Martinez out, FL Senate Race

by Jerome Armstrong, Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 06:06:43 AM EST

Republican Senator Martinez will not run for re-election. This now leaves the Florida Senate seat for 2010 wide open, maybe:

According to the St. Petersburg Times, the Republican source said Martinez is not only out, but also hinted he may leave his seat early in advance of the end of his term.

...The move would open the door for Gov. Charlie Crist to appoint a replacement ahead of the election.

Who will run on the Dems side?

Democratic Reps. Ron Klein and Kendrick Meek as well as state Sen. Dan Gelber are likely to consider the open seat race.

On the Republican side, there may well be a push to recruit former Gov. Jeb Bush into the contest although that seems like a long shot. State Attorney General Bill McCollum will almost certainly be mentioned as will state Senate President Jeff Atwater and former state House speaker Marco Rubio. Rep. Vern Buchanan may also consider a run.

I'd like to see Alan Grayson run for the Senate.

This is how Democrats win, not only in Florida, but everywhere:

Tags: 2010 (all tags)

Comments

10 Comments

Sort by

permalink

Wow. Wow. Wow.

That's a total shocker. Expect a blood bath on the Republican side (which Martinez may hope to avoid by resigning early and letting Crist pick his successor).
Joe Scarborough?

by kosnomore 2008-12-02 06:10AM | 0 recs

permalink

Re: Martinez out, FL Senate Race

Who did Grayson's ads? They're brilliant, except for the cheesy tie.

Expressions of patriotism through clothing is a fine thing, however it is my opinion that the stars and stripes should never be contorted to fit a piece of clothing. I'm looking at you, too, Garth Brooks.

But back to the point, those ads are BAD ASS

by dannybauder 2008-12-02 06:39AM | 0 recs

permalink

is there some scandal

sounds like mel is expecting some shyt to go down.

by highgrade 2008-12-02 06:55AM | 0 recs

permalink

Re: is there some scandal

My spider sense is tingling also.

He's considering leaving the Senate early? To spend time with his family?

Is his wife dying? If there's not some obvious family issue it seems like there has to be more to the story.

by Carl Nyberg 2008-12-02 07:47AM | 0 recs

permalink

Re: Martinez out, FL Senate Race

Wow, a potentail senate pick up in 2010. We only need two to get to 60. Shocker. Who from the FL dems might run?

by giusd 2008-12-02 07:17AM | 0 recs

permalink

67 votes is important

As a foreign policy voter, I want the Dems as close to 67 seats as possible.

With 67 votes the POTUS can get treaties ratified.

While I'm not enthusiastic about having a treaty ratified with only Dem votes, I'm not confident that Republicans will give a treaty fair consideration based on its merit.

I lost a bunch of faith in the GOP when Lugar voted against the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

by Carl Nyberg 2008-12-02 10:39AM | 0 recs

permalink

you may remember that bush had to talk...

mel into running for this seat. speculation was heavy that the former orange county executive wanted to run for governor, and wasn't much interested in being a legislator. he hasn't been a particularly aggressive fund-raiser -- while he spent ~$15M in 2004, he has little over $1M COH right now. many activists in florida think that this will be a $20M+ race (remember that barack obama budgeted $39M to win the state). wexler apparently has $3M COH.

i just never had the feeling that his heart was in the senate...

by bored now 2008-12-02 09:16AM | 0 recs

permalink

Re: Martinez out, FL Senate Race

Two retirements confirmed for 2010, and we're still 23 months out. Let's see some others, shall we? Voinovich, Grassley, Gregg, Specter, and Bunning could all retire. Although in Bunning's case we'd be better off running against him.

by Skaje 2008-12-02 10:22AM | 0 recs

permalink

Re: Martinez out, FL Senate Race

I would like to see a graph with data from the elections '94-'08 that showed the number of retirements in the House on the Y-axis and the months in advance on the X-axis. Then the Senate could be graphed too.

Anytime people talk about there are 20-something House members who have announced they are not running for re-election I'm curious if that's more or less than past elections at this point in the election cycle.

by Carl Nyberg 2008-12-02 10:28AM | 0 recs

permalink

Re: Martinez out, FL Senate Race

Ooh! That's an awesome message!

by Hempy 2008-12-02 02:57PM | 0 recs