FL-02: Lawson May Drop Primary Challenge

Mega-Blue Dog Allen Boyd may have a much easier route to re-election:

Florida state Sen. Al Lawson has confirmed to the St. Petersburg Times that he is considering switching from challenging Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) to the state chief financial officer race.

Democrats have struggled to find someone to run for outgoing CFO Alex Sink’s (D) post while she runs for governor. And Lawson has found it difficult to raise the money needed to run a primary against an incumbent congressman.

This comes as a bit of a surprise, as Lawson had posted an internal poll a few weeks ago giving him a 35-31 lead over Boyd, suggesting he was engaged with the race and had incentive to stay in it. (The Democratic electorate in the 2nd is substantially African-American, giving Lawson an advantage there.) As The Hill notes, though, Lawson is at a terrible financial disadvantage ($78,000, versus Boyd’s $1.7 million), and that gives Lawson — who’s termed out of the state Senate and looking for somewhere to move up — an incentive to switch over to a race where he’d be running with establishment backing instead of against it.

So: bad news for those hoping to replace a Blue Dog with a (somewhat) Better Dem… although if Lawson won the primary, he might have had a rough time of it in the general in this R+6 9 district. On the other hand, good news for Dems trying to make a full court press for all the statewide offices in Florida, with current CFO Alex Sink at the top of the ticket.

RaceTracker Wiki: FL-02

49 thoughts on “FL-02: Lawson May Drop Primary Challenge”

  3. Allen Boyd, who was the only Democrat who supported Bush’s Social Security plan, and bashed Democrats who opposed it, is a cancer and needs to go.

  5. We need a good candidate for CFO and this fills that void. Also, I think Lawson has a better chance of winning statewide than winning in FL-02, so I think this is a better move for him.

  6. A primary challenge in a district like this is totally stupid.  A warm body getting in the CFO race is good news too, but freeing us of one obtuse primary challege in red district is a great development.

  7. I can see why progressives use the “better dem” strategy (though I obviously disagree that more liberal = better dem), but I think too many go overboard with it. I was looking at OpenLeft and reading some of the “Bush Dog” mess and it seems we’ve had a left-wing version of the teabaggers in the Democratic Party.

    Again, I’m not bashing the strategy, I completely understand why some liberal members want more liberal representation, it’s just, I think we can easily say a liberal cannot be elected to every district, just like a conservative cannot be elected in every district. Just as we Blue Dogs tolerate progressives, progressives should return the favor. Without our coalition, we return the majority back to the GOP. Someone who votes with me on 60% of the issues is more of an ally than someone who votes with me 10% of the time.

    Anyway, if Lawson does drop out then that’s great news for FL-02 and for voters throughout Florida since he’ll be running statewide. Glad to see the Florida Democratic Party (FDP? or is it Democratic Party of Florida?) pushing for a candidate in all the statewide seats.

    Now, if only they could convince the Democratic Party of Georgia to do the same. We’re still lacking a candidate for Lt. Governor and Agriculture Commissioner 🙁

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