I took a leave from politics, and especially blogging, back in the springtime, but have recently been volunteering with the last push of the Obama campaign.
Unfortunately, I'm home sick today with a cold and bored. I thought I'd look up who the candidate for Florida House District 3 was and how they were doing. The special election for HD3 back in 2007 was where I cut my blogging teeth, so it is of special interest to me.
I started by going to the old standby Ricksblog.biz and found a rather exciting article entitled Ford In Trouble. Here’s a quote:
In 2006 General Election, Republican Holly Benson beat Democrat Liz Campbell - 23,655 to 14,224. In the 2007 Special Election, Clay Ford beat Campbell - 7,328 to 5,863.
Democrats and Other have already cast in Escambia alone 14,621 votes - more than all the votes cast in the 2007 Special Election. The total District 3 Escambia votes cast this election, as of 7:45 yesterday, are 24,246 - 64% of all the votes cast in 2006 for this house seat.
What this local blogger is saying is that the early voting results are showing that the Democrat, Lumon May, has an excellent chance of beating the Republican incumbent. For those of you not familiar with Florida, this is the heart of Bush country, but Pensacola also has a large Black population. This particular state house seat was gerrymandered in 2002 by taking a portion of the Black vote out of the district to make it easier for a Republican to win.
But that was before the Obama candidacy.
I had not been keeping up with this at all but was thinking the other day that if there was a Black Democratic candidate with crossover appeal this would be the year the seat could be won. I don't know if Steve Schale (formerly of the Florida Democratic Party and now head of Obama’s campaign in Florida) found this guy or if he arose spontaneously due to the Obama phenomenon, but I am donating money today to help Mr. May make the final push with his GOTV.
To win this seat in Pensacola would be more than sweet. It would be a complete vindication of Dean's and Obama's message of the importance of challenging Republicans everywhere.
Go to Lumon May's website and donate what you can TODAY.
Lumon May with Michelle