Today's election between Republican David Jolly and Democrat Alex Sink over who will replace the late Bill Young in Florida's 13th Congressional District has gotten a whole lot of attention from across the country.
The main characterization is that it will it "test voter moods" and will show whether or not voters will take out their dissatisfaction with the health care overhaul against Democrats.
But just as telling is how Republicans (and yes I know there is a divide between the national and local folks running the Jolly campaign) have made one crucial calculation in the run-up to today.
Keep Rick Scott as far away as possible from the election.
Think about that for a second. Scott is arguably the leading Republican in the state of Florida. He has his people in charge of the Republican Party of Florida.
Furthermore, he was the one who defeated Sink in the 2010 goveror's race. You would think the last thing that he would want is the resuscitation of her political brand.
Yet it's abundantly clear that the Jolly camp and his supporters are keeping their distance.
Those who have lent their help to push Jolly include Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and on the eve of election, Rand Paul.
But no Scott.
What makes it even more interesting is that Jolly has taken a page out of the Scott 2010 playbook: Using Sink's status as a Democrat to tie to her President Barack Obama and to his health care overhaul. Let's not forget that Sink blamed Obama for her narrow defeat to Scott.
Scott has even resurrected his staunch opposition to the health care overhaul as a key part of his own talking points in recent weeks. But Scott's main help to Jolly was in the form of a Tallahassee fundraiser.
The Miami Herald reported earlier this week that a series of internal poll numbers had made Republicans uneasy at Scott's prospects in the fall.
There can be no surer proof in these numbers than Scott's continued absence from helping Jolly.
And if Sink wins it will spark some interesting questions about what the Scott campaign will do moving forward as they deal with a much more accomplished and better campaigner than Alex Sink in the 2014 governor's race.
Comments