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
Mark Williams and TPE pushed out by racism, or rivalry? (Plus Williams fires back at TP ‘Federation’)
The National Tea Party Federation’s expulsion of Mark Williams from its ranks wasn’t all that surprising after his incendiary “colored letter” post. But what was a bit, well, interesting, is that the organization of more than 80 tea party affiliated entities, also decided to push out Williams’ entire organization, the Tea Party Express. Read more
Florida Democrats rally at Jefferson-Jackson Dinner

Democrat Kendrick Meek greets supports and chats with his wife Leslie (in red) at the 2010 Florida Democratic Party Jefferson Jackson dinner.
Kendrick Meek brought a cheering section … Gelber and Aronberg played nice … and Alex Sink’s mike went rogue. And a good time was had by all at this year’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner.
A nightmare on 21st Street (Rick Scott in my neighborhood)
All I can say is, I just hope those poor, innocent people are okay… So how long did the creepy bald guy spend “campaigning?” … Read more
Retire … your … armies
Rick Barber, one of the most entertaining tea partiers on the political scene this year, lost his Congressional primary bid yesterday, and he lost big. Well, Rick, we’ll always have your highly entertaining commercials…
Abe? Please weigh in, just one last time … Read more
Team Meek launches new Youtube vid: ‘Real Democrat’ **UPDATE: Team Greene responds
The campaign’s latest Youtube video is aimed at Democrats who might be flirting with Jeff Greene and/or Charlie Crist. The video calls Meek “the only one in this race that is pro-choice, voted against off-shore drilling, and stood up for the middle class.” (With apologies to Maurice Ferre…) Watch:
It was forwarded around by James Carville according to the Orlando Sentinel,
Well that didn’t take long … Read more
New poll has good news for Crist, Sink
Charlie Crist is “capturing the middle.” Alex Sink is within striking distance. Those are the upshots of a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Read more
Poll: What’s the Democrats’ best Senate play in Florida?
Your turn to play political strategist:
ReidReport Exclusive: Jeff Greene’s wife makes TV ad debut

Voters get a glimpse of Jeff Greene's better half in his new campaign ad. (Still from television spot to start running July 13th)
Lots of people (TRR included) have wondered when Senate candidate Jeff Greene’s wife, the former Mei Sze Chan, would make an appearance in one of his ubiquitous television ads. Well, the time has come. Check out this exclusive preview of the campaign’s latest ad, entitled “Family,” which starts running July 13 (that’s tomorrow to you.) The ad features the entire Greene clan: his mother, son and Mei (who you won’t hear in the ad, but TRR can confirm sports a genuine Australian accent…) Video after the jump … Read more
Rick Scott accused of exploiting a family’s pain for politics
Just when you thought you’d heard all the negative, creepy, sleazy aspects of Rick Scott’s life and character, comes this. It turns out that Freddy Krueger’s pro-life boasts are culled from a tragic case of a Texas family whose severely disabled daughter was treated, against the family’s wishes and without anesthesia, when she was a severely premature newborn, whose birth almost killed both her and her mother. Scott is pimping the story for his campaign, even though he claims to barely remember the details. Read more






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