The American Spectator’s Larry Thornberry smells blood in the water. In a new blog post today he points out that recent polls are showing Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson to be in an extremely weak position heading into the 2012 election:
A poll of Florida voters done in late June by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling shows Nelson approved by only 38 percent of those surveyed, while 31 percent disapprove, and an astounding 31 percent say they just aren’t sure about Nelson.
That almost a third of Floridians have no opinion of Nelson is a measure of how charisma-challenged Florida’s senior senator is and how achievement-free his long political career has been. Before Nelson won a senate seat by defeating a similarly charisma-challenged Republican, former congressman Bill McCollum, in 2000, Nelson had served in the U.S. House and had been Florida’s insurance commissioner. He’s been in public life in Florida since John Paul Jones was a lieutenant commander. And still a third of Floridians have no opinion of him. This is one vulnerable office holder.
With Republicans looking to further their gains made in the Senate in 2010, Nelson’s weakness could give them a significant boost in securing both of Florida’s Senate seats in back-to-back election cycles.
A few things here. Florida–unlike so many other states–has many voters who have not been in the Sunshine State for long. While Nelson has been in politics forever, there will always be a large segment of voters in the state who have no idea who he is (or most politicians for that matter–how familiar were they with Lawton Chiles or Connie Mack?). There are some exceptions of course if you have a lot of money or name recognition ala Rick Scott or Jeb Bush. Then you look at the Republicans lining up–none of whom could raise more than $1 million in the second quarter of 2011. It’s pretty sad that both Mr. Thornberry and Mr. D’Agostino insist Nelson is vulnerable–but they don’t mention the fact that Nelson is beating the three main Republican candidates by double digits in the same PPP poll and they do not even mention any of them by name–Mike Haridopolos, Adam Hasner and George LeMieux. None of them are anywhere near as established as Nelson and they do not have the money of Scott, the star power of Rubio and Jeb or even the resume of Charlie Crist. None of this is even touched in either piece.
I expect such partisan cheerleading from the National Review. I expect better from the American Conservative.