Early Voting Starts Today!

Absentee voting has already begun, but early voting at either the Supervisor of Elections office or satellite offices, begins today.

Check here for Pinellas County locations or here for Hillsborough.

Hillsborough County has set up a large number of satellite offices (view the list here). Locations include many county libraries, plus the Plant City Hall.

Unfortunately, long time Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, Deborah Clark, does not see it as her responsibility to make voting any easier than is absolutely necessary. As a result, she only does the bare, legal minimum required and has early voting only available at her three offices. In the past, she has defended herself by talking about support for absentee voting, but frankly, I really don't see her doing much more the statutorily required minimum. Apparently, as a Republican elected official, she doesn't see high turnout as a plus.

Rubio Tied for Most Contributions Above Legal Limit

Marco Rubio is tied with Senator Crapo of Idaho for the most illegal contributions this cycle, in terms of taking contributions over the maximum allowed ($2,400 in the general election).

Meek on the Wrong Track

Kendrick Meek should not be attacking Charlie Crist. He should not be running ads proclaiming that he is the "real Democrat" in this race.

But surely the polls say that Crist is eating deeply into Meek's base support? Doesn't it make sense to go after Crist and consolidate that support?

No - it doesn't actually.

Meek's campaign has fundamentally misread the problem.

From the beginning, his campaign has insisted that once voters know who Meek is and what he stands for, his numbers move up considerably. The problem has always been one of introducing Meek to the electorate.

Yes - that's true. Up to a point.

What Meek's campaign has failed to address is the "electability" issue - the question of beating Rubio.

Democrats are not supporting Crist over Meek because they don't know that Meek is "real Democrat" in the race. Our school systems may not be the best in the country (thanks for undervaluing education, Tallahassee! heckuva job Cannon/Thrasher/Haridopolous/Rubio), but we're not complete idiots. Floridians know that Crist is, at his heart, a slightly right of center moderate.

We also know that MarcoRubio is a pleasant sounding sociopath with a record of being completely unable to control a budget (both personally and governmentally).

Meek, if he wants to consolidate the support of the Democratic base, needs to focus all his energies on Rubio. The base will flow to whoever they see as best able to challenge Rubio. But Meek has hardly even addressed Rubio.

Until he does and as long as Crist has the good sense to aim some of his fire at the profligate Rubio, then Meek will continue to lose a significant percentage of Democrats to Crist.