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Oh this bit of news is too funny. Here in FL before Jeb the governor was "Walkin'" Lawton Chiles. He liked to call himself "the he-coon that walks at night," but I digress. 2006 is the year we elect a new governor since Jeb is term limited and the big news for the past couple of weeks was that Lawton's son, Lawton "Bud" Chiles III will run for the dems. That was until this morning's news:
The son and namesake of former Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles Jr. dropped out of the 2006 governor's race Tuesday because does not meet the state's residency requirement.
Lawton "Bud" Chiles III, 51, said had not been aware the constitution requires a gubernatorial candidate to live in the state for the seven years before the election. He had announced his candidacy in January.
"I'm clearly a Floridian. Me and my family are Floridians and always have been and always will be. Yet there's this pesky little constitution and it says what it says," Chiles said in a speech to the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans. story
Oooops!!! Damn that pesky constitution!
In other FL news, Sen. Bill Nelson's (D) might have a hard fight in '06 against Katherine Harris.
Miami Herald:
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has broad appeal in Florida -- even among Republicans -- but might face a significant challenge in 2006 from Republican Katherine Harris, a Sarasota congreswoman who gained nationwide attention in the 2000 election recount, according to a new poll.
The numbers reflected in the Quinnipiac University poll of 1,007 Florida voters are hardly set in stone, but pollster Clay F. Richards says it gives a good picture of what's in store for Florida voters in what's likely going to be a wild election season.
''It's a name-recognition poll and in that game Katherine Harris has everyone beat. She's the strongest known politician in the lot,'' Richards said. ``Nelson has a little work to do shoring up his base, but clearly he's already working hard getting his numbers up and he's a centrist respected by both parties.''**********************
Hey Mae, do y'all have a governor yet? ;-)
One excellent indicator of how dems are stewing is our ever favorite Chris Matthews. He sees the dems chances in 2008 flapping off into space. Here's a segment from last night's show the reveals how the madness is taking hold.... Ahahahaahaaa!!
Katrina, the other—earlier in the show, I was talking to Mark Warner, the very impressive governor of Virginia, who is a Democrat and clearly thinking about running for president. He‘s term-limited with one term. And I referred, probably infelicitously, to Hillary Clinton as the 800-pound gorilla in his way.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: I probably should have used the term 800-pound gorilla more felicitously in reference to her husband, because there was a lot of talk over the last seven years or so—I‘ve been pushing it—that he wants to get a job, so that he can try again for success, because he really left the presidency rather badly.
Do you think that she can bring him back into the White House, unemployed, living there with him and not get him in the way of her policy-making?
VANDEN HEUVEL: God, if he can sit next to Bush‘s father, as he has in the last weeks, he can certainly come back into the White House.
They were a pair. The key thing to me, Chris, at this moment is, what Bill Clinton stood for was triangulation. And the problem with Democrats right now is, they don‘t seem to show strength of conviction or clarity of direction. Or at least there‘s a perception gap about that.
What the Democrats need to do in these next few years—and Hillary Clinton will be tested by this, I think—is stop the dismantling of the New Deal, the rollback of Social Security, expose this administration‘s extremist agenda, whether it‘s secret torture chambers or global warfare. And Clinton was never one, I feared, who stood that fast for core principles. There was a lot of caving in to corporate interests.
Power inside the Democratic Party is not where it used to be.
MATTHEWS: Well, yes or no, are you hedging here, Katrina? Is Hillary the real thing or is she a hedger?
VANDEN HEUVEL: A hedger in terms of bringing her husband back into the White House?
MATTHEWS: Is she a liberal? Is she what you call—is she a progressive?
VANDEN HEUVEL: You know, Chris, liberals—liberals and—is she a progressive? She is—on choice, it‘s interesting, where she has gotten all this attention in the last few weeks. She has a 100 percent choice record. And that needs to be defended by Democrats, choice.
On foreign policy, as I said earlier...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: I don‘t know why you people keep talking about abortion rights when I simply ask you, as a party—as a person in American politics—skip abortion for at least two minutes..
VANDEN HEUVEL: I think that‘s an important...
MATTHEWS: Let‘s talk about economics, foreign policy.
VANDEN HEUVEL: Right.
MATTHEWS: And what kind of a country you want to live in. Is Hillary Clinton a progressive or not?
(CROSSTALK)
VANDEN HEUVEL: I want to live in a country which has reproductive rights for women.
But on economic choice, on economic rights...
MATTHEWS: I want to be in a country where you don‘t talk about it all the time.
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This is your democrat base Chris. Rots o' ruck in '08!