It can be a humbling experience for a member of the U.S. House to run for statewide office.
Aside from the most-prominent leaders, congressmen and congresswomen aren't generally household names even in their own districts. Expand that to the entire state, and the percentage of the population that knows much about a House member can fall even further.
Which might help explain how, in a survey conducted this month by the Saint Leo University Polling Institute, a whopping 65.1 percent of likely Republican voters said they don't know who they will vote for in their party's U.S. Senate primary. Likely voters on the Democratic side are only a bit more decisive, with 54.6 percent saying they're unsure.
Among GOP voters who have made up their minds, Congressman Ron DeSantis leads with 11.1 percent, followed by Congressman David Jolly with 10.1 percent. Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera checked in at 7.4 percent, businessman Todd Wilcox had 3.2 percent and Ilya Katz was at 2.1 percent. Home builder Carlos Beruff, who recently entered the race, wasn't included.
"They represent three different areas of the state, but statewide, no one knows about these candidates," Saint Leo political science instructor Frank Orlando said of the three elected officials.
DeSantis is from Northeast Florida, Jolly is from the Tampa Bay area, and Lopez-Cantera was elected as a state lawmaker and local official in Miami-Dade County before being chosen as Gov. Rick Scott's No. 2. In a state fragmented into 10 media markets, there's very little overlap between the three.
Meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy --- his party's establishment favorite --- claimed 19.9 percent of the Democratic vote in the survey, compared to 16.7 for Congressman Alan Grayson, a liberal firebrand. Lesser-known candidates Lateresa Jones and Pam Keith claimed the support of 5.1 percent and 1.9 percent of voters, respectively.
As on the Republican side, Murphy and Grayson hail from different parts of the state. Murphy represents the Treasure Coast, while Grayson is from Central Florida. Grayson's reputation as one of the more-outspoken and smash-mouth progressives in Congress has helped him raise money from around the country, but it might not have done much for his name recognition in his home state.
A few caveats: First, the sample size on each party's likely voter pool was relatively small. Saint Leo polled just 189 likely GOP voters and 216 likely Democratic voters. The poll also didn't tell voters the jobs or residencies of the candidates, whatever difference that might have made in the results.
Meanwhile, the candidates and the parties still have more than five months before the Aug. 30 primaries to get their names out. Also, they will be able to do so free of some of the distractions that have consumed the election cycle in Florida so far, including the Category 4 news hurricane that is real-estate tycoon Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the now-finished White House bids of home-state U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush.
SCOTT HAS AN INVITATION FOR OBAMA
Scott is not known as a friend to President Barack Obama. In fact, the Republican governor has been a persistent critic of the Democratic president.
But this week, Scott openly implored Obama to come to Florida. The catch: It was a backhanded invitation, a way of criticizing the president for not leaving his swing through Latin America (including a historic trip to Cuba) to return to the United States in the wake of a terrorist attack in Belgium.
"Not only do I believe that President Obama should immediately return to America, I am inviting him today to come to Florida and address the concerns of American tourists considering travel to Europe," Scott said in a statement issued by his office. "As the tourism capital of America, in Florida, we understand how important it is to communicate effectively about any safety concerns to tourists."
Scott suggested that any speech Obama makes be concerned with how the administration plans to fight extremist groups like the Islamic State, which took responsibility for the deadly attacks in Brussels.
The statement could be counted as just another example of Scott's boosterism for Florida, but criticizing the president on an international issue is unlikely to diminish speculation in Tallahassee that Scott will run for the U.S. Senate in 2018. By then, of course, the term-limited Obama will presumably be free to fly wherever he likes without Scott weighing in.
TWEET OF THE WEEK: "Guy who was on Ferris Wheel as session broke down last year blasts Obama for staying on LA trip after Brussels attacks."---Gray Rohrer (@GrayRohrer), state government reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, on Scott's statement.
