report Politico sets the Florida Senate race on its head with a claim that BILL FREAKING CLINTON tried to convince also-ran Democrat Kendrick Meek to quit the race so Charlie Crist would win.
denial Meek’s campaign manager Abe Dyk denied it: “The article is not true. Kendrick Meek was never dropping out of this race, is never dropping out of this race and will never drop out of this race.” source
hypothesis J.D. Hayworth, sensing weakness in John McCain’s abilities after he ran for president, thought Arizona could use a new senator.
reality Despite Hayworth’s stronger conservative credentials, McCain spent a lot of money and came out on top tonight. source
» Oh yeah … McCain has an election in November, but this will likely be a formality. See, McCain lives in Arizona, a state that leans far enough to the right that it allowed a crazy immigration law to take effect. There’s no way the’re electing a Democrat to the Senate.
» Other races: The other key state, Florida, was half-boom, half-bust for big-spending outsiders. While Democratic senate candidate Kendrick Meek easily won his race over Jeff Greene (a guy who’s a billionaire and made a lot of money off the housing market bust), multi-millionaire Rick Scott toppled Attorney General Bill McCollum in the GOP gubernatorial primart.
My decision to run for the U.S. Senate as a candidate without party affiliation says more about our nation and our state than it says about me. Unfortunately our political system is broken. I think we need a new tone in Washington.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist • Who’s now an indie kid in the Florida Senate’s political race. (Though he went out of his way to say “independent.” WTF?) He loses a lot of backing by turning his back on Republicans, but polls suggest he has a much better chance of winning now that he’s out of the primary. The moderate got pushed out as part of a rightward lean by the party, who’s backing bizarro hippie favorite Marco Rubio. The New York Times suggests that Crist may suffer from that lack of infrastructure, though if Rubio or Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek can’t expand their collective bases, he’s the winner. source
The people spoke, and they spoke loudly, and boy, did I hear from them this week.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist • On his move to veto a Republican-backed education bill which would tie teachers’ pay to their performance. The move was controversial on all sides of the aisle – the GOP strongly stood behind the bill, while teachers werelargely against it. Even some bizarro hippies didn’t like it. The decision is raising speculation that our boy Charlie will run as an independent in the gubernatorial election, where he has a genuine shot of winning against bizarro hippie-endorsed Marco Rubio (who’s leading Crist handily in the Republican primary) and Democrat Kendrick Meek. source