By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio

Last week, Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery said she was seriously contemplating
a run for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010.

Apparently, she didn’t get the edict that party Chairman Jim Greer issued recently that all good Republicans should get behind Attorney General Bill McCollum’s candidacy.

But as far as Republican consultant (and soon to be PoHo contributor) Chris Ingram  is concerned, Dockery’s possible entrance into the race is a good thing.

“If the Republicans nominate Bill McCollum for their nominee for Governor, it’s over but the fat lady has not yet sung,” he said last Friday.

Ingram stresses that he has considerable respect for the very experienced AG, who spent two decades in Washington representing the Orlando area in Congress. He just thinks that the old style Republican Party tradition of letting the guy whose “earned” the chance to be the party’s standard bear is losing politics.

“Electing old white guys in their 60’s just because it’s ‘their turn’ is not a good solution for the Republican Party to turn itself around. …We need to look for some fresh young people with new ideas and who are public servants with an eye on the future as much as an eye on the past, and I just don’t think McCollum is the guy.”

There’s also a question of being in step with the Florida electorate. Barack Obama’s victory in the Sunshine state last year perhaps moves the state closer to purple in terms of its political ideology, as does the continuing high approval ratings of flaming moderate Charlie Crist.

Even ardent supporters of McCollum had to acknowledge that it was a bit of a reach at his speech declaring his candidacy when he declared,

The hallmark of my administration will be access and inclusion. It will be an administration that does not focus on partisan labels but brings the brightest minds from every walk of life together – every race, creed, religion – to solve problems and move this state forward.

Interesting rhetoric from one of the 13 “House Managers” who attempted to kick Bill Clinton out of the White House in early 1999 for not admitting he indulged in a little nooky with a White House intern, in one of the bitterest partisan skirmishes in the country’s history.

The 47-year-old Dockery says she’s weighing whether to run for the GOP nomination for Representative in the 12th Congressional district (the seat that Adam Putnam is leaving next year to run for Agriculture Commissioner), or for Governor, and will decide in a few weeks.

USF Political Science professor Susan MacManus told me last week that she does believe that Republicans in Florida are a little antsy that right now, all of their leading candidates for the state’s Cabinet positions lack diversity.

“There are some who really believe the future of the party depends up on having more women and Hispanics and African Americans running as candidates for their party,“ she said.

Since Marco Rubio doesn’t count (the 37-year-old Cuban American is a decided underdog to Crist right now in the state’s U.S. Senate race), all of the state’s GOP candidates for statewide offices are white males over 50 years old, with the exception of Adam Putnam for Agriculture Commissioner.

McManus says Dockery, if she opts to run, brings a lot to the party. “She’s from the all important I-4 corridor, she’s well known, well respected … and she brings a different type of face to the Republican Party.“ McManus thinks that for those in party (like Jim Greer, actually) who think that diversity is important, “she’s captivating that thought, I’m sure.”

Ingram thinks that Greer’s attempts to get the party to declare its fealty to Charlie Crist and Bill McCollum well over a year before the state’s primary is a “terrible way to run a political party.”

And Ingram thinks that while many in the party heartily agree with McCollum’s brand of conservatism, he’s the wrong messenger. Conversely, Ingram says, Governor Crist is a “phenomenal messenger,” but doesn’t stand up for anything other than Charlie Crist.”

Meanwhile, what about the aforementioned Adam Putnam?

The not-so-baby-faced Polk County congressman (he turns 35 this summer) has made a well declared shift in his career, leaving his role as conference chairman for House Republicans (making him the third most powerful Republican in the House) after last year’s election saw the Republicans take it on the chin for the second consecutive election cycle.

He’s winding down his Washington career, and is coming home to run for Agriculture Commissioner next year.

After giving a rather dry speech at the University Club in Tampa last week, I had a chance to engage Putnam.

It was a noted contrast to a similar opportunity I had recently with Marco Rubio. The former Florida House Speaker was circumspect on his race with the Governor, but happily took on such loaded proclamations that he wants to go to Washington to stop ‘the socialism taking place there’.

Congressman Putnam has been in Washington for more than eight years now and seems keenly aware of how the party is viewed these days.

Last week, Politico reported that Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana had instructed his minions to talk up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent controversy regarding the CIA during the Memorial Day recess.

So what about that, Congressman?

“I believe what she said about the CIA was troubling” he said, adding, “If she believes that the CIA lied to her, then we need to have a full investigation in determining that.”

But when I then asked him if he would also support an investigation into the use of “harsh” interrogation techniques in the Bush Administration, the tone changed.

“There has been a reversal in terms of investigations since this … and the bottom line is that people have come to the conclusion that she did not intend the CIA of lying, and if she really did, then we have a problem, but the fact that she’s walked back from that statement, I think means that everybody is ready to focus on supporting our intelligence collectors to give us the best possible information to keep America safe…”

Another indication of the Congressman’s intent not to throw rhetorical bombs a la Newt, Rush and the gang was when William March of the Tampa Tribune, joining me in the interview, asked Putnam his thoughts on Sonia Sotomayor, named just a little more than 24 hours before by President Obama to be his nominee to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court.

I think she appears on her face to be highly qualified for the position….It’s obviously the source of great pride among the Hispanic community to have broken another barrier in American history, and absent some really remarkable event in her past, I expect her to be confirmed, and confirmed with Republican votes….”

When I interjected that I had just heard Rush Limbaugh in fact say the opposite, that she was unqualified and incompetent to boot, Putnam didn’t flinch. “I think my comments stand.”

Adam Putnam seems to be the Republican that Chris Ingram has in mind when he talks about diversity, and about message. It remains to be seen how the rest of the state GOP gets that message.

According to the Ledger:

At least one person looking at the race and a handful of business community members say the McKeels, who recently had their second child, have already decided that Seth will stay in the Legislature where he is posed to become a rising star.

The Ledger indicates other potential candidates would be State Rep. Baxter Troutman and former State Rep. Dennis Ross for the GOP. On the Democrat side, former State Sen. Rick Dantzler (who has also been rumored as considering a US Senate run) and former candidate Doug Tudor who lost to Putnam in 2008 are mentioned.

When Putnam does announce his return to Florida politics, this will be an interesting race to watch.

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