With Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate today, a lot of dominoes are set to fall in Florida over the coming weeks as lower-level officeholders seek to move up a rung or two on the good ol’ electoral ladder. One such drone who won’t be looking for a promotion is one Vernon G. Buchanan, according to the Bradenton Herald:
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s entry into the 2010 Senate race has prompted U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan to drop his senatorial aspirations and declare that he will seek re-election to his House seat instead.
“Representing Florida’s 13th district in the U.S. House is an honor and a privilege,” Buchanan said in a news release issued today. “I look forward to the opportunity to continue serving the people.”
Buchanan’s R-tilting seat likely would have hosted a competitive race without Buchanan on the ticket, but Democrats will have a tough time finding anyone of note to run against Vern now. One candidate who had been eyeing the race with the DCCC’s encouragement, state Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, recently said that he would probably not run for the seat if Buchanan didn’t scram.
worse than, on par with, or better than his district?
Both make sense. I’d put the Senate race somewhere between Lean R and Likely R and the FL Governor’s race at Tossup, but closer to Lean D assuming Sink runs. Hopefully McCollum jumps in the Governor’s race on the Repub side. He’d be the easiest guy to beat.
With Crist running for the senate a lot of statewide offices are going to open up and we could win everything from the governorship and Lt. Gov (do they run on a ticket in Florida?) to the Attorney General post on down. We’ll also have to work to keep the state CFO post once Alex Sink runs for Governor. There could well be more-time will tell, and we’d better be ready for some hard work.
Redistricting, redistricting. Who knows how many House seats could be the difference if a Democrat is able to block Republican reapportionment.