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Florida Republican Mel Martinez wasted no time in the new election cycle by announcing today that he will not seek re-election to the Senate in 2010. As reported in CQPolitics:
“The call to public service is strong but the call to home, family and lifelong friends is even stronger,” Martinez said at a news conference in Orlando.
Martinez said his decision “was not based on re-election prospects,” despite sagging poll numbers, and noted that he has faced difficult elections and adversity in the past. He had been expected to face a strong challenge.
So yes, another Republican would rather "spend more time with the family" than face re-election at a time when the Republican brand is so toxic that it even reeks in Florida.
The CQPolitics article mentions Jeb Bush among potential Republican candidates, but I think Jeb will prefer to lay low and let the Bush brand recuperate for a while. Other R’s listed:
Attorney General Bill McCollum; former state House Speaker Marco Rubio and Rep. Adam H. Putnam , who recently stepped down as head of the House Republican Conference. Earlier in his career, Putnam said the only statewide race he was likely to consider in the future was for governor — not Senate.
As for Democratic candidates mentioned in the article, Florida CFO Alex Sink heads the list which also includes Congressmen Kendrick Meeks and Allen Boyd and State Senator Dan Gelber.
Complicating this race, and not mentioned in the CQPolitics article, is that Florida Governor Charlie Crist will be up for re-election at the same time. Alex Sink has been seen as the clear Democratic front-runner, so it will be very interesting to see if she makes an early announcement regarding which of the two offices she prefers to seek. Florida has a deficit of Democrats with statewide name recognition because the state legislature has been so heavily Republican for so long and it has drawn districts that minimize Democratic success.
Another person I’d like to see considered for one of these posts is Karen Thurman, former Congresswoman and current Chair for the Florida Democratic Party. My choice would be Thurman for Governor and Sink for Senator. They’d make a great team.
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Martin is going to lose decisively in Georgia despite Fulton’s votes. There is two wide a gap, too little Dem turnout although many of us did everything we could to get the vote out including getting people on the street to vote.
Of course Obama should have come in a couple times. He trumps TI who is hitting the talk show circuit pending his sentencing and federal incarceration for stupidly accumulating machine guns like a prototypical Chambliss backer.
I don’t know if Obama could have made a difference with what should have been 3 appearances here. He’s not that damn busy, and this economy and Iraq ain’t changing very quickly. The depression will set in, and there will still be nearly 70-100,000 troops in Iraq with the nauseaus tandem of Clinton and Gates at the helm with Biden trying to get a word in come 2010.
Obama was afraid to “squander his capital” whatever that existential concept is supposed to mean in a state that will remain a hick state, largely poorly educated and systemically biased for another 15 years until Latinos and Blacks overtake the white cracker tide.
From Nate’s live blog:
8:54 EST [Sean]: There just aren’t enough votes in DeKalb. Saxby Chambliss will win re-election.
8:40 EST [Sean]: From where I sit, this is looking pretty pessimistic for Jim Martin. The gap is 250,000 votes with over 1,000,000 in. We know that Fulton County hasn’t reported the heavy African-American precincts yet, but I’m also surprised the race hasn’t been called yet.
8:40 EST [Nate]: Well, I’ll say this … this race looks to be sufficiently nonclose that Obama is looking fairly smart for staying away from the state.
8:33 EST [Nate]. Most of Cobb County in … Chambliss won by 10.9 points on Election Day, winning by 27.6 points tonight. And turnout is fairly high there. Now, it may be the case that even within a given county, the more rural, redder areas tend to report first … but … frankly, I’m not sure why this hasn’t gotten called yet.
8:29 EST [Nate]: But even in DeKalb, Martin’s margins are materially off what they were on Election Day. On the other hand, turnout looks to be at a pretty good clip there.
8:23 EST [Sean]: DeKalb is coming in. About 14% of the precincts are in, and Martin gained 20,000 votes back.
8:20 EST [Sean]: The numbers look ominous from what’s in. On the other hand, DeKalb and Fulton aren’t in, and we’re hearing that there are good numbers there. If the gap gets to be 200,000 before those counties report, however, that’s probably all she wrote for Martin.
8:19 EST [Nate]: Sean should have more detail in a moment, but the reason this hasn’t gotten called yet is because there’s basically nothing in from the Democrat-heavy counties in Atlanta or the black belt. Martin, however, is going to need to do a lot better in those counties than he is elsewhere in the state, overperforming his November 4 margins and/or getting proportionately greater turnout than Martin is getting in red counties. But we’re in hail mary territory at this point, at least from where I sit.
8:01 EST [Nate]: I haven’t found a single county with a significant percentage of the vote in where Chambliss isn’t performing better than he did on November 4. This looks like a 14 point win for him or something.
7:54 EST [Nate]: Gwinnett County: Chambliss won by 10.8 points on November 4, winning by 28.9 points so far tonight. Don’t see how in the world this is happening for Martin.
7:50 EST [Sean]: For those following on the Georgia Secretary of State’s site, those numbers can appear to be fully in (i.e., 7 out of 7 precincts reporting), and may still change. So keep an eye on that.
7:45 EST [Sean]: Per reports in the field, long lines in Savannah were only just finishing up.
7:44 EST [Nate]: You’re in a better position than I am to know, Sean, but this looks like a good night for Chambliss so far. Take Whitfield County, for instance, which has 12 of its 25 precincts counted so far. Chambliss won that county by 31.3% on November 4, but he’s winning it by 40.6% so far tonight. Those results appear to be fairly typical. If you’re really scraping for good news for Martin, turnout is pretty light in Whitfield at least, extrapolating out less than 40% of November 4’s numbers.
7:39 EST [Sean]: As of three weeks ago, 174 unpaid veteran Obama organizers were in the state, and more flooded the state in the final days. Estimates put the number of experienced Obama organizers at over 300.
7:33 EST [Sean]: The polls have closed in Georgia, including in two Fulton County that stayed open half an hour later. In the very earliest returns Saxby Chambliss has opened with a large percentage lead. That might hold, but until we get Fulton and DeKalb results we’re not going to know for sure.
[Mod Note: let’s provide links to other sites when we copy their work. Thanks.]
Mel the news said campaigned for McCain because of his immigration policy. The GOP wants Hispanic votes but they have Lou Dobbs and Glen Beck on the air every day insulting Hispanics on basic cable.
I could be wrong but with Mel gone there are no African Americans or Hispanics in the Senate on the GOP side? There are no African Americans on the GOP side in the House and just how many Hispanics?
The GOP is getting whiter as the country gets darker, Sarah appealing to crowds threatening Obama does not help.
I wonder if Florida Hispanic Dems would feel safe in the crowd at a Palin rally? I wonder if Jeb Bush’s kids feel safe in the GOP right now?