Things are getting exciting down here in Florida. Just a few weeks ago, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist seemed to have a solid lock on this election, with a double digit lead and a blitz of misleading negative ads that were not being countered by his Democratic opponent Jim Davis. As a person who has been around politics for a long time, I thought there was no way that Davis could close the gap in a state led by the President's brother who is actually quite popular.
However, two new polls came out yesterday, one which showed Davis just a couple of points outside the margin of error, and another from the SUSA (who have seemingly been very accurate this cycle) which has Davis trailing 49%-47%. No matter which way you spin it, Davis has gained significant ground, and today Crist is off to a bad start- after canceling a scheduled campaign rally visit with George W. Bush, this quiet race has made it to the forefront of the newscycle with Jim Davis going on the attack, pointing out that Crist has expressed ideas extremely similar to Bush's, and yet he refuses to stand with him. Davis basically said that when the going gets tough, Charlie Crist gets going in the other direction, and that is not what the state of Florida needs from its next leader.
I believe the dynamics of this race changed last week when, during a debate, Davis and a third party candidate brought up allegations that Crist is a shill for the insurance companies. Moderator Chris Matthews pressed Crist about it, refusing to let him off the hook on whether or not he had taken money from insurance companies. Crist finally answered yes, and then Matthews asked him how much money. Crist danced around the issue and finally said he had no idea how much. No doubt this resonated with Florida voters- citizens here are not thrilled with the insurance companies who have no problem collecting premiums but who do not want to pay out after hurricanes have hit the state. Seeing Charlie Crist admit he will stand up for the insurance companies as the next governor of Florida probably did not sit well with voters here.
If you are a Florida voter, like me you may have been less then enthused about this race just a couple of weeks ago. It is unfortunate that the MSM cherrypicked polling data in the weekend's news cycle to show a few Republicans making gains, while mostly ignoring Democratic gains like here in the state of Florida. There is no doubt that the media is rallying to the right today because a landslide will not be good for them- they need an excited GOP base as well as a hopeful Democratic base if they are to get high ratings.
So when you read the papers today and see all of the talk about the Pew poll that shows a narrowing in the generic margin, remember Jim Davis and other Democrats nationwide who have gained ground, or in the case of Bob Menendez in NJ, have opened up quite a lead. By no means should we be over confident or rest on our laurels- Jim Davis has a solid chance to beat Charlie Crist now but it seems he is still just a nose behind. Democrats in Florida must spread the word and get out the base!