FL Dems deciding which GOP gov. candidate to support
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

The author is hardly pro-GOP. But she says that Dems in Florida have basically written off any hopes of winning the Governor’s mansion next year.

Pick your person; ax the party

Much more than a year away, the election of Florida's next governor is already great cocktail party talk in the capital city where many Democrats are deciding which Republican they'll support.

It's a matter of practicality to not be too fussy about parties, though it is still good to have some discrimination regarding personnel within the party.

There is, in effect, just the one party despite an almost even split in party registration in Florida. That would be the party with the bank vaults full of money and, I'm visualizing here, Swiss bank accounts holding elusive contributions to the Grand Old Party that will be handed out as party favors in lesser races.

For nearly a decade, a loophole in Florida's campaign-finance laws has allowed candidates to receive money and aid directly from political parties. This loophole means parties simply don't have to be as scrupulously detailed in their give-and-take as individual candidates do. It's wrong and the law should be changed.

Not that the Democratic Party would get a pass on decadent and indiscriminate party spending. It's just that it doesn't have much money to squander on dirty tricks.

I predict, though, that as the primary nears the Republican dirty tricks in the governor's race will be mostly intraparty - the top guns trying to bring down each other, not Democrats. It will get ugly and the test will be of who can respond to adversity best.

By all accounts, it's going to be the most expensive gubernatorial race in Florida history. I can't imagine why since it's also going to be the most politically lopsided race in decades.

I give you as evidence the contribution totals from the last quarterly reports: Attorney General Charlie Crist has raised $3.8 million; Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, $3 million.

By comparison, Democrat Sen. Rod Smith of Alachua had raised $397,000, and U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, (D-Tampa) had raised $390,000. Former Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox's campaign may be resurrected, because miracles do happen, but even if he should win the primary, so what?

As for Toni Jennings: Where is she? Is she going to be sent is a the relief quarterback if Crist and Gallagher destroy each other? Just asking.

So that's 10-to-1 in favor of the Republicans. Proof, certainly, that the incumbency amounts to one motherlode of power and cash.

This election is a sad state of affairs if you're a classic Democrat and not a strictly theoretical one. If you've got a fond memory for when Democrats were not so rigid that they were ineffectual; when moderate Democrats won because most people are, at heart, moderate, and when the GOP just couldn't bring itself to get grubby or utter the words "Joe Six Pack."

It's not much easier for today's moderate Republicans, who are dismayed by seeing their party hijacked by either extremists or self-serving muggles.

I hear about more and more people from both parties who are considering registering as independents to at least keep some dignity when their party seems silly or tyrannical.

It is frustrating as an independent to miss out voting in the primary, but now that there is no Florida runoff, even that first vote isn't really about representative government.

Without a runoff, a candidate with as little as 15 percent of the vote can win the nomination if there are enough candidates to divide the votes. This won't happen in a gubernatorial race most likely, but it will in many others on down the ticket where factions and one-issue zealots can hijack the vote.

This campaign law, like the one allowing such loose watch over party money, isn't right and Gov. Bush was wrong to have vetoed a bill to bring back the runoff.

So what's an interested voter supposed to do?

Try to find the candidate who most closely resembles what you once thought of as a noble political warrior - whenever it was that you were at the peak of your political judgment and the least jaded.

Those would probably be pretty good values to go by and look for in a candidate regardless of labels. Decency, a person who can look you in the eye, a sense of humor, just a little indifference to winning at all costs. Beware of too much charm. And study the issues you care about so you aren't a complete fool, trusting in sound bite reasoning.

It will take discipline and a certain high-minded optimism to believe that some individuals really are more than the sum of their party affiliation; that some can accept contributions without selling their soul.

But it's up to you to ferret out what's real and what's fiction and whether you can even trust yourself to do what's best for yourself and your community.

When you reached 18, did you ever dream you'd be signing up up for this?

Tallahassee Democrat ~ Knight Ridder - Mary Ann Lindley ** Pick your person; ax the party