If you’re still mad at Florida for denying Vice Pres. Al Gore the presidency in 2000, you’re probably not any happier with us for denying the Senate another Democrat, in the form of Bill Nelson.
There’s a tragically simple explanation for why the Senate vote went off the rails in the county where Fort Lauderdale is:
Bad ballot design. Like, spectacularly bad design.
In civilized counties like mine, here’s how the ballot looked:
A new CNN/SRSS poll in Florida finds Andrew Gillum (D) holds a wide 12-point edge over Rep. Ron DeSantis (R) in the race for governor, 54% to 42%. In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Bill Nelson (D) leads Gov. Rick Scott (R) by five points, 50% to 45%.
A new NBC News/Marist poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D) just ahead of Gov. Rick Scott (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 45% among likely voters. In the race for governor, Andrew Gillum (D) is ahead of Ron DeSantis (R), 48% to 43%. Said pollster Lee Miringoff: “The political environment in Florida, overall, is tipping in the Democrats’ favor.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) has taken the lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 53% to 46%. Among Florida likely voters who name a candidate choice, 94% say their mind is made up.
“Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) holds a narrow 44% to 41% lead over Gov. Rick Scott (R) among Latino voters in Florida’s Senate race, according to a new poll that’s raising fresh concerns among Democrats that the incumbent is in a dicey position with a core group of voters he needs to carry by bigger margins,” Politico reports. “For Democrats, those numbers are a problem because a Republican who wins as much of the Hispanic vote as Scott is taking usually wins statewide in Florida. Democrats outnumbered Republicans in the survey by 40% to 33%.”
From left: Rep. Mack, Rep. Bono Mack and Dr. Ruiz, Bono Mack"s Democratic challenger The new NBC/Marist poll in Florida finds that incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson leads his Republican challenger, Rep. Connie Mack by double digits, 52 percent to 39 percent.
But that may not be the only political trouble facing Rep. Mack’s household. His wife, GOP Rep. Mary Bono Mack, the widow of entertainer Sonny Bono, is also facing the toughest reelection challenge since she assumed the seat representing Palm Springs that her late husband held until he was killed in a freak skiing accident in January 1998. Because Rep. Mack opted to give up his seat in Florida to run against Nelson, there’s a chance now that both Mack and Bono Mack will not be returning to Washington next year.
Rep. Bono Mack, who is considered to be one of the five most vulnerable Republican representatives in the House, appears to have really stepped in it when an “October surprise” lodged against her Democratic opponent, emergency-room physician Raul Ruiz, backfired, big time:
We’re not the only ones to notice that Connie Mack IV, nee Cornelius Harvey McGillicuddy IV, is one of the lightest weight lightweights ever to run on the Republican ticket for the Senate from Florida, and that’s saying something.
After all, this is the state that sent George LeMieux, whose claim to fame might be only that his last name contains more vowels than consonants, to fill the spot vacated by Mel Martinez, who quit partway through his term to pursue closer family relations.
That tendency seems to be largely Republican in nature, but at least Martinez wasn’t trying to spend more time with Sarah Palin’s family.
I digress.
The point is, someone else is taking a look at Mack IV (R), now running for the seat held by Sen. Bill Nelson (D), and coming up underwhelmed.
Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino sent a memo to Mack from his fictitious image consulting firm. In it, he presented Mack with answers he might use to address issues uncovered by opposition research.
The results of a Quinnipiac poll on the Florida Senate race. Rep. Connie Mack (R-Ft Myers) garnered 40% support while incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) got 42%. Name recognition was cited as the main factor in Mack’s popularity, since he is the fourth person to be named Connie Mack, starting with his Baseball Hall of Famer greatgrandfather. Mack IV is also the husband of Rep. Mary Bono (who gained her seat upon the death of husband Sonny Bono) but has done little of note in Congress, where he is Chair of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere within the Foreign Affairs Committee.
With the people in the field right now, I think it will be difficult to beat Bill Nelson. I still think Jeb Bush might don the cape and get in.
Florida State Senate Pres. Mike Haridopolos (R-Merritt Island), discussing the U.S. Senate race for the seat currently held by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). Haridopolos dropped out of the contest this year, leaving challengers that Vice Pres. Joe Biden referred to at the recent Florida Democratic Convention as, “the seven dwarfs.”
Elon Musk is now wholly committed to the political game.
But his “America Party” and “Democrat Party” are both grammatically lame:
See, “America” is a proper noun, but not an adjective,
Whereas “American” can be either one — it’s relative.
As with “Democrat Party,” Musk is about to find out what’s in a name.
“If you’re not hiding anything, prove that to the American people. And if you are trying to hide something, as many of Donald Trump’s MAGA supporters apparently believe, then the Congress should work hard to uncover the truth for the American people.”
— House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), quoted by the Washington Post, calling for the full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“This may have been a loss for the American people, but this was a big Trump win. He continues to plow through the norms, institutions, and guardrails of government, and he will use the BBB to accelerate his momentum. … Acknowledging this is not defeatism: it’s a recognition of the challenge ahead.”
“The president of the United States didn’t give us an assignment. We’re not a bunch of little bitches around here, okay? I’m a member of Congress. I represent almost 800,000 Wisconsinites.”
“The volume of Canadians taking road trips into the U.S.—the means by which most Canadians visit—dropped by 33% last month compared to June 2024, following a 38% drop in May,” Forbes reports.
A new Morning Consult poll finds 53% of Americans don’t know why the American colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence to separate from Britain on July 4, 1776.
President Trump’s pardons and commutations have cost more than $100 million in fines owed to the federal government and another $1.5 billion in restitution to victims, Forbes reports.
Gallup: “A record-low 58% of U.S. adults say they are ‘extremely’ (41%) or ‘very’ (17%) proud to be an American, down nine percentage points from last year and five points below the prior low from 2020. … Democrats are mostly responsible for the drop in U.S. pride this year, with 36% saying they are extremely or very proud, down from 62% a year ago. This is only the second time Democrats’ pride has fallen below the majority level, along with a 42% reading in 2020, the last year of the first Trump administration.”
The CBO estimates that the Republican reconciliation bill that the Senate is considering will increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion between 2025 to 2034, Bloomberg reports.Punchbowl News says Senate Republicans and the White House reject the CBO estimate as inaccurate. The White House estimates it will cut the deficit by $4.9 trillion over the next decade.