[JohnnyZ]

McCollum already lost one Senate race in a good year for Republicans.

2000 was NOT a good year for Republicans; we lost most of the close senate races, among other things. Still, McCollum did run a couple points behind GWB in Florida, and has already had his shot at the senate in the opinion of many.

[wimpycat]

D'oh! I thought he ran in 2002.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"2000 was NOT a good year for Republicans; we lost most of the close senate races, among other things."

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You beat me to it, Johnny. 2000 was a pretty bad year for the GOP, especially in Florida. Clay Shaw came within a whisker of getting unseated, and we couldn't come close to beating Karen Thurman and Jim Davis in then-swing districts (Thurman's district was made more Republican, and Davis's more Democratic, in 2002 redistricting). And as you mentioned, we lost nearly all the close Senate races nationwide (Florida, New Jersey, Washington, Nebraska and Michigan), and two GOP incumbents were defeated by a wide margin (Grams in Minnesota and Roth in Delaware). We went from having 54 GOP Senators in January of 2000 to only 50 GOP Senators (one of whom was Jeffords) in January of 2001.

I think McCollum can beat Peter Deutsch (the RAT fronrunner if Bob Graham doesn't run), but he'd have a tougher time against Alex Penelas. I believe Mel Martinez may be our silver bullet against Penelas---I hope Bush and Rove can convince him to run.

[GraniteStateConservative]

He had the support of Mack (still does for some odd reason) and lost even with a black Democrat taking 1.4% of the vote out of Nelson's hide (Bush wins FL easy with that advantage). McCollum ran left in the general because he knew he needed to and it just cost him his base of supporters because of how he did it.