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Friday, July 23, 2004 |
| This evening, Mason-Dixon released a poll for the Democrat and Republican Senate candidates. On the Democrat side Castor leads at 37%, with Deutsch at 21% and Penelas at 10%. On the Republican side, McCollum continues to lead Martinez, 29% to 24%. Johnnie Byrd is at 7%. (Incredibly, no mention of Gallagher in the one source I've seen on this so far). 31% of Democrats and 30% of Republicans are undecided. Poll shows Castor leading Democrats in Race (Tallahassee Democrat)
In head to head matchups, Castor and Martinez are tied at 39%, Castor leads McCollum 44% to 39%. The front page of the Gallagher for Senate page is touting a Florida-Times Union and South Florida Sun-Sentinel poll that has McCollum at 27%, Martinez at 21%, Gallagher in third at 16% and Byrd rounding out the major candidates at 7%. I am yet to find a link for that poll. Breaking... Florida Senate Campaign, Politics comment []7:30:03 PM  trackback []
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| CVN-76, the USS Ronald Reagan, pulled into her homeport of San Diego for the first time today. Thousands of spectators were at the peir to see the arrival. Nancy Reagan was there as well. Capt. Andres "Drew" Brugal, the executive officer, said he thrilled to be hosting Mrs. Reagan aboard the ship. "Obviously it's kind of a sad time right now, so close to the president's death. She's the sponsor of the ship and we're very happy to see her," he said. Mrs. Reagan visited the ship's Ronald Reagan Room, a museum featuring the former president's cavalry uniform, movie posters, a video presentation and a chunk of the Berlin wall.
In a nod to Reagan's Hollywood days, the ship
also has a celebrity walk of fame with such names as Alfred Hitchcock
and Spencer Tracy on the mess deck. Make your namesake proud, shipmates. Military comment []3:17:54 PM trackback []
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| With planes from NAS Oceana in Virginia Beach aboard each of the carriers in Summer Flex 04, it's been awfully quiet in the Hampton Roads area. With the return of the George Washington and Harry Truman, the sound of freedom is about to fill the skies once again. The jet noise issue has been a perennial one ever since NAS Cecil Field in Jacksonville was closed and most of their jets were moved to Oceana. For almost all of my childhood I was never far away from a Navy runway. Most of the time I was regaled with the sweet sound of the turboprops of the P-3 Orion. In high school however, I was but a couple miles away from the Fentress Field mentioned in the article, which is where our F-14s practiced at. It certainly got noisy at times, but I never minded. Back in the 80's there was a poster from one of the aviation companies that summed up the situation perfectly. It read: GOT A PROBLEM WITH JET NOISE? DO THE JETS LOOK LIKE THIS? (picture of Soviet MIG-21) NO? THEN WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Military comment []3:04:52 PM trackback []
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| The reports for Bill McCollum and Mel Martinez hit the FEC website this morning. Here's some rankings CASH ON HAND
Contributions in the previous quarter
Remeber that last quarter Gallagher gave himself $1,300,000, so only $36,985 were truly incoming contributions. Johnnie Byrd is the only candidate whose incoming contributions for the quarter were lower than the one previous. McCollum's increased by about $500,000 and Martinez' was about $40,000 higher. Spending in the previous quarter
Total Spending
All numbers are current as of June 30 Florida Senate Campaign, Politics comment []12:37:56 PM trackback []
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| In an Associated Press interview, Johnnie Byrd questioned the authenticity of his rivals' conservative principles. He criticized Bill McCollum for raising taxes and increasing debt. (Byrd cited a tax increase in 1983, a year that McCollum's American Conservative Union rating was a perfect 100). He tagged Mel Martinez as a trial lawyer, and oddly questioned his commitment to an anti-abortion agenda (Martinez shared the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee with Byrd and was on the board of the Florida Right to Life Committee for three years). In the Miami Herald version of the article, he calls doubt on whether Florida voters would back someone without a voting record (referring to Doug Gallagher). One would like to see the text of the interview, but alas it is not available. AP Interview: Byrd attacks Republican rivals in U.S. Senate race (Miami Herald registration required)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Byrd aims questions at rivals' principles (St Petersburg Times) The St Petersburg Times reports that Martinez took first class and business class seats on flights in 2002 and 2003 while he was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. While federal rules require government employees require government officals to fly coach, Martinez had a note from his doctor stating that he medically rquired first-class seating for a back problem that he has. The Times also found records of the government buying tickets for his wife to accompany him on a trip for Russia. The tickets were for first class and business class and cost $5,916. Martinez said that he was not involved in deciding that she flew in the more expensive seats. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The gay community newspaper in DC, the Washington Blade, reported on the Martinez campaign having two gay advisers. One is his finance director Kirk Fordham, the other is a former chairman of the Florida Christian Coalition, John Dowless. I had seen tidbits about Fordham in the blogosphere from gay writers that were unhappy about Martinez' support of the Federal Marriage Amendment and that a gay man would be helping helm. The discussion of Fordham is apparently his "outing". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 527 group that calls itself the American Democracy Project is buying half-page newspaper adsin six metropolitan newspapers around the state that criticize Betty Castor's handling of professor Sami-Al Arian when she was President of USF. The ad asks "Why did Betty Castor allow the University of Florida to become Jihad U. Yesterday the Castor campaign sent out an e-mail citing these attack ads and asked for funds to respond to them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Palm Beach Post thinks it spotted a contradiction in what Peter Deutsch said to them regarding immigaration policy and what actions he is actually taking. He told their editorial board "that illegal immigrants should be returned home "by plane or by boat." However, he recently became cosponsor of a bill that allows illegal farmworkers to attain legal status. Deutsch said that he misunderstood the Post's question and that he was quoted accurately. LATER: A reporter interning at the Orlando Sentinel comments on the Washington Blade article. Florida Senate Campaign, Politics comment []11:31:02 AM trackback []
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© Copyright
2004
Charles Fenwick
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Last update: 7/30/2004; 10:28:24 PM .
Last update: 7/30/2004; 10:28:24 PM .
