Our next stop on the SSP Recruitment Express: Florida. Who would you like to see challenge Republican Sen. Mel Martinez and Gov. Charlie Crist in 2010? Or better yet, will Crist face a notable challenger at all?
Martinez surely won’t get off so lucky — his approval ratings are in the dumps, and Democrats are surely salivating over his seat. Who will be up to the challenge?
State CFO Alex Sink is easily our best candidate. I have heard rumors as of late that she could even challenge Crist for the Governorship, but I don’t buy it. The Senate seat is much more likely.
Outside of Alex Sink, Klein (FL-22) would make a good candidate statewide.
Barring some major mistakes on his part I don’t see Crist drawing a top-tier democratic opponent. But a challenge from the right is possible in the republican primary.
Marco Rubio is one big republican name who coul challenge Martinez or Crist for their job.
Silly me–I thought we were doing this alphabetically.
Anyway, my thoughts for Democratic candidates for Senate are mostly female–Alex Sink, Kathy Castor, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (although the latter didn’t exactly ingratiate herself with the South Florida Democratic establishment this year with her support for people like Ros-Lehtinen–maybe she’s already shot herself in the foot)
Wexler for Senate!
Other possible choices: Jim Davis, Ron Klein (house seat might be lost, though), Bill Graham (doubtful).
as a major proponent of fair elections i’ve gottosay, i like crist. he increased early voting hours, even though it would help obama, he got rid of the felons can’t vote rule, and endorsed voting machines with a paper trail. he’s not an ideologue, and may in fact be an oompa-loompa (even in florida NO ONE is that tan). focus on the legislature so we can work towards de-gerrymandering the state in 2012. and yes, wexler should run for senate. fun cocaine for everyone!
http://www.politico.com/blogs/…
As for Martinez, I wish we could reverse time and make Bob Graham 10 years younger, because he seems like the guy with the best shot of beating Mel. If not, I’m willing to settle for this Alex Sink I keep hearing about.
She’s already won statewide, and I think she can take out Mel. Plus, with financial issues sure to be dogging us for another year or two (at least), someone with CFO and banking experience should help.
Crist is safe for the Gov seat. Maybe Rod Smith will give it another shot and win over rural Floridians who take issue with Crist’s lifestyle.
Trying to seriously challenge Crist would be a waste of money; unless he gets outed as Teh Gay and thus loses the nomination, he’ll win. Focus on Martinez, and I’d like to see Wexler run against him.
Crist is probably untouchable. Unless he gets shoved out of the closet by his own party, he’ll probably win by a decent margin in 2010. HOWEVER, Mel Martinez looks to be quite vulnerable right now! If we can get Debbie Wasserman-Schultz or Alex Sink to run, we may just have a better than 50-50 shot at winning!
Even though I think its a long shot, if they convinced Lautenberg (who was older) to come back, I think Graham may be convinced. It would make a whole lot of sense only if none of the congressional delegation jump in. My preference would be for DWS or Allen Boyd. I know, I know…….Boyd would be a pain in the ass but I think he would destroy Martinez.
My dream team would be Graham for Senate and Boyd for Gov. From what I can glean it would be two definite pick-ups and allow the Florida Democratic Party some breathing room to get itself back on track.
Martinez is already a “Tossup”.
http://www.cookpolitical.com/c…
For what it’s worth, The Fix released his first 2010 Senate line and he thinks that “Rep. Ron Klein (D) is giving every indication that he will run; as of Oct. 15 he had $1.8 million in his House bank account.”
http://voices.washingtonpost.c…
He seems to be making his ratings based on the assumption of no retirements.
that showed Napolitano would beat McCain for Senate?
Obviously a poll taken in October 2 years beforehand when one of the candidates was out of state running for president can’t be considered a certain predictor — bit it certainly shows that the incumbent is potentially vulnerable.
As for Gregg, I think he may be hard to knock off, but Hodes or some other candidates could give him a real race — certainly is potentially competitive given the seismic shifts in NH politics in the last few cycles.
candidate we have for any of the seats barring a Bob Grahm comeback.
I doubt she runs for either office but if she does I’ll be presently surprised.
If not there is a nice long list of House members who could beat Martinez.
Ron Klein seems to want it, would be a decent candidate and has lots of money in the bank. I’d prefer Kathy Castor. I doubt Wexler will run or win if he does. It’s possible that DWS will run but I still see her as a House lifer.
And without Sink I don’t see much hope at beating Crist. He’s pretty popular beacuse he’s done a pretty good job positioning himself as the leader of the sane wing of the Republican party.
Nationally everyone should care about Governor, because of Redistricting.
While we are going to try hard in Florida to win back the legislature — it is an uphill battle even harder than beating the cheerleader-in-chief with needing to win a majority of the seats up for election next cycle.
The Governor is involved in redistricting in Florida and Democratic governor would allow us to make the congressional and legislature seats more fair.
We can win, we can beat Charlie. Alex Sink is a great candidate statewide and she can beat Charlie. Dan Gelber, Alan Boyd, and many others can all beat the vulnerable AMrtinez.