litigants have got me
as a judge to protect them against you two lawyers."

To which Gallagher responded, "Amen."