U.S. Senate hopefuls from both parties speak to a newspaper forum in Tallahassee, vying for the Cuban vote and addressing a change of the Castro regime.

  BY LESLEY CLARK

  TALLAHASSEE - Even campaigning 500 miles from Miami, the candidates for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat Tuesday angled to lay claim to the state's
  influential and politically powerful Cuban-American vote -- with one suggesting military action against Fidel Castro.

  Miami attorney Larry Klayman, dwarfed in the polls by his better-known fellow Republicans, went on the offensive, saying that the United States should
  send in troops to boot Castro out of Cuba.

  ''We have had successive administrations promise things to Cuban Americans and deliver little to nothing,'' Klayman said to a gathering of Florida
  newspaper reporters and editors, suggesting his first act as senator would be to remove Castro, ``by force if necessary.''

  ''The time has come,'' said Klayman, claiming that Castro has ''bio-weapons capability,'' has aided Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and harbors terrorists.

  The race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Graham is already notable for the possibility that two Cuban Americans could be their parties' nominees for the
  hotly contested seat.

  But both -- Republican Mel Martínez and Democrat Alex Penelas -- were quick to reject Klayman's stance, arguing that Castro should be removed, but not
  by U.S. troops, who are already engaged overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  ''I am totally for a regime change in Cuba, but we must do it by peaceful means unless it's apparent that Castro is a more obvious threat than he appears
  to be today,'' said Martínez, the former U.S. Housing secretary who was appointed by President Bush to co-chair a federal commission planning for a
  post-Castro Cuba.

  As a former Bush Cabinet member, Martínez is walking a fine line with some Cuban Americans who have charged that the Bush administration has not been
  hard enough on Castro.

  ''I think the president's stance is appropriate,'' Martínez said. ``He's doing what it takes to promote and to accelerate a change in Cuba. It's not just
  window dressing.''

  And Penelas, the Cuban-American mayor of Miami-Dade County, said he wouldn't support sending in U.S. troops to take out Castro, ``unless there is a
  specific evidence that American welfare and safety is in imminent danger.''

  VOTER TURNOUT

  With Martínez and Penelas in the mix, both parties are laying claim to the large, motivated Cuban-American bloc that primarily votes Republican.

  And both parties expect the presence of the two prominent Cuban Americans to boost voter turnout among the increasingly large bloc of Hispanic voters.

  The little-known Klayman, who as the former head of Judicial Watch once sued the Cuban government, is trying to siphon some GOP support from Martínez.

  ''Mel comes into this race and thinks he has a monopoly,'' Klayman said.

  Martínez has been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, but her Cuban-American colleagues, U.S. Reps. Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart have endorsed
  a GOP rival, former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum.

  Penelas, who twice broke into Spanish in his remarks to the primarily white non-Hispanic audience, said he's the Democrats' best hope for retaining the
  seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Graham, because he can appeal to Cuban-American Republicans.

  ''I've got the best chance at electability with my ability to compete in areas that are traditionally strong Republican,'' Penelas said.

  His Democratic rivals in the Aug. 31 primary include former Education Commissioner Betty Castor of Tampa and U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch of Lauderhill.

  LIVING EXAMPLE

  Martínez, who fled Cuba at 15 and resettled with a foster family in Orlando, used his experience as a child of ''Pedro Pan'' to tout himself as a ``living
  experience to the promise of America.''

  In addition to Klayman and McCollum, other GOP candidates include House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire and state
  Sen. Daniel Webster.

  Byrd has also courted the Hispanic community -- showing up at his first Miami appearance in a guayabera and earning the endorsement of Cuban-American
  House members. Tuesday, Byrd was the only candidate to skip the forum, fueling talk that he is considering dropping out of the Senate race to pursue a
  congressional bid.

  Byrd, who appeared later before the group to outline his priorities for the session that begins March 2, brushed off the speculation.

  ''I was focused on legislative business,'' Byrd said of his absence. ``We'll have time doing candidate things when politics starts.''

  FIRST EVENT

  The forum at the Capitol was the first event attended by nearly all the candidates. Democrats bashed the Bush administration for running up the federal
  deficit -- a criticism that drew echoes even from several Republican candidates.

  ''The federal government is spending too much money,'' said Webster, an Orlando-area Republican who plans to secure a space on the ballot by gathering
  100,000 signatures.

  ''I'm enjoying the role reversal,'' said Democrat Castor. ``For years and years the Republicans took the lead on the balanced budget, now we've got a
  Republican deficit. I think they have handed us an issue.''

  With no runoff election, both parties are campaigning hard to attract core party activists to turn out for the primary, perhaps none of them more strongly as
  Smith, who told the forum that his priorities would be putting an end to legalized abortion and ``lousy judges who are corrupt people.''