Wasserman Schultz Says Dem Loss in Special Election Shows GOP Weakness.
Republican David Jolly won the special election to fill the House seat left vacant by the death of his former boss, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.).
With nearly all of the votes counted Tuesday night, Jolly had 48.5 percent of the vote to Alex Sink’s 46.7 percent. Libertarian Lucas Overby had 4.8 percent.
Sink lost the 2010 governor’s race to Rick Scott. The Democratic Party sunk extensive ad funding into the congressional battle, and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) tried to paint the loss as a positive.
“Republican special interest groups poured in millions to hold onto a Republican congressional district that they’ve comfortably held for nearly 60 years. Tonight, Republicans fell short of their normal margin in this district because the agenda they are offering voters has a singular focus – that a majority of voters oppose – repealing the Affordable Care Act that would return us to the same old broken health care system,” Wasserman Schultz said in a DNC rapid response statement.
weakness really?
Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, had pegged the special election as a must-win for Democrats.
“Since most nonpartisan handicappers and analysts have for years expected this seat to go Democratic when it became open, a Republican victory would likely say something about the national political environment and the inclination of district voters to send a message of dissatisfaction about the president. And that possibility should worry the White House,” Rothenberg said.
The GOP framed the race as a referendum on Obamacare, and Jolly vows to fight for repeal. Sink defended the spirit of the law but said she was open to fixing parts of Obamacare.
and from 5 days ago..
National GOP turns on Florida candidate
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Their frustration had been mounting for weeks. But by late January national Republicans had had it with David Jolly, their candidate in Tuesday’s nationally watched Florida congressional special election.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/david-jolly-alex-sink-florida-special-election-2014-104397.html#ixzz2vmTVx71W
Over the past week, a half-dozen Washington Republicans have described Jolly’s campaign against Democrat Alex Sink as a Keystone Cops operation, marked by inept fundraising, top advisers stationed hundreds of miles away from the district in the state capital and the poor optics of a just-divorced, 41-year-old candidate accompanied on the campaign trail by a girlfriend 14 years his junior. The sources would speak only on condition of anonymity.
It is rare for party officials to criticize one of their own candidates, even anonymously, days before an election. One explanation may be so they can point to Jolly — as opposed to the national political mood or the ineffectiveness of attacks against Sink over her support for Obamacare — if he loses.
After longtime GOP Rep. Bill Young died in October, House Speaker John Boehner called Rick Baker, a popular former mayor of St. Petersburg, and pressed him to run for the vacant seat. The Baker courtship didn’t stop there: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also pushed the former mayor to run, according to two sources. (Bush has since gotten behind Jolly, appearing in TV ads calling him “the best candidate to go to Congress.”)
After mulling it over for a few days, Baker turned them down. By that time, Jolly’s name had emerged as a possible candidate. But national Republicans went after two other possibilities — former Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri — both of whom also declined. That left Jolly to face off against state Rep. Kathleen Peters and one other candidate in the Republican primary.
As soon as the GOP primary began, problems emerged. State Sen. Jack Latvala, a powerful local powerbroker, bypassed Jolly and threw his support to Peters. And in a bizarre twist, Young’s family was divided: The late congressman’s widow, Beverly, backed Jolly while his son, Billy, was behind Peters.
Jolly won the mid-January primary easily. But his campaign entered the general election nearly broke — and, according to multiple sources, lacking a clear plan to catch up to Sink in the cash race. Jolly hadn’t hired a finance director, and some Republicans grumbled that he was reluctant to make fundraising calls.
yes the GOP is weak.. but not because of Obamacare..
it is weak because it wants a big tent.. that excludes the TEA party, religious right and the libertarians.. :roll: :roll: