Dodging the bullet: Florida House Speaker Allan Bense announced today that he would not run against Katherine Harris in the Republican primary to determine the challenger for Democrat Bill Nelson’s U.S. Senate seat from Florida. Many Republican leaders, including the hapless Jeb Bush (who can’t even get a pet bill passed in the Florida legislature, let alone influence a Senate race), have been trying for weeks to draft Bense into the race as Harris’ campaign stumbles, bumbles and fumbles toward almost certain, ignominious defeat.
In a statement published by the “St. Petersburg Times,” Bense gave the trusty and prosaic excuse of not wanting to be separated from his family for many years to serve in the Senate.
While the challenge of running a successful campaign over the next several months was exciting, and while I am confident we would have been successful, ultimately my decision came down to the fundamental question of whether I was willing to spend the next six, 12 or possibly 18 years of my life away from my family and my home serving Florida in the U.S. Senate. After much thought and prayer, I realized the answer to that question is “No.”
I do think Bense would have been “successful” in a run against Harris, but Nelson looks almost unbeatable at this point. He’s got money, a moderate track record and is running a pretty clean campaign. Basically, all he has to do is sit back and watch Harris self-destruct.
Bense might have made a difference insofar as he could have hastened Harris’ exit from the political stage and maybe given Nelson a run for his money. But perhaps he was put off by the prospect of being drafted into a campaign by a party that didn’t necessarily want HIM, but absolutely doesn’t want HER. It would have been a politically weak position from which to campaign, and while the state’s rabid Repugs probably would have backed him in support of the party, Bill Nelson still would have won.
