Tag: Florida

Probable Republican candidate to replace Foley supported government efforts to keep brain-dead woman alive despite husband’s wishes. Dem Tim Mahoney moves to seize advantage in GOP-leaning district.

The Rep. Mark Foley (R-Palm Beach, Florida) sex scandal rocking the GOP leadership in the House right now may provide an assist to the Democrats’s effort to take control of the U.S. House of Representatives, if Foley’s Democratic opponent, Tim Mahoney, can pull out a win in the 16th district, which has elected a Republican to Congress in every cycle since 1980.

Florida law allows the GOP to replace Foley in the election (although Foley’s name will still appear). The likely replacement appears to have some baggage however:

The frontrunner right now to be the GOP’s candidate for the seat of Rep. Mark Foley — who resigned yesterday amid revelations of his sexually-charged emails to House pages — is Florida State Rep. Joe Negron, a 45-year-old lawyer and aggressive fundraiser. Florida GOPers are telling the St. Petersburg Times that Negron is a strong contender, and Negron himself told the paper, “I’m making calls as quickly as I can.”

Who is Negron? Well, here’s one indicator: Negron full-throatedly supported Gov. Jeb Bush’s efforts to intervene and prevent doctors from allowing the death of Terry Schiavo, the Florida brain-dead woman who was allowed to die after a national battle over her fate. Negron’s take on Schiavo? It was wrong, Negron said in June, “for a judge to say you can’t put water on the lips of a citizen of Florida.”

In his run for state attorney general earlier this year, Negron was the only candidate in the field of four to support intervention by the government in the Terri Shiavo matter, according to an Associated Press story from June 23, 2006:

Three of the four candidates for Florida attorney general said Friday the government should not have intervened in the Terri Schiavo case, but one state Rep. Joe Negron said it was right for the state and Congress to try to usurp the courts.

The Democrat in the race is a former Republican, Tim Mahoney:

[…]

Rep. Katherine Harris was on Hardball this afternoon painting rosy pictures of her campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson. Host Chris Matthews opened the segment by saying that Rep. Harris had just told him off camera that her poll numbers were surging — that she had cut Sen. Nelson’s lead in half. Nelson lead Harris by about 30 percent last time I checked.

On September 21, Harris was allowed to attend a GOP rally in Orlando headlined by President George W. Bush. She was not allowed to appear on stage with the president and other Republican notables, which included the president’s brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, and the nominee to replace him, Charlie Crist.

Basking in their reflected glory seems to have helped.

“Grim:”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist has taken a commanding lead over Democrat Jim Davis among a large swath of Florida’s electorate, a new poll indicates.

Six weeks out from the Nov. 7 election to replace Gov. Jeb Bush, Crist leads Davis 51 percent to 36 percent in the poll of 625 likely voters conducted last week.

The Mason-Dixon poll conducted for Gannett Co. and other news organizations puts Crist over the magic 50-percent threshold, a significant signpost for campaigns.

And the overall picture it paints for Davis is grim.

No matter what, if U.S. Rep. Jim Davis (the boring guy) and Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist (the possibly gay guy) continue to maintain the leads they have now in the governor’s primaries, Florida will be so much better off soon that we will all dance in the streets for the rest of the week!

Here’s some background on the race, but it appears there are blue skies ahead for the Sunshine State, because either of the two finalists are so much better than Jeb that I might wet my pants. Thanks, Florida voters, for helping get us out of this nightmare!

P.S. Yes, Katherine Harris is winning the Repiglican primary.

P.P.S. And pro-life extremist Randall Terry’s getting stomped!

Going to walk the dog. Will update in a little while…

Update: Tom Gallagher has conceded the Republican primary to Charlie Crist in the governor’s race. In what will hopefully represent a trend repeated nationwide this fall, the St. Petersburg Times described how the two candidates conducted their campaigns, and how Gallagher’s style is so two years ago.

Crist ran as someone who champions consumer causes and [Jeb] Bush’s policies – at least when it came to crime, taxes and education. But he wasn’t afraid to step out of line with the governor on some issues.

He questioned Bush’s decision to intervene in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case and said that he won’t try to change the class size limits that the governor tried and failed to put back on the ballot.

“All I want to be is the people’s governor and they should rest assured that if they elect me in November, no one will fight harder for the people than Charlie Crist,” he said. “This is a time when we need all of Florida to come together – Republicans, Democrats and independents.”

Gallagher lost despite positioning himself to come across almost exactly the same as Bush all the way down the line, abandoning a more moderate stance on social issues he had the last time he ran for governor for far-right positions opposing all abortions, gay marriage and adoption and stem cell research. He also promised to outlaw billboards for adult businesses like strip clubs.

Update: Harris has 49% of the Republican vote, splitting the remaining votes with her three challengers. So she won the primary, and will go on to try to unseat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in November. Yeah, right.

Radio free Hialeah: Katherine Harris took her campaign for the U.S. Senate to the Miami Hispanic community over the weekend. She even aired a new Spanish-language commercial on local radio. Who knew she has so many Spanish Republican supporters? Here’s a translation, courtesy the Palm Beach Post:

NARRATOR: Attention Republicans! Next Tuesday, we can move one step closer to electing our second Republican United States Senator in Florida.

Katherine Harris is a gutsy woman who’s fought for Republican values during her entire life and won.

Katherine Harris is a leader, hard-working and believes in family values, but most of all she is loyal. And that is why the following Republican leaders have endorsed her. Senator Mel Martinez, Congresswoman Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, the United States’ first Cuban-American House Speaker Marco Rubio, and many other Republican officials.

Katherine Harris is the true Republican candidate who has always been loyal to our community, our state, our president, George W. Bush, and our Republican values.

Katherine Harris with #11 on the ballot!

This advertisement is paid for by Friends of Katherine Harris. I am Katherine Harris and I approve this message.

Update: Villalobos won!

In Florida’s meanest and most expensive state Senate race, Miami Sen. Alex Villalobos was reelected Tuesday night, overcoming the millions spent by third-party attack groups and the ire of Gov. Jeb Bush, who helped run a candidate against the moderate Republican.

I have a new hero and she’s a Republican.

Florida State Sen. Nancy Argenziano has never been accused of hiding her feelings, but a masterpiece scathing email she sent about Jeb Bush last week is too fun not to share.

First, a little background. Fellow Republican Florida Sen. Alex Villalobos was in the queue to be the Senate majority leader until he parted ways with Big Boy on two initiatives the Florida governor has refused to abandon, despite being overruled by the people of Florida and the state supreme court: lowering class sizes (duh) and furnishing vouchers to public school students for private school tuition (no way).

After Villalobos, who would have been the first Cuban-American to lead the Florida senate, sided with his constituents over Jeb, he found himself the subject of a Jeb-led coup. And as Michael Schiavo could tell you, there is no pettier or more vindictive bully than a pissed-off Jeb Bush.

But Nancy’s on the case. When Jeb sent a fundraising letter to state legislators on behalf of Villalobos’ opponent, Frank Bolanos, Argenziano had enough. She emailed back, and cc’d her missive to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Full text:

Mr. Bolanos:

You are grossly in error in presuming to send me this garbage, especially through my legislative e-mail.

[…]

Tuesday, Sept. 5 is the day so many Floridians have waited for: when we find out if the candidates for our next governor will be — on the Republican side — a Schwarzenegger or a DeLay, or — on the Democratic side — a Bill Nelson or a DeLay.

The Republican race started out as the more interesting of the two, and while it hasn’t lost any drama, the Democratic one has my attention.

In the beginning, there were complaints that the two Democrats were too similar, too nice to each other on the campaign trail, and too boring. Then Rod Smith, a former state senator, found himself behind in the polls and pulled out the heavy ammo: U.S. Sugar.

When Smith headed the state’s agriculture committee, he evidently made some friends with money — the huge sugar industry, which Florida has spent years in court trying to get to clean up the Everglades. That money is now painting U.S. Rep. Jim Davis — a plodding, deliberate but pragmatic boy scout ala U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson — as a racist in a series of ads and phone calls because of a vote from 16 years ago. […]