Crush Liberalism

Florida GOP needs to do better than Katherine Harris

I’m not gonna touch Election 2000 with a 10′ pole!

Florida incumbent Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat, leads Republican Congresswoman Katherine Harris in a recent poll for next year’s Senate race. It ain’t close: 53% – 36%, 11% undecided. Heck, north FL is “GOP Central”, and Nelson leads there! Here in Jacksonville, Dems always do poorly, due to their reflexive anti-military position (which doesn’t sit well in a city with two military bases and thousands of military personnel)…but Nelson is doing quite well here. Last I saw on local news, he’s got an approval rating here around 52%.

Look, I know that there’s over a year left…plenty of time for either of them. But Nelson is vulnerable, since Floridians don’t like him voting in lockstep with Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, and Hillary Clinton. His voting record on judicial nominees galls many Floridians (despite the Palm Beach newspaper’s claims that he “carries little baggage”).

But Katherine Harris is not popular statewide. Some of it has to do with Election 2000. Some of it has to do with her blind ambition and opportunism (much like Hillary’s). I like her, but I’m realistic enough to see many Floridians do not.

Polls don’t mean everything here (just like anywhere else). I mean, Bill McCollum was supposedly going to win the FL GOP primary last year for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Bob Graham. Polls showed McCollum with a lead, up until the day before the primary. He was defeated by double-digits by Mel Martinez. Then polls showed Martinez would get trounced by Democrat Betty Castor in the general election. Final days’ polls showed the race tightening, and Martinez won by about 80,000 votes.

Anyway, I think if the GOP wants Bill Nelson’s seat, they need to recruit a better candidate than Katherine Harris.

June 22, 2005 - Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized