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Both sides of the Senate 2010 fray just lost significant rumored candidates. Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum and Democratic Congressmen Allen Boyd have both said they won’t seek the open seat.
McCollum has sought a Senate seat twice before. He claimed his party’s nomination in 2000, but lost to Democrat Bill Nelson. He tried his luck again in 2004, but lost in the primary to Mel Martinez and got called “the new darling of the homosexual extremists” as a parting gift. Instead McCollum will seek re-election for Attorney General seat, unless something crazy happens and he can’t pass it up.
Boyd, meanwhile, represents parts of the panhandle in the US House, but is a high profile member of the Blue Dog caucus, and is known as one of the most conservative democrats in the House. A conservative democrat might theoretically play well in the general election, but his chances of capturing the Democratic nomination in a crucial year always seemed like a lost cause to me. Especially, considering he’d be running against two more progressive candidates out of South Florida, a dem strong hold in state-wide elections.
I’m sure I’ll regret these words, but I’ll call it as I see it now: barring any outrageous new developments Kendrick Meek, already the favorite candidate of Washington Democrats, takes his side. Marco Rubio and Connie Mack will battle it out on the Republican side. Part of me wants to err on a Meek v Mack final showdown, just because it has a certain ring to it.
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