Well, this sure is unexpected:
U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, confirms that she is launching an exploratory campaign for U.S. Senate, and said an internal statewide poll shows her comfortably ahead of any Democratic contender including Kendrick Meek.
“Experience,” she said, when asked why the 17-year U.S. House member would be a stronger candidate than Meek. “I like Kendrick and I love his mother but this is about making sure we have someone at the table when we’re talking about energy, we’re talking about education, we’re talking about jobs, we’re talking about health care.”
I’d be pretty surprised if Brown actually went through with her primary threat, considering that she’d be starting behind the eight ball in terms of fundraising and endorsements (two things that Meek has been gobbling up at a decent clip so far this year). At last glance, Brown held a paltry $81K in her House campaign war chest.
Brown’s 3rd District is safely Democratic territory — its PVI is D+18 and it delivered 73% of its vote for Obama last year, so we’d have nothing to worry about should the seat become open. Brown says that she expects to announce a decision “within a few weeks”.