-287,674

Difference in number of voters who turned out for Florida’s Republican presidential primary in 2008 — 1,949,498 — and this year’s turn out of 1,661,824. If there was a nearly 300,000 dip in voter turnout in a Democratic primary, the corporate media would be tut-tutting about depressed voter enthusiasm, but since it is a Republican primary, Beltway pundits view the dip as a blip that is not worth mentioning.

Here’s an idea for turning the Citizens United lemons into progressive lemonade, via The Hill:
A new liberal super-PAC called Credo has announced its first six targets of the 2012 campaign: GOP Reps. Joe Walsh (Ill.), Steve King (Iowa), Allen West (Fla.)*, Sean Duffy (Wis.), Chip Cravaack (Minn.) and Frank Guinta (N.H.).
All six are vulnerable: [...]

Just two years after Florida Republicans elected a corporatist tea-party candidate Rick Scott as governor, with a narrow, 48.9 percent to 47.7 percent win over his Democratic rival Alex Sink, these same voters tacked decisively to the left in their presidential primary election yesterday, giving Mitt Romney, the former liberal Republican governor of Massachusetts, a [...]

Of course, Romney tried to distance himself from Reagan several flipflops ago:

1 in 3

Number of registered Republican voters in Florida who say they are still making up their minds who to vote for in less than a week. Their candidates have one more “debate,” as the press conference/Greek chorus/American Idol/Survivor T.V. contests are called, before the Florida primary. Another 64% of Florida Republicans said they have made their choice and will stick with it.

Guns were king during the last couple of legislative sessions in Florida. The Republican super-majorities of both chambers passed laws to imprison pediatricians who so much as asked if there was a gun in the home. They voted to allow visitors in state parks to bring all the guns they wanted into campsites, where [...]

We’re not the only ones to notice that Connie Mack IV, nee Cornelius Harvey McGillicuddy IV, is one of the lightest weight lightweights ever to run on the Republican ticket for the Senate from Florida, and that’s saying something.
After all, this is the state that sent George LeMieux, whose claim to fame might be [...]

2

Number of non-competitive state legislative contests, out of 84, won in Florida by the candidate who spent less money in 2010. Non-competitive on a monetary scale means that one side raised more than twice as much as the closest opponent. That comes out to 97.7% of those with a funding advantage winning. Only 16 of 143 races were competitive, or 11%. California had even fewer competitive races, at 4%.

40% – 42%

The results of a Quinnipiac poll on the Florida Senate race. Rep. Connie Mack (R-Ft Myers) garnered 40% support while incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) got 42%. Name recognition was cited as the main factor in Mack’s popularity, since he is the fourth person to be named Connie Mack, starting with his Baseball Hall of Famer greatgrandfather. Mack IV is also the husband of Rep. Mary Bono (who gained her seat upon the death of husband Sonny Bono) but has done little of note in Congress, where he is Chair of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere within the Foreign Affairs Committee.

When you think of the Florida tea party, the names Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio come to mind but neither man came to their state’s tea party convention this weekend.* A new trend of ignoring the once ascendant Koch-funded effort seems to be under way.
It’s hard not to think there’s a connection between [...]