The Republican attack on Florida governor candidate U.S. Rep. Jim Davis consisted of slamming him for campaigning. A TV ad was played nonstop for weeks, depicting an empty chair whizzing around Washington, while a Florida tourist family (with vaguely Ohioan accents) trails behind. “Do you think we’ll see him next time, Dad?” the son asks. “I don’t know, son. I just don’t know.”
Davis missed votes, we were told. He was too busy with politics to do the work we sent him to Washington to do. Wonder if the GOP will be trotting those ads out in 2008, when Florida Sen. Mel Martinez is running the Republican National Committee?
Doubt it. Predictably, Martinez’s split shift workday is being hailed not as a callous ditching of responsibility, as was Davis’s campaigning, but a big ol’ plus for Florida.
“It’s awesome for Florida. It says a great deal about this state and its strength,” said Republican Party of Florida chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan.
…Martinez, who will keep his Senate seat, will bring that much more attention to a state that is already considered to be a top prize in presidential politics.
Oh come on. Martinez was chosen in large part because he’s Cuban, and the Republicans did almost as badly with Latino voters this time as they did with African-Americans. While 8 percent of all voters were Latino, only 26 percent to 42 percent (it’s an estimate) of them voted Repug.
…Florida Democrats noted that their party won the Hispanic vote in last week’s election for the first time in three decades.
“This reflects the renewed emphasis by Democrats in using multimedia communications to win support from the fastest growing community in the United States, as well as Hispanic support for finding real solutions to raising the minimum wage, affordable health care and the war in Iraq,” said Florida Democratic Party executive director Luis Navarro in a statement.
It also shows Republicans are doing something wrong.
Mel was one of the chairs of the Bush campaign in 2000, helping Katherine Harris in her strategy to keep the votes from being accurately counted. He has been consistently rewarded for his nefarious deeds while Harris has been treated like the embarrassment she is.
But at least one analyst noticed Mel already had a job when he took on his new one.
…the duel role will be difficult, said [Poltical Scientist Matthew] Corrigan.
“Being a senator is a full-time job, so is taking on the RNC. I think it is a serious challenge,” he said. “How he balances those roles is an important question.”
It’s also a question not nearly enough people are asking.
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