A House Race to Watch

longknife · Mar 9, 2014

Can the current GOP strategy work?

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) Voters in this stretch of beach towns and retirement communities provide the first 2014 campaign test of whether Democrats can counter GOP attacks on the president's health care overhaul by accusing Republicans of threatening popular benefit programs for the elderly. -
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See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/dems-gop-test-fall-strategy-florida-house-race#sthash.5TKxtmMB.dpuf

Natty Bumpo · Mar 9, 2014

longknife said: ↑

Can the current GOP strategy work?
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Running a just-divorced Washington lobbyist sporting a girlfriend 14 years his junior is probably not the best strategy to begin with, and his pissing off the folks that buy elections isn't helping.

Of course, if he still pulls it out, they'll be smarmy as hell toward him. (See Vince Lombardi.)

CLEARWATER, Fla. Their frustration had been mounting for weeks. But by late January national Republicans had had it with David Jolly, their candidate in Tuesdays nationally watched Florida congressional special election.

The candidate had just told the states top political reporter that he disagreed with an ad the party was airing against his Democratic opponent a spot paid for with the nearly $500,000 the GOP had already spent on Jollys behalf.

Are you f-ing kidding me? a senior National Republican Congressional Committee official told a Jolly staffer over the phone, according to two sources familiar with the conversation. Would the Jolly campaign prefer that the NRCC stop spending money in the race altogether? the official asked.

Over the past week, a half-dozen Washington Republicans have described Jollys campaign against Democrat Alex Sink as a Keystone Cops operation

To date, Jolly has raised $1 million to Sinks $2.5 million. National Republicans say its hard to fathom how a candidate with deep connections to the D.C. influence world and one whos running in such a high-profile race has struggled to draw donations.

Some of the ads that Jollys campaign produced were done on the cheap: One showed him standing in front of an obviously fake backdrop of the Florida coastline.

Behind the scenes, his campaign has caused grief for Republican leaders in Washington. The NRCC has spent nearly $2 million in the race, precious resources that could be used to help other candidates this year. But on at least two occasions, Jolly declined to say he would back Boehner as speaker. After the second response, Jolly sent out a tweet clarifying that, indeed, he would back Boehner.

That wasnt enough for the speakers allies.

After all that was done to help Jolly, his noncommittal statements on if he supports the speaker made Boehner advisers furious, said one Republican official close to Boehners operation.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/...ink-florida-special-election-2014-104397.html
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Taxcutter · Mar 16, 2014

Oooops!

Jolly beat Sink.

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A House Race to Watch

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