While a number of elections across the state appear to be interesting contests that will go to the wire, more than 30 members of the Legislature can uncork the champagne and claim victory more than four months before citizens actually vote.
While the rush of candidates filing under the TEA Party label at the end of last week gained some attention, only 15 of the candidates made the ballot.
Only one TEA Party candidate is going to be running for the Senate -- in the open race to take the seat currently held by Durrell Peaden, R-Crestview. A TEA Party challenger to incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, did not qualify on the ballot.
Florida Atlantic University Professor Marshall DeRosa, who had planned to challenge Rep. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, also failed to make the ballot.
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Congress begins this week with leftovers on its plate that hardly anyone wants to deal with. These include the stalled tax extenders bill in the Senate and the war supplemental appropriations bill in the House.
Frustrated by what he calls a lack of answers, conflicting information and the apparent disappearance of oil-clearing skimmers from Florida's coast, Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., blasted the Obama administration's response to the Gulf oil spill.
"Last Tuesday, there were 32 skimmers off the coast of Florida. Today, there are 20," LeMieux told state Republicans meeting in Tampa on Saturday.
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Florida Republican Party Chairman John Thrasher says he is concerned that some of the TEA Party candidates who filed for state legislative races are "not Tea Party people."
"There's a certain disingenuousness when 20 people file at the last minute. Some, we're told, may not even live in their districts," said Thrasher, a state senator from Jacksonville.
State Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, cast similar doubts on the origins and impetus of the year-old TEA Party, which has been sued by other state Tea organizations for co-opting the name.
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His name didn't show up, but Jeff Greene can take heart from the latest polling in the U.S. Senate contest.
The George Washington University/Battleground survey shows Republican Marco Rubio and independent Charlie Crist in a dead heat, with Democrat Kendrick Meek trailing nearly 20 points behind.
It wasn't always that way. Since Crist bolted the GOP and went "no party affiliation," Meek's numbers have nosedived in direct proportion to Crist's rise.
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Republican gubernatorial contenders Bill McCollum and Rick Scott rallied supporters at the Republican Party meeting in Tampa Friday night.
Speaking in adjacent halls at the Grand Hyatt, the candidates were introduced by their wives and greeted by rousing crowds.
The McCollum crowd was larger and more energized. Former RPOF Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan warmed up the room while McCollum worked his way through the throng.
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Tallahassee lobbyist and longtime campaign adviser John Mac Stipanovich dismisses those underfunded candidates who emerge and promise a mostly grass-roots campaign, built on glad-handing Florida voters.
Stipanovich is a campaign realist who served as chief of staff to ex-Gov. Bob Martinez and adviser to such political stars as Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris and Charlie Crist. He evokes a simple standard for statewide candidates:
The barbecue rule.
Congress found itself mostly tied up in knots this week, as both the Senate and the House chambers tried to find votes for passage of bills that have huge price tags, and have no offsets or spending cuts to pay the cost of the bills.
Look no further than the unprecedented environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico to find an example of the need for stronger management of marine and coastal environments -- and resources -- in Florida.
