Jeb Bush’s announcement that he will not be seeking the US Senate seat from Florida being vacated by retiring Republican Mel Martinez has created a truly open race on both sides of the aisle. And, with Al Franken’s win in Minnesota, the contest will take on historic proportions. If a Democrat wins, that will provide President Obama with a filibuster proof 60 seat majority in the Senate in order to implement his agenda of Change.
This contest is destined to take on epic proportions.
My bet is that Jeb will back his protégé, Marco Rubio, the former speaker of the state House. Jeb has made a point of admonishing Republicans that they can’t afford to be the "Old White Guy" party and Rubio would put a new face on things. He did a lot of very impressive packaging of himself when he was in the state legislature.
There are other Republican possibities on everyone's list, and now that Jeb has bowed out we will see which dogs are just sniffing and which are going to hunt. Another complicating factor is that state elections laws were changed recently and there are no party primary runoffs anymore. Whoever gets the largest plurality wins.
My bet on the Democratic side is Rep. Kendrick Meek, FL-17, a protégé of Nancy Pelosi and the only member of the Florida delegation on the powerful Ways and Means committee. In case you weren’t watching, he introduced Bill Clinton at the Democratic convention in Denver.
I’ve heard people complain that he doesn’t have state wide name recognition. How about if he gets Bill to introduce him when he announces for the seat? Do you think that would do the trick? He could probably get Pelosi to make an appearance down in south Florida with him where she was the keynote speaker at the annual Jefferson-Jackson day dinner last year. Hell, I bet he could even get Barney Frank to introduce him to the GLBT Democratic Caucus at one of their state convention. What other candidate can pull off that hat trick?
Don’t worry, as soon as he announces and starts raising money, he will be able to quickly generate all the name recognition you need.
Florida will have an opportunity to step up and be one of the few states to elect an African-American US Senator. Did you see Nate Silver’s discussion on this topic at FiveThirtyEight.com? We did ourselves proud by swinging the state for Obama last year. The opportunity to do something just as historic will re-energize the vast Obama network of volunteers.
Because of the historic nature of the contest, money will be pouring in to the state. And you know President Obama will have to make an appearance. It will be a real opportunity for the Democratic Party here in Florida to consolidate the gains made in 2008 and continue to build.
What about the Republicans? Look, when your best hope for a comeback turns tail and runs, it’s all over but the shouting.
We’re going to win this one. GAME ON!
Cross Posted From FlaPolitics.com
And yes, I think Alex Sink would make a great candidate but I would much rather see her run for re-election and then governor in 2014 when Crist steps down. She needs to become the statewide spokesperson for redistricting reform, which will also be on the 2010 ballot. I really think she has the ability to get Gov. Crist to jointly sponsor the effort.
And Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has made it clear she's not interested. As soon as Meek announces I'm sure she'll endorse him.
Updated from the Comments--This from the Sun-Sentinel:
Another politician who's not interested: Robert Wexler, a longtime congressman from southern Palm Beach County who gained new prominence with his early, full-throated backing of Obama. "He's not running for Senate," said his chief of staff, Eric Johnson. Is that a categorical no? "Yup," he said.