Mike Gravel seemed more concerned about the wasted food. He had just finished a campaign stop and was at Sam Seltzer's Steakhouse for a fundraiser.  There were platters of crackers, cheese, fruit and shrimp, but no one there to eat them. "I'm sorry," Bertrand Burnbaum, an organizer, told Gravel. "If we just had more time, we could have got some people here."

It was just another day on the campaign trail for Gravel, who made several stops in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday. The former Alaska senator vying for the Democratic presidential nomination has been called the longest of long shots, Candidate Asterisk, the one who provides "comic relief" in a campaign full of overly scripted encounters. But for all the derisive descriptions, Gravel is the one and only Democratic candidate willing to campaign in the Sunshine State. More .