Florida has an interesting Republican Senate primary coming up in 2010 to replace Senator Mel Martinez, who resigned in September.
Governor Charlie Crist is heavily favored at this point to win the nomination over former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio of Miami.
But despite the odds in favor of Crist, the Senate primary is becoming an example of the attempt of conservatives to defeat the more moderate Governor over his very conservative opponent.
Marco Rubio has achieved two leading conservative Republican senators endorsing him, but one wonders if that is a blessing or a curse! LOL
The two are South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, both of whom are, in my estimation, two of the very worst senators we have seen in the long history of the Senate. I rated both in “another seven” when I had an entry in this blog regarding the ten worst senators of all time.
Rubio even says he disagrees with Inhofe, the leading critic of global warming, but will still accept his endorsement. But in my view, accepting endorsements from two horrible members of the Senate is not a plus for Rubio, but rather for Crist.
It is hard to imagine Rubio defeating Crist, and frankly, with the backing of DeMint and Inhofe, we would have to say that Florida would suffer under a Senator Rubio who would lean on these two senators for advice. Such advice would be poisonous in more ways than one.
Of course, the ideal result would be for Congressman Kendrick Meek of Miami, the almost certain Democratic nominee, to win the seat over either Crist or Rubio. He would be a real asset to the Senate and would represent a progressive Florida looking to the future, rather than to the past!
However, the nature of primaries is that the individual who gets their supporters to the polls are most likely to win. If Christ was in an open primary, I would agree he would be hard to beat because he would draw significant democratic votes. However, he is running in a republican primary and the more conservative wing is the more like group to turn out. I predict that Rubio will beat Christ in the primary.
Oops, Freudian slip. Crist, not Christ.