| Saturday, September 30, 2006 |
| Foley's parting shot |
Mark Foley may not have had the opportunity to screw one of those cute pages he was so hot for, but he does get the chance to screw the Republican Party, which hadn't counted on losing a House seat in Florida. Now, not only is Foley's seat looking increasingly "gettable" for the Democrats (even with a barely competent DNC, thanks to the flush coffers of the newly interested DCCC,) Foley will linger like a creepy, teen-lovin' ghost over the November election. Via an astute reader of TPMM:
In the event that death, resignation, withdrawal, removal, or any other cause or event should cause a party to have a vacancy in nomination which leaves no candidate for an office from such party, the Department of State shall notify the chair of the appropriate state, district, or county political party executive committee of such party; and, within 5 days, the chair shall call a meeting of his or her executive committee to consider designation of a nominee to fill the vacancy.... If the name of the new nominee is submitted after the certification of results of the preceding primary election, however, the ballots shall not be changed and the former party nominee's name will appear on the ballot. Any ballots cast for the former party nominee will be counted for the person designated by the political party to replace the former party nominee.
And then there's the matter of who to put on the ballot with the creepy Mr. Foley. How about this guy...?
State Rep. Joe Negron, a Stuart attorney, said Friday he will seek to become the replacement candidate on the November ballot for U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned Friday amid allegations he made advances to a 16-year-old congressional intern.
''I'm in this race, and I'm going to win,'' Negron told The Miami Herald.
Negron faces an uphill battle to replace Foley, whose name will appear on the ballot in spite of his resignation. Negron first must be appointed by the party's executive committee to be the replacement candidate, then voters would have to choose him over Democratic candidate Tim Mahoney. Really? Tell me more ...
''The voters of House District 16 want a congressman who supports their president, and I do,'' Negron said. ''The district is smart enough to figure it out. I'm optimistic.'' Negron, the head of the state House Fiscal Council, has campaigned once before for Foley's congressional seat -- in 2004, when Foley planned to run for the U.S. Senate.
However, Negron withdrew when Foley decided to stay in his district, partly at the urging of national Republicans nervous about Foley's rumored sexual orientation and in order to clear the way for Housing Secretary Mel Martinez, who was elected. Negron is a perennial campaigner who has $1 million left over from his attempt to run for attorney general -- one of about three or four different offices he's sought. But what's telling, beside the fact that Negron is running as a Bush lackey -- which proves he's not so good at taking the country's, or the state's, political temperature, is the fact that Foley's decision to remain in his district has again been pegged to GOP worries that his being gay -- even if closeted -- could affect him negatively should he run for statewide office (then, the U.S. Senate).
Well what does that mean for the man currently running to be Florida's governor -- one super-tan, "so not gay", sitting attorney general, Charlie Crist?
Fair or not, Crist's sexual orientation is back on the table, even if the Democratic candidate in the race proves too dovish to bring it up.
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Tags: Mark Foley, Florida |
posted by JReid @ 11:02 PM   |
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