With just days to go before Pinellas County registered Republican voters go to the polls to decide who will be their nominee to face Democrat Alex Sink in the special congressional election in District 13, a new poll shows a somewhat stunning development. While lobbyist David Jolly remains comfortably in first place with 37 percent of the vote, retired Marine brigadier general (and Tea Party favorite) Mark Bircher has now climbed into second place ahead of state Representative Kathleen Peters with 27 percent of the vote, while Peters is at 24 percent.
Those results come via a survey by St. Pete Polls as commissioned by blogger Peter Schorsch. While one can ruminate about why the change of fortunes between Bircher and Peters, the fact of the matter is that it's been apparent for weeks that Jolly is going to be the candidate against Sink come this March. The rest is sort of just fodder.
The most interesting development in the race overnight comes via a post by the Times' Curtis Krueger, who reports that despite Team Jolly's vehemence that he did not lobby for offshore drilling rights, a newly unearthed document says he does.
. While this probably won't affect the results next Tuesday night, you can be sure that Sink and the DCCC won't relent during the general election campaign.
Ms. Sink is poised to engage in some hand-to-hand political combat it appears, as she announced yesterday a new website devoted to clarifying the reality of her positions on issues vs. what she believes the Republicans will throw at her in the coming months.
Just in case you were wondering, all three Republicans on the ballot have already declared that if elected to Congress, they'll fall into place in Washington in refusing to consider any adjustment to raising taxes (presumably even if that means one dollar in raising taxes vs. $10 in cutting spending). The three have signed onto Grover Norquist's "pledge" through his Americans for Tax Reform group.
There are some folks who think that Jolly could the recipient of any negative fallout from the revelations exposed to the public last week regarding his former boss, Congressman Bill Young. Young's widow Beverly has prominently declared her support for Jolly. In any event, folks are still talking about the story. But Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long told CL this week that it certainly wasn't a secret that Young had fathered a child out of wedlock and had an affair before divorcing his first wife back in the 1980's.