West Boca · Political support for human embryonic stem cell research, at both the national and state levels, is broader than ever, a group of legislators said Sunday.

U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, said the U.S. Senate has more than enough votes to pass a bill and override any presidential veto.

At the state level, Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, said he is optimistic about a bill he plans to introduce this year. The same legislation was sponsored last year by Klein, when he was a state senator. That bill failed, despite significant support from Republicans, Geller said.

But this year, there is a new wrinkle: Gov. Charlie Crist and state Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, embrace stem cell research, he said.

Yet, "we are still waiting for the House to come on board," Geller said Sunday, during a news conference west of Boca Raton.

Klein and Geller were joined by state Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton; state Rep. Kelly Skidmore, D-Boca Raton; and Palm Beach County Commission Burt Aaronson.

Klein staged the event hoping to create awareness in South Florida and help mobilize interest groups ahead of a U.S. Senate vote on the issue in the next few weeks.

The vote would decide whether federal funding could go to researchers working with stem cells removed from embryos after Aug. 9, 2001.

Federal money now is available only for research using stem cells removed from embryos before that date, when President Bush limited the federal funding to a limited number of stem cells.

The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a bill similar to the one the U.S. Senate plans to discuss soon, Klein said.

The Republican-led Congress last year approved funding for stem cell research, but Bush vetoed the bill, saying the legislation "crossed a moral boundary."

Attending the news conference Sunday were Nicholas Breedon, 8; his mother, Brenda; and his father, Bill, of Cooper City. Nicholas, who was born with a degenerative brain disease and is expected to live only 10 years, is in a wheelchair and cannot move.

Brenda Breedon said she hopes discoveries through the use of stem cells would find a cure for the Canavan disease afflicting her son.

Stem cells have the potential to develop into different cell types -- such as muscle cells, red blood cells or brain cells -- and help cure illnesses ranging from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases to spinal cord injuries, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Opponents to the use of stem cells argue the research involves the destruction of a human life. But to Breedon it could mean extending her son's life. "I am pro-life," she said. "He has the right to live."

Aaronson, a stem cell research activist, said he hopes the state will side with him. Otherwise, he and a group of supporters would attempt to put this issue on the ballot in 2008.

More than a year ago, he helped start a petition drive to gather more than 600,000 signatures statewide needed for voters to have the last say.

"If the state doesn't do it, then we will get it on the ballot and have Floridians vote it up or down."