Friday, August 06, 2004

Senate Campaign News 20040806 This editorial cartoon about the Senate race in the Daytona Beach News-Journal says it all. Another day without much news as most writers focused on the push to get Governor Bush to mandate that the counties using touch-screens for voting also provide optically scanned ballots. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once again, the Vero Beach Press Journal has the scoop on Karen Saull. The former Republican candidate has endorsed Bill McCollum. Saull's husband Jeff said "I've never heard him (McCollum) lie" , a reference to Mel Martinez' statement that he "wouldn't know Karen Saull if she walked into the room right now", a statement that the Saulls believe to be false. The couple had considered endorsing the last Republican women in the race, ,Sonya March, but opted with McCollum due to his experience in the House of Representatives and his having run a state-wide race before. Saull endorses McCollum (Vero Beach Press Journal) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the Democratic candidates debate on Tuesday, Peter Deutsch received text messages from his political consultant on his BlackBerry device. Deutsch said that the messages weren't anything substantive, just stuff like "good job". The debate's producer says that he probably won't allow candidates to have such a device in future debates. Deutsch, BlackBerry share stage at debate (Miami Herald) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Democratic activist Bob Kunst has put out posters depicting the Democratic candidates Peter Deutsch, Betty Castor, and Alex Penelas as the Three Stooges. He is still upset over the 2000 election and doesn't think any of the candidates are taking the matter seriously. No laughs for three stooges from state rep. candidates (Boca Raton News) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's interesting story that is not about Florida's Senate race is an article in the Miami Herald talking about how Cuban-Americans do not like Michael Moore. In '97 and '00 he wrote some stuff about the exile community that was incredibly derogatory. Exiles strike back at Moore's writings (Miami Herald) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John J Miller of National Review has an article about the Republican side of the Senate race entitled Cassandra Bill, that discusses Bill McCollum's front-runner status. My only nits about the article are that McCollum lost by more than "a couple points" (4.6 to be exact, and if you factor in the Democrat that was running as an independent, he lost by six points) in the 2000 race. Also the poll he mentions is the poll that came out from the Gallagher campaign in mid-July. The Mason-Dixon and Florida-Times Union/South Florida Sun-Sentinel polls are about a week newer (although they have the same margins between McCollum and Martinez the numbers are a bit different). And for clarification, from what I've read about Martinez' election as Orange County chairman, he had only one opponent that somehow was significantly to the right of him, so Martinez received a significant amount of support from Democrats in that race. He won 60%-40%. McCollum is correct to say that it was nothing like a state-wide race. Florida Senate Campaign, Politics comment []4:12:32 PM   trackback []