Rick Scott still leading over Charlie Crist in Florida-GOV.

Title says it all, really.  And I am not ashamed to admit that this response from Javier Manjarres made me laugh:

 This is what happens when you have me, your lovable little fuzzball of a conservative reporter, booted from political events. Read more here and here.

Well, maybe not.

Javier should just claim it anyway.  Why not?

Via… I’m not sure. The person who I thought it was, doesn’t seem to have been the person who sent the link around. Weird.

So. It is time for the gutter war in Florida-GOV.

It sounds like Rick Wilson is not… exactly looking forward to the Florida gubernatorial election. More like he’s serenely aware that destroying Charlie Crist’s political career is doing the Lord’s work:

Tonight as the sun sets in Pensacola, Charlie Crist will be the Democratic nominee for Governor of Florida. Yes, there’s a kind of pro-forma primary going on between Charlie and the hapless State Senator Nan Rich, a grating South Florida liberal of the Bella Abzug stripe, but everyone knows it isn’t serious. Crist has been the de facto nominee for over a year, plodding along in his faux-shucks way.

In essence, it isn’t about Crist the candidate. It’s about the Democratic Party. It’s a window into the deep, desperate soul of a state party looking for a foothold back into power. They know Crist is lying to them, and they love it. They know he’s playing them for patsies, and they’re lined up around the block to kiss his manorexic backside.

You’ve never seen such abject fawning for a man they know is a pathological liar and weapons-grade weirdo.

Continue reading So. It is time for the gutter war in Florida-GOV.

Rick Scott and GOP crushes Charlie Crist and Democrats in latest fundraising totals.

I am not surprised, but I suspect that the Democrats are:

Quarterly fundraising reports filed in Tallahassee on Thursday illuminate the big advantage Republicans are likely to have heading into this year’s governor’s race, in which Gov. Rick Scott will fight for re-election against likely Democratic opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Combining fundraising by their state parties, their campaign organizations and the independent committees backing each candidate, Scott and the Republican side raised about three times as much as Crist and the Democratic side in the first three months of 2014.

Continue reading Rick Scott and GOP crushes Charlie Crist and Democrats in latest fundraising totals.

This is, remarkably, Rick Scott’s best poll yet.

This would normally be a horrible poll for Governor Rick Scott…

34% Crist
33% Scott
…17% Somebody Else
17% Don’t Know/No Answer

…except of course that the polling historically has been worse for Scott since, well, forever.  Essentially, the reason why Charlie Crist has gotten this far is that he always polled very well against Scott; will that remain true, now that Florida voters internalize the idea that voting for Charlie Crist means, well, voting for Charlie Crist?  Time will, as they say, tell. Continue reading This is, remarkably, Rick Scott’s best poll yet.

QotD, And May You Have Joy Of His Company, Democrats edition.

There are a bunch of people out there worried that Charlie Crist possibly wasn’t the get for the Democrats that they thought that it was:

“There are Democrats out there who can’t get their arms around [former Florida Governor Charlie] Crist. I get it,” [Democratic operative Steve] Schale said. “They spent 20 years of their activist lives working against him. It’s a process.”

I know that there’s a bunch of people out there who are a little ticked at Governor Rick Scott right now, and I don’t blame them.  But if Charlie Crist actually does become the Democratic nominee then the people who are most upset at Scott must understand that most of the rest of their current compatriots will decide that being a systematic party and ideological turncoat easily trumps wanting to expand Medicare.  :shrug: I just tell you this stuff; I don’t actually cause any of it.

Via

RedState Gathering: Gov. Rick Scott, Speaker-Designate Will Weatherford.

Two more RedState Gathering videos for the night: the first is Governor Rick Scott, who was of course our host for the weekend…

…and the second is of Speaker-Designate Will Weatherford, who is poised to be the next Speaker of the House in the Florida legislature.

 

Moe Lane (crosspost)

CNN calls Alex Sink (D CAND, FL-GOV) a liar.

And no, it wasn’t Erick who did that. It was John King.

Background: there was a debate on Monday night between Alex Sink and Republican Rick Scott. There had been an agreement beforehand that there would be no notes or outside help… and Sink promptly ignored said agreement by taking advice from a campaign staffer via cell phone. The staffer has since been fired; and that might have been it… except that Sink last night decided to double down on stupid by claiming that she didn’t know that the call had been politically-related when she took it. Relevant quote: “…the makeup artist held up her phone and said ‘I just got this message, I don’t know who it’s from…'”

CNN says… no, actually, that’s not what we heard.

Relevant quote there: “But we listened very closely to the audio, and the makeup artist, when she approached Alex Sink, said ‘I have a message from the staff.’ And at that point they looked, it was on a cell phone, it was two sentences…” Continue reading CNN calls Alex Sink (D CAND, FL-GOV) a liar.

Rick Scott (R CAND, FL-GOV) picks Jennifer Carroll for Lt. Gov spot.

It’s a good choice on a variety of levels: Jennifer is a small businesswoman, twenty-year military veteran, state legislator, NRA member, Jeb Bush appointee… and, possibly most importantly, a Bill McCollum supporter. Jennifer was actually on Crist’s short list for a Senate appointment last year; for that matter, she was apparently even considered for the Lt. Gov position four years ago; all of which should help in the awkwardness that is the Senate and Governor’s races in Florida.  On the issues: conservative, with what appears to be on first glance no major problems.  She’s a great balance for Rick Scott, in other words, and a definite asset to the ticket.

Needless to say, the Kendrick Meek campaign despises her. and is trying to use Gov. Crist’s approval of her to shore up Meek’s liberal base in the FL-SEN election.  Alas, that’s a tactic that might work – among progressives, at least – for a very depressing reason

Moe Lane