GALLAGHER - I THINK I'VE LEARNED FROM MY LONG-AGO MISTAKES

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 the 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 before the divorce.Records leaked

On Monday, Gallagher denied being intoxicated but admitted to
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."Going forward

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 his wife, 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
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."