I just don't see Martinez jumping in, it almost seems like it's too late (unless he is self-financing).
"Just remember, the last State Senator to be elcted directly to the US Senate from that office was the late Lawton Chiles. How did Chiles beat Rep. William Cramer in 1970, by the way?"
Well, FL Republicans (which by 1970 were at the zenith of the power at any point since Reconstruction) expected to continue to build on their quick growth, but it was not to be. They were expecting two old 'Rat hacks (then-Atty Gen'l Earl Faircloth and ex-Gov. Farris Bryant) to run for Governor and Senator respectively, but they were both upended in the primary by the two upstarts, Reuben Askew over Faircloth and Chiles over Bryant. They were considered part of a new generation of Democrats at that point (albeit despite being rather liberal, were considered open and friendly enough to bring along old-time skittish Conservative Dems and GOP retirees from the north). You have to tie the races of Bill Cramer (who was the first GOP Congressman in FL when first elected in 1954, since Reconstruction) to that of incumbent GOP Governor Claude Kirk, who like Cramer, was a "first" (the first GOP Governor since Marcellus Stearns left office in 1877). Cramer and Kirk were expecting to cruise to wins, but both were bogged down in primary problems of their own. Cramer had to face the "pre-Borked" Judge G. Harrold Carswell (how come judges that get destroyed by 'Rats for the high bench, don't get called "Carswelled ?") who badly wanted to take a Senate seat just so he could tell his Borkers what they could do with themselves (the only successful persons as of late who was able to do something like that was Alcee Hastings in the House (who, BTW, was a candidate in that 1970 Senate race, coming in 4th) and Sen. Jeff Sessions). Carswell's entry was orchestrated by Kirk and the other GOP Senator, Ed Gurney, but because 1/4th of the GOP primary voters in the state came from Cramer's Pinellas County, and Carswell's strongest support came from Baja Alabama and Baja Georgia (which then had almost no Republicans), Carswell was dispatched by about a 2-to-1 margin. Cramer got Kirk back by discreetly backing a challenger in the Gubernatorial primary who came from Cramer's district, and almost was successful at getting Kirk beat (unlike Cramer, who had to face Carswell once, Kirk had to suffer through a humiliating primary runoff). But all of this infighting contrasted with the "friendly" Reuben and Lawton (of whom the latter embarked on a nationally famous "walk" across Florida in that campaign, later borrowed here in TN by Lamar Alexander in his successful race for Governor in 1978. Walkin' Lawton didn't do it as a "stunt", but because he couldn't afford to wage an expensive media campaign on his own, but his walk got him all the media coverage he could've ever desired), and Lawton similarly snatched the endorsement of outgoing Conservative Dem. Senator Spessard Holland. Cramer and Kirk both got blitzed in the fall (with Cramer doing very poorly in the Orlando-area of Kirk & Gurney because of the Gov's disgruntled supporters and Kirk, in turn, losing the then-heavily GOP area of Cramer's Pinellas County), leaving Ed Gurney as the lone statewide GOP official of the "big 3." Interestingly, Bill Young, who succeeded Bill Cramer in the House, is still the Congressman today 33 years later, but the district Young represents has drastically realigned (Pinellas was heavily GOP in 1970, and now leans 'Rat and voted solidly for Clinton and Gore in the recent elections, and was until reapportionment, even more 'Rat than Jim Davis's 11th). Young holds the seat by sheer force of personality and it will be difficult for us to hold if he retires. Both Bill Cramer and Claude Kirk are alive today, at 80 and 76, respectively.