Well, it's all over. For at least half a year. No more television commercials, as David Jolly told an enthusiastic audience in Clearwater Beach last night during his victory speech after defeating Alex Sink by over 3,400 votes.
But while Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman Shultz were spinning furiously that Sink's defeat really was no big thang, you shouldn't believe that for a second. If the Dems had won, we'd be reading all over the place that Sink looked Obamacare in the eye and was the better candidate for it — that there was a symbolic statement being made in the district's going Democrat for the first time in over half a century — but that didn't happen. And now the Affordable Care Act, we're told, is the reason she lost.
There won't be $12 million spent on this race in November. There will be millions spent, yes, but with hundreds of other races going on in Congress and the states, Washington political action committees won't be so obsessed with one political seat, particularly one that in the end doesn't change the balance of power in Washington.
The seat remains in Republican hands in the person of David Jolly, who should be congratulated for his hard-fought victory. Jolly was dead-on when he said that, unlike Sink, he was not Washington D.C.'s choice to run for the seat after Bill Young's death last October. As reported by Politico last week, House Speaker John Boehner wanted former St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker to run, but Baker declined.
Jack Latvala said he didn't want a D.C. lobbyist to run, and was able to recruit Kathleen Peters to take on the former aide to Congressman Young in the primary. But Jolly is the one now traveling to Washington D.C. to be sworn in as the next Representative in Florida's 13th Congressional District.
Speaking of November elections, Rick Scott and his well-paid advisers realize that the guv's got to be rebranded for the voters this year. That rebranding began during the State of the State address, in which he emphasized his humble roots. That message is being pushed again in a new ad.
Also yesterday, two Tampa Democrats went after the governor for his botched unemployment website.