Political reporter Mark Silva, formerly of the Sentinel, dies

Mark Silva, a longtime Tallahassee bureau chief for the Miami Herald and political editor at the Orlando Sentinel, died Tuesday at his home in Alexandria, Va. He was 63 and recently diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Silva, who also covered the White House for the Chicago Tribune, was most recently an editor with U.S. News & World Report, where he led a team examining politics and policies in the 50 states at the organization’s Best States project.

He was a force in Tallahassee during newspapers’ heyday, when Florida dailies maintained robust capital bureaus that competed fiercely over every inch of political, legislative and policy territory.

Working for the Orlando Sentinel 16 years ago, Silva was assigned early morning media “pool duty” during President George W. Bush’s visit to a second-grade classroom in Sarasota. On that Sept. 11 morning, Silva witnessed the president reading “The Pet Goat” to schoolchildren, then being told that terrorist-commandeered aircraft had struck New York’s World Trade Center.

When he moved to Washington, Silva was among the first to write a well-regarded, mustread political blog. He traveled the globe with the president and first lady Laura Bush.

Along the way, he made friends and earned admirers, even among those he covered with a relentless search for truth.

“He was always straight, fair and even-tempered,’’ said Jim Scott, former Florida Senate president from Fort Lauderdale. “He was a great guy.”

Silva was the author of two books, “When We’re 64: Reflections on the Real World,” a memoir that he described as “a collection of essays about rediscovering the natural world after a life devoted to the working world,” and “McCain: The Essential Guide to the Republican Nominee,” with the Tribune staff.

Silva leaves his wife of 33 years, Nina; two children, Dylan and Lisa; and a grandson, Noah.