Today is primary day in Florida, and I wanted to comment on our voting location. We are located in Florida district 453 and our polling place is at the North American Headquarters of Wycliffe Bible Translators. This massive facility is just up the street from the massive facility that the North American Headquarters for The Campus Crusades for Life occupy. Needless to say, but the district is wingnut conservative.
The congressional district is FL-24 and is represented by the notorious Abromoff crony, Tom Feeney. Feeney carved out this much gemandered district while serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2000 - 2001, and has held the seat since 2002. The Democratic opponents in the primary are Clint Curtis, who lost to Feeney badly in 2006, and Suzanne Kosmas, a former State Senator. Kosmas seems to be the favorite and has much more "unofficial" backing from the DCCC. The district's primary population base is on the East Coast of Florida and includes the Kennedy Space Center. Our little district was thrown in to obviously tilt the district in Feeney's favor.
As a past precinct captain, I can attest to open hostility to door to door canvasing on behalf of Democrats, and to the occasional ray of light from a sympathetic progressive. But having lived in 5 different states, in 8 major cities, I have to say this is by far the most conservative district I have lived in. The abortion issue is the most divisive one, and there can be little compromise on this topic if it is a person's most important issue.
My question, to anyone who reads this, is what is your district like, and I challenge anyone to define a more challenging, conservative disrict. There may be some out there, but I would need to hear about it to believe it!