3/11/2003
Can the Republicans make McCollum go away?
The search is on for another Republican to run for Bob Graham's Senate seat. The dream candidate being Mel Mart�nez. Bill McCollum, by dint of name recognition, support from the right and ability to raise money is the presumed Republican front-runner. Former U.S. Senator Connie Mack, beloved of the Republican right, already signed on as his honorary chairman.
U.S. Rep. Mark Folely is raising money running hard and trying to shake the moderate label which would kill him among Republican primary voters.
So why are the party strategists looking for more candidates? Because Bill McCollum is an old-style Gingrich-era guns/abortion/impeachment Republican, the kind that don't win elections outside of safe districts. When he ran for Senate in 2000, he raised wheelbarrows of money, but came across as a Puritan and an enemy of the environment and lost to Bill Nelson. You could put him khakis and take him out out in the woods for the campaign commercials, but he just couldn't be remade into a compassionate conservative. His gender gap was huge even by Republican standards. Plus, he just had a certain dweeb factor working against him
Still, nobody outside Orange County knows who Mel Mart�nez is and the right-wing party activitists love McCollum for the very qualities that make him an unappealing candidate in a general election. McCollum already has pledges and money.
Bold prediction: Republicans are stuck with McCollum. Look for a dramatic makeover.
U.S. Rep. Mark Folely is raising money running hard and trying to shake the moderate label which would kill him among Republican primary voters.
So why are the party strategists looking for more candidates? Because Bill McCollum is an old-style Gingrich-era guns/abortion/impeachment Republican, the kind that don't win elections outside of safe districts. When he ran for Senate in 2000, he raised wheelbarrows of money, but came across as a Puritan and an enemy of the environment and lost to Bill Nelson. You could put him khakis and take him out out in the woods for the campaign commercials, but he just couldn't be remade into a compassionate conservative. His gender gap was huge even by Republican standards. Plus, he just had a certain dweeb factor working against him
Still, nobody outside Orange County knows who Mel Mart�nez is and the right-wing party activitists love McCollum for the very qualities that make him an unappealing candidate in a general election. McCollum already has pledges and money.
Bold prediction: Republicans are stuck with McCollum. Look for a dramatic makeover.
