Saturday clicks: ‘Real (would-be) Senate Wives of Florida’
With a hat tip to Fla Politics, the St. Pete Times profiles the wives of Florida’s leading candidates for U.S. Senate (in photo at left, clockwise from top left: Carole Rome Crist, Leslie Meek, Mei Sze Chan (Greene), and Jeanette Dousdebes-Rubio.
Also at the Times: see how bat-shit crazy Arizona has become with a right wing legislature and a willing governor? Peep the future, Florida, and fear the hell out of it.
Back to the Senate race, the Christian magazine World puts Marco Rubio on the cover and hopes for the best. Rubio has already consolidated the Christian right vote, but the question is whether that will be enough to get him out of the 30s, where he’s presently stuck.
… including in a new Florida Poll, commissioned by a confab of the New York Times Media Group and the University of South Florida. That poll finds Charlie Crist crossing the 40-point threshold in a three-way race with Meek as the Democrat, and falling just below that if it’s Greene. The particulars:
Crist pulled 41 perccent with Rubio at 30 percent and Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek pulling a pathetic 12 percent. When Meek was replaced by primary rival Jeff Greene, the race became a bit closer. Crist took 37 percent, Rubio was at 29 percent and Greene pulled 16 percent. The poll was taken from July 24 to July 28 with 590 likely voters. The margin of error in the poll was at +/- 4 percent.
Meanwhile, this Fla Politics diarist mounts the most passionate case I’ve yet heard (besides the one made to me in person by Broward DEC member and liberal activist Jack Shiffrel) for Democrats to support Meek. Not sure that will be enough at this stage.
Another diarist, this time at Daily Kos, breaks down some of the big Senate races to come, and like many people (including Nate Silver and your humble blogger,) handicaps Florida’s race as likely yielding a Senator Charlie Crist. Read more
Appeals court disarms McCollum
An appeals court leaves McCollum helpless against the smoke monster.
It’s now up to the 527s. An appeals court sided with Rick Scott Friday, ruling that Bill McCollum cannot get a dollar-for-dollar match in public funds for every dollar Scott spends over the millionaires cap. The reversal of a lower court decision frees Scott to spend unlimited sums to bury McCollum, and could leave the Florida attorney general all-but helpless, unless the groups backing him, funded by his colleagues in Tallahassee, come to his rescue. Read more
Sink ties opponents in Qpac poll
The July 30 Quinnipiac poll shows Alex Sink in a virtual tie with either of her Republican opponents, both of whom are losing altitude as they slug away at each other. Read more
Marco Rubio: big spender
Take that, little people!
Marco Rubio is running for the U.S. Senate as a “fiscal conservative.” But his campaign is spending like … well, it’s spending like House Speaker Marco Rubio.
From the Palm Beach Post, word that while Charlie Crist is spending about 30 cents of every dollar raise, Team Rubio is burning through twice that — about $0.63 for every donor buck. Read more
Michael Putney explains it all: Rick Scott is clueless, Greene’s a ‘regular’ billionaire
Miami reporter Michael Putney, the dean of South Florida television news, give his impressions of the rich guy insurgents in the Florida races for governor and Senate. Putney, who had an unpleasant run-in with Scott’s pregnant communications director last week, broke down the key traits, from his perspective, of Rick Scott and Jeff Greene. Suffice it to say one of these things is not like the other… Read more
Time to hit the panic button? Greene pulls ahead, Scott pulling away? **UPDATED**
A tale of two Florida primaries. From left to right: GOP gubernatorial hopefulls Bill McCollum and Rick Scott; and Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Kendrick Meek and Jeff Greene
The new Quinnipiac poll has some news you’d expect — Rick Scott is still ahead of Bill McCollum — and some things that well, you’d also expect, since he’s spending so much money and flooding the zone with advertising. Namely, Jeff Greene has pulled ahead of Kendrick Meek. Read more
P.M. Florida clicks: Greene hires Tad Devine, Bauer to the rescue, DWS to lead GOTea smackdown
Democratic strategist Tad Devine, as seen on "Meet the Press"
Now playing: the Jim Greer jailhouse recordings.
When it comes to slapping the tea party label on the GOP, who you gonna call?
Meanwhile, more campaign team changes for the Jeff Greene campaign. They’ve brought on the media consulting firm Devine/Mulvey, whose clients include the Democratic Party of Illinois. So who is the “Devine” in Devine/Mulvey? Why, that would be Tad Devine … Read more
Meek to take his show on the road
Mutual haterade. Democratic Senate rivals: Kendrick Meek and Jeff Greene.
The Kendrick Meek Senate campaign will get on the bus, for a 10-day tour of the state. The campaign is calling their bus “The Real Dem Express.” Read more
Garcia camp: former Rubio aide broke federal law to help Rivera
Marco Rubio and his chief disciple, David Rivera
The war over House District 25 just keeps getting hotter, with the latest accusations involving a former aide to Marco Rubio, a 19-year-old college student, and an alleged attempt to “smear” Democrat Joe Garcia for the benefit of Rubio “disciple” David Rivera. Read more
Democratic Party to voters: the tea party IS the GOP
The Hill reports on the DNC’s midterm strategy, which is pretty simple and straightforward: tie the tea party movement to the Republican Party, like a big, monochromatic, spelling-challenged ball and chain. Read more
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