Campaign finance reports are coming in for federal, state, and local offices. Reports are filed quarterly, covering the period three months prior – money raised from April 1 through June 30 of this year. With the election still more than a year away, campaign finance numbers show the relative strength of the candidates. In the race for the United States Senate, Republican Marco Rubio could be in trouble.
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Bob Smith, right (and we mean far right) back in Congress, back in the day.
By Dan Sullivan
PoHo contributor
Just when you thought the race to replace outgoing Sen. Mel Martinez couldn’t get any more complicated, a man named Bob Smith threw another wrench into the system last week.
Upon hearing about Smith’s entrance into the race, my immediate reaction was, “Who the heck is this Bob Smith? And what does he think he’s doing poking his nose into one of the most pivotal political battles within the Republican Party for the 2010 election season?”
Greer, still flogging an improbable shot at the RNC chairmanship, writes in a guest column in Politico:
This election cycle marks the toughest political environment for Republicans since Watergate. Yet on Nov. 4, Florida emerged as a Republican stronghold in a nation swept by Democrat victories. Though Sen. John McCain was outspent in Florida by tens of millions, our Republican team’s impressive ground game made it possible to come within just two and a half points of winning Florida for McCain.
It was a perfect environment for Democrats in Florida. The nation wanted change. Florida Democrats were awash in cash and staff, with a never-before-seen-ground game. Yet the Florida Democrat Party defeated not one – not a single one – of our Republican incumbents in the Florida House and Senate. In Miami, an area Barack Obama carried, Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart both fended off credible, well-funded, DCCC-backed candidates. Republicans also picked up Congressional District 16 seat with Tom Rooney.
In addition to voting to maintain overwhelming Republican majorities in the state House and Senate, Floridians voted to cut taxes, define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and oppose tax increases for community colleges. Once again, voters here illustrated that Florida is still a red state where conservative values like growing the economy and cutting taxes are important to voters.
Why was Florida so successful when the majority of the nation fell into Democrat hands? The answer is simple: we’ve replaced divisive partisan rhetoric with common-sense solutions.
WTF? I recall covering the entire election and I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear one single “common-sense solution” from any candidate in either party. And Florida Republicans were just as partisan as they have always been with their rhetoric.
