Mel Martinez May Run For Senate (FL)

[TSIAS]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/thursday/news_f33bb0d5f206326a0060.html

(snip)

U.S. Housing Secretary Mel Martinez, who in June rebuffed pleas from the White House to run for the U.S. Senate, began calling top Florida Republicans Wednesday to tell them he is reconsidering.

Martinez's about-face follows a meeting Wednesday with White House political operatives and strategists for the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, who urged him to enter the GOP primary for the Florida Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Bob Graham, according to several sources familiar with the discussions.

"He's making a lot of calls to the money people," said a GOP operative in Florida. "He's not telling people that he is running, but he says he is very close to doing it. He is asking them if they will support him or at least hold off making a decision for a couple of weeks."

(more)

[mndemocrat_29]

1. He'd be a tough candidate

However, the fact that he already said that he won't run will hurt him. Though I like Deutsch the best, I feel that Betty Castor would be a strong candidate for this position. We should be able to beat Martinez in Florida, though he will be a stronger candidate than Harris or McCollum.

[Nazgul35]

2. This guy is my fault.....sorry!

When I was a resident of Orlando, FL we had a race for County Commissioner to replace an exiting moderate dem candidate who was running for an open congress seat....

The trouble was that the dems were running a candidate who hadnt even spent any cash on the campaign so was polling badly and the choice was between an extremist state Senator Ostakevich and the retreaded Mel....seems Mel had got himself into some trouble awhile back and had been run out of politics....

The voting required that the winner win in a clear majority, otherwise there would be a runoff...the repugs were desperate because they knew that it was likely to be a runoff between the Dem and rightwinger Ostakevich and they threw old Mel in to appeal to the center.....as the election approached, the polls showed that it there was going to be no clear winner, so election day I voted for the Dem....but the top two vote getters were Mel and Ostakevich....having applied for a job with Ostakevich before I knew who he was (having just moved to the area...during the first Bush recession) I was determined that this maniac not win so I voted for Mel....

This restarted his career, he became Bush's Central Florida campaign manager....and the rest is history....

Sorry, but the alternative was a Santorum clone...

:evilfrown: