Following the 'Bipartisan' Money

Your local Publix supermarket, your insurance agent and a gambling company that's part of Broward's slot-machine future are kicking in the big bucks to the Coalition for Bipartisan Progress, that group of supporters of Democrat Rod Smith now running radio ads backing Republican Charlie Crist's bid for governor.

The coalition includes lobbyist/political consultant James Harris, Smith's former legislative aide Mike Murtha, and Todd Wilder, a former aide to Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay who works for Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne.

The group raised $155,000 in the first two weeks of October. IMPACT, the political fund-raising group of Florida insurance agents, gave $50,000, as did Publix. Another $50,000 came from two companies that are part of the Magna Entertainment, a Canadian gaming conglomerate that owns Gulfstream Park in Hallandale: Orchid Concessions gave $25,000 and Gulfstream's Thoroughbred Training Center gave $25,000.

Comments

thank goodness this group can get the necessary money to tell the truth about Davis.

after a late night i'm missing something. what's the connection betwen Publix and the gambling industry and the insurance wheeler and dealers?

What't the connection? mmmm...did you ever think that maybe they all think Crist is more reasonable than Davis. That's a connection that has seemed to bring together a lot of folks from a wide variety and even opposing concerns.

[Gene Smith]

"BiPartisan"?

Hardly. All these special interest have one thing in common.

They know that Jim Davis will stand up to them as Govenor. That idea scares the crap out of them!

will charlie crist become florida's first gay governor?

Gene, I think that is the point. Davis considers everyone a "special interest" that he's going to beat the hell out of. (Really? Those "evil" people at Publix? Give me a break!)

I think people are getting the message that a Davis Governorship would be one where he is on a constant mission to find scenarios in order to play to the ever-shrinking leftwing base. In the process, a lot of bystanders get bloodied while he goes on his safari for evil-doers using hand grenades to take down humming birds.

Davis isn't a bad fellow, he's just a trigger-happy stimulus/response partisan. He should have stayed in Washington where there are plenty of like individuals on both sides of the aisle.

[Gene Smith]

OK - here's an example of the "bad people" at Publix. The law in this state used to be that a property owner was responsible for environmental cleanup of their property, even if the polluter was a tenant on their property.

Publix is a very large landlord in this state (all those shopping centers) and found this law inconvenient for them. The basic problem centered around dry cleaner tenants. Publix leased to a lot of mom and pop dry cleaners. Being mom and pops they tended to go out of business and leave no assets. Dry cleaners can also be polluters if not regulated propely. Publix was thus stuck holding the bag for their tenant / polluters. This is what they found inconvenient.

So, Publix goes to the legislature for relief. And lo and behold, the state law gets changed so Publix (or any other landlord) is not left holding the bag. That is special interest legislation. Publix knows it. Jim Davis knows it. Thus Publix was the bad actor that Jim Davis would stand up to. That's what Publix is afraid of and why they are willing to spend money to keep it from happening.

thanx 12:57 i didn't realize that publix owned the whole center thus property owner. so they are on the same plate as say, the semblers. interesting

Okay Gene, are you saying Davis is against that law? That if I rent a house to someone and they unkbeknownst to me open up a meth lab and dump all kinds of chemicals on the property; it isn't their fault, it's mine? Jim Davis thinks I'm the "bad actor"?

You folks must be at the absolute end to create such a wild of a scenario in order to play to your base. Those type of "the establishment is evil" conspiracy theories are even chuckled at on the DailyKos.

Live with it, there are a host of people who like Charlie more than they like Davis. If there is one thing that Davis does not elicit, it is fear.

[zenator]

Gene:

The topic is money. I recommend to you the recent Barron's article available at Drudge, which cites the statisical information showing that, in Federal races, the candidate with the most money wins about 90% of the time.

In our turnout discussion, you omitted to discuss money. Dem conventional wisdom states that a Dem doesn't need the most money, he just needs enough. Even under that questionable premise, Davis flunks. He doesn't have nearly enough money to counteract the negative ad barrage that shortly will bombard the airways, drive his unfavorables way up and suppress the dem voters.

[Gene Smith]

Zenator

Two quick points:

First, that was NOT a Barron's article Drudge dredged up. It was an article by some guy named Mike Barron. big difference. (I thought you were smarter than to use Drudge for a source?)

In our turnout conversation, I did not omit a discussion of money. I said GOTV was not so much a money thing as an effort thing.

Finally a word about the "negative ad barrage" you suggest is coming. I suspect the Davis camp may have thought about that also. But here is the interesting point to me. Every candidate who went hugely negative in the primary lost. Let me say that again. All the "swiftboaters" lost.

OK, one more thing and I'll quit. Whoever's article that was at Drudge, he is laboring under a false premise. Almost 100% of the time, the incumbent has the most money, and they almost never lose. So, is it incumbency, money, or the combination of the two.

BTW, the governors seat is open.

[David]

Gene,
Just to show how full of crap you really are, here's a link to the article in Barron's.

http://online.barrons.com/public/article/SB116138396438799484-uMRQ4ejl3lonVnJ_TXy6k9fPXls_20061121.html?mod=9_0002_b_free_features

[zenator]

Gene:

Let us make it simple.

Negative ads work effectively against candidates whom the voters either don't know or haven't yet formed a fav/unfav opinion about. In the primary, Smith's negative ads worked very effectively against Davis for that reason. Since that time, Davis has failed to define himself. As a consequence, he is highly vulnerable to being negatively defined.

Anyone who understands politics knows what I am suggesting is true. It is why I keep stating the obvious. Davis' fav/unfav numbers tell the tale in this election.

[Gene Smith]

Zenator

I don't know how many times I have to say this to people:

Rod Smith LOST!

Ergo, NOTHING he did was effective.

All swiftboaters lost. Period.

Charlie Crist has now spent about $8 million trying to define Davis as a tax and spend liberal. While he has been running those ads, the gap has gone from 15 to 5.

How's it working outr for him so far?

[Gene Smith]

OK Asshole David:

Somebody posted a link to Drudge on Buzz earlier about this, and when I went to look it wasn't this Barron's article, it said something about Mike Barron. Now, we all know that Matt Drudge is sometimes a little link challenged, but I may have made a mistake also. Does that make me an asshole - only to you.

As for the point of the article, Barron's should stick to writing about the financial markets.

Zenator, this analysis is again all about the money. It presuipposes that the people are going to buy what you are selling. Doesn't always happen. It didn't matter how much money Coca-Cola spent pushing New Coke. It sucked and people wouldn't buy it.

Same story here with the tired old R lines about tax and spend liberals, and cut and run or whatever. Mostly the national Rs have lost all credibility with the public. If that truly is the case, it won't matter how much money they have to spend, because the voters won't be buying it.

That may be what Davis really needs to do. Attack Charlie on his credibility. If he can be shown to have lied (like about being Mark Foley's roommate... OK just kidding about that one) it could just make the difference.

Gene --

It's just that attitude that is going to lead to the worst ass kicking for us Democrats since reconstruction.

You arrogant Davisistas drove a lot of good people out of the campaign and out of the party. Face it, you dont know it all - you just think you do

You will see the results of your arrogance in 16 days. And you will never forget the ass whipping your about to receive -- then maybe we will see some humility out of you out-of-state ivy league punks.

Gene Smith said :

"Rod Smith LOST!

Ergo, NOTHING he did was effective."

and that dismissive arrogance is why the Smith supporters hate Jim Davis with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.

Good luck Gene.

[adam's professor]

Gene - do you breath oxygen? Because I don't know of any mammal that would make a statement so stupid.

Gene is Jim Davis
Jim Davis is Gene

RE: The Barrons Article

Outside of the Florida races for governor and U.S. Senator, I don't think you can do the standard "he with the most money wins" method in this election.

This year is more like 1974 and 1994 than other years where the "out" party appears poised to make significant gains.

I don't think money is going to undo the damage that a failed Iraq strategy and the Foley scandal has done to the GOP. But, that's what they get for being blind followers of the president and running holier than thou "values" campaigns for the past 6 years.

A motto for this year's election: It's hypocracy, stupid.

The national GOP is snakebit now. With the U.S. Senate so close, you can see why Gov. Bush and the Florida Republican establishment wanted so badly to run anyone but Harris for Senate.

At the end of the game, Gene is outed. He doesn't know anything, he is nobody, just a paid hack. After a couple of months of stardom he is now relegated to his lackluster life like the rest of us. He is no stargazer, no allknowing person, just another opinionated hacker like the rest of us.

[David]

Gene,
I never called you an asshole, I just said you were full of it. The flash Drudge had up last night before the Barrons article referenced the article not some writer with the last name Barron. You make stuff up, which is fine since you'll need to make plenty of excuses come November 8 when Howdy Do-Nothing Davis loses.

[zenator]

8:03

As one opinionated hacker to another-- be kind. Gene is just trying to do what he perceives his job to be--to make the best of an increasing bad situation.

I spoke today with a Dem insider, who is friend of mine. We pretty agreed that the Governor's race looks pretty much like a foregone conclusion. He then told me something interesting. He said he was at a Dem get together last week in Broward, where the concenus was that the Dems should have nominated Smith. Mind you, this is Broward, the land of the two Mitch's...

4TH TIME POSTING THIS TO GENE, THE IDIOT SPINMEISTER.

Gene, Gene, you have been going around giving unfactual rumors as truth that ALL independents are going for Davis, and touting ONE poll again that has Davis within 5 points. How about all the other polls out recently, showing Crist up substantially.

Mason Dixon, Crist up 11
Zogby, Crist up 9
Survey USA, Crist up 13
Quinnipiac, Crist up 10
Bendixon, Crist up 19

SO Im guessing all of these polls are meaningless, and RASMUSSEN is the ONLY correct one. Yea, sure, got it.

DOnt get me wrong, I see the race tightening, like i expected, with 2:1 undecideds going for Davis. But its still a 9 to 11 point race. NOthing you can spin can change the facts on that one. Isnt it sad that you have to lean ALL your HOPES on one poll showing your candidate down 5 points.

[Joe]

As a Smith supporter and voter, I hope he never runs again. Because if these are the type of guys who worked for him, then I'm glad he lost.

Smith and Davis had the same exact same platform. These guys are a bunch of shills. Have you asked how much their making $$$ out off this PAC? At least ask!

Joe - these are professional staffers. period. They are making a living with this PAC. duh. The real question is why did the Davis campaign tell them their help was not needed or wanted? As I've heard through the grapevine, they went to the Davis camp first and were turned down. Charlie Crist called them before they were done talking with the Davis camp. That's the real question to be asking. Why didn't Davis "need" their help as he's short on funds.

As an ex tg staffer, not really, but hypothetically....All Tg staff went with Crist, why wouldn't all Smith team go with Davis...??? What is up with that if true... I personally, could never vote for Crist... regardless of anything, and I am pretty sure I know 50 to 60+ that feel the same way... So what do we do??? Vote for Davis is what we do!!! Crist is a time bomb waiting
to happen and scary at best...
GO DAVIS!!!

[Gene Smith]

Zenator

You been hanging out with those disaffected Rod Smith fans? Look, every campaign I've ever seen, particularly ones that seem to be behind, there are tons of people just sure they could run the campaign better. Also, your Broward pals didn't pick the nominee, the Dem primary voters did. And that decision was actually made in the I-4 corridor.

Again, I just don't buy your premise, or the premise that's it's ALL about the money. If that were true, there would be no Dems holding any office. Crist may win and no doubt the money will play a part, but its not the only thing.

To those disaffected Rod Smith fans:

Jim Davis asked you, Rod Smith asked you, I asked you to come together and support our nominee, Jim Davis. Except for replacing all the Davis staff with the Smith staff, I'm not sure what more could have been done. If you are not going to support our nominee, that's on you.

I was responding to the statement that Rod's negative ads were effective. Since winning is the ONLY thing, the ads were not effective enough.

David - full of crap or asshole its all the same to me. I said I might well have misread that flash thing, but I didn't make it up. Scatological comments really don't sway my opinion, except of you.

My poll touting buddy:

Have you got a link to this Bendixon poll? Anyway, try this on for size. since the Bendixon poll is clearly the outlier, drop that one. Then calculate the range for each poll by adding and subtracting the MOEs for each poll. Tell me what you find (Hint, the answer is the race is in single digits. May not be 5, but single digits.)

[David]

Gene -- well here's a hint for you, I don't really care what your opinion is of me. You only fessed up to your mistake after you were called on it. "that was NOT a Barron's article Drudge dredged up. It was an article by some guy named Mike Barron. big difference."

And if you throw out the poll that shows Charlie with a 19 point lead but include the poll that shows him with a 5 point lead -- it gives Crist a 9.6% lead. Round it up and it's 10. Of course, why throw out the poll with the large lead and keep the poll you prefer with the smaller lead?

[Gene Smith]

David - feeling is mutual pal.

Got a link to this poll? I don't. I don't know when it was taken, what the sample looked like or anything else. I looked for it on RealClearPolitics and the WSJ. No go.

The majority of the polls with the margin of error factored in COULD show the race in single digits. The latest poll is Rasmussen at 5. M-D at 11, Q at 10 and Survey USA at 13. If you look at the intersections of those ranges, where they intersect is in single digits.

Thank you for pointing out my error. I did not look closely enough at the Drudge flash. I try not to spend any time looking at Drudge - afraid it might make my computer throw up. I still do not buy the premise of the piece.

Had any New Coke lately?

Gene,

It was a Bendixon poll showing the 19 point lead, same day as the quinnipiac and survey USA polls.

http://www.pollster.com/polls/?state=FL&race=governor_race

I also disagree with the premise of the piece on the US congress, but i think it will be somewhere in between what they say and what liberal newspapers are saying, which is a 20-30 house loss. Im betting on a 15-20 house loss, and my drunken sailor republicans losing the house slightly.

Gene, you are a complete moron.

[Tim Gomez]

Gene,

The scenario you laud out about Publix is typical Democratic philosophy.

The guy with the most money (Publix) should be responsible for the failures of the little guy (Mom & pop shops).

If the Dry Cleaner polluted, the Dry cleaner should be responsible for mitigating whatever damage they caused.