Update On Florida

Florida's been busy these past couple weeks, specifically regarding the Senate race. My favorite, State Senator Dan Gelber, dropped out to run for Attorney General. He's currently facing off against State Senator Dave Aronberg for the Democratic Nomination and it's looking to be a tight race. Gelber's exit leaves Congressman Meek to battle either Governor Crist or former Florida Speaker Rubio in the race for Senate. The Republican battle is getting more and more interesting everyday.

Florida Capitol News reports today that "Rubio, the fiery conservative alternative to the moderate Gov. Charlie Crist, beat Crist 60-11 in a straw poll conducted Saturday by the Lee County Republican Executive Committee." Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reports today that "Charlie Crist will likely be the Republican Senate nominee next year, but winning the nomination will not be the cakewalk that the conventional wisdom supposes. Marco Rubio, brainy but underfunded, will take a bite -- several of them -- out of the frontrunner before it's over." Oh yeah, did I mention Rubio raised only $340,000 in the 2nd Quarter while Crist raised over $4.3 million? And, Rubio is expected to have spent a chunk of that generating "hype," as one reporter put it.

It's no wonder then that the Examiner.com is reporting today that Congress Daily is reporting Rubio is "seriously considering" dropping out of the Senate race and entering the Attorney General race. That'd pit him against either Gelber or Aronberg and probably give a better chance at being elected.

Frankly, I don't think anyone really knows what's going on. Rubio is probably still weighing his options.

I'll say this, if Rubio drops out then Crist will almost certainly become Senator. I just don't buy Examiner.com's claim that Conservatives will seriously look toward carpetbagger and former U.S. Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) who moved to Sarasota and endorsed Senator Kerry for President over their reliable, incumbent Governor. Smith is too much of a risk.

Oh, and, former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey endorsed Rubio earlier in the week so it's hard to imagine that Rubio won't hang in a little while longer.

To add to that, Congressman Meek has proven to be a fairly poor fundraiser taking in only $1.5 million - most of which seemed to come from former President Clinton's visits. (Note: I'm not clear if that was Q2 data or fundraising altogether but even if it's Q2 he's being rapidly outstripped by Crist).

Finally, if you're interesting in knowing all about the political events of Florida Progress Florida has the most awesomely useful daily email which you can sign up for here. It's actually a great summary of all the articles that ran in the past 24 hours about political events/people/issues involving Florida in an easy to read format. (Much more useful than, say, email updates from President Obama).

Natch Greyes is a Democrat running for Senate in 2020. His campaign platform may be found at natchgreyes.com Sphere: Related Content