"Mostly white...daunting territory" for Florida Democrat and former bank exec Alex Sink who lost to Republican David Jolly in Pinellas County-NY Times

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Libertarian, Republican, Democrat. "Democrats were playing down a possible defeat, saying the mostly white, Republican-leaning district, packed with many older voters was going to be...“daunting territory.”"...David Jolly beat the Sabotage Republicans.
 
3/11/14, "Victory in Florida Bolsters Midterm Hopes for Republicans," NY  Times, Lizette Alvarez, Clearwater, Florida

"In a major victory for Republicans in the battle for control of Congress, David Jolly, a former lobbyist, narrowly won a special election for a House seat Tuesday in a hotly contested swing district, giving the party an expensive triumph in its fight against President Obama’s health care plan. 

After months of diligent courting by the three candidates and a $9 million barrage of political advertising by outside groups, voters in Pinellas County chose Mr. Jolly over Alex Sink, a Democrat and his main rival. Mr. Jolly won 48.5 percent of the vote and Ms. Sink received 46.6 percent. A third candidate, Lucas Overby, a Libertarian, won 4.8 percent.

For Republicans, the victory will serve to bolster their message that the nation disapproves of the Affordable Care Act and President Obama’s leadership.

For Democrats, Ms. Sink’s loss is a significant blow to morale. Ms. Sink, a moderate who lost her race for governor in 2010, is well known and ran a well-organized campaign awash in donations and buoyed by millions of dollars of outside spending. 

Even before the loss, Democrats were playing down a possible defeat, saying the mostly white, Republican-leaning district, packed with many older voters, was going to be a tough challenge for them. One Democratic official called it “daunting territory.” 

It is the first time in more than 40 years that the Congressional district will be overseen by someone other than Representative C. W. Bill Young, a Republican who died in October, setting off the scramble for the job. But for some voters, Mr. Jolly was the closest thing to Mr. Young — for years he served as one of Mr. Young’s senior aides and general counsel. 

A tossup until the end, the race was largely commandeered by national political organizations waging a proxy battle over issues like the Affordable Care Act and Social Security. In countless advertisements, Republicans trumpeted Ms. Sink’s support of the health care plan and lashed her to President Obama and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader. Democrats repeatedly accused Mr. Jolly of wanting to privatize Social Security, a Despite today’s win, it may be that neither side is right; political analysts have said that the results of one House special election, regardless of how close, seldom transcend state boundaries.

Republican and Democratic groups poured record-setting sums into the race, raising its national profile and importance. 

Outside groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the House Majority PAC, a Democratic group, spent more than $9 million on mostly negative television ads, robocalls and mailings devoid of nuance. Taking into account money raised by the candidates, total spending in the race hit $12 million, a staggering amount for a House seat in a special election.

Ms. Sink, who was the pick of the national Democratic Party, raised far more than Mr. Jolly, a former lobbyist and senior aide to Mr. Young. Mr. Jolly faced a January primary and struggled to bring in checks. But outside Republican groups stepped in to level the playing field, spending considerably more in political advertisements than Democrats.

The race also drew the endorsements or appearances of marquee politicians from both parties, including former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., former Gov. Jeb Bush and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

The Gulf Coast district, always a centerpiece in national elections because of its many independent voters and a nearly equal number of Democrats and Republicans, is in Pinellas County, and includes much of St. Petersburg....

Pinellas County has the highest rate of absentee ballot voting in Florida, and many voters had already cast votes before the polls opened Tuesday. By Monday morning, 125,000 people had sent in absentee ballots or voted early. Republicans typically benefit from absentee voting, an edge that Ms. Sink and her well-organized campaign tried to blunt by persuading more Democratic voters to vote early. 

Ms. Sink, a former bank executive who was elected in 2006 as Florida’s chief financial officer, had an early advantage in the race: Democrats cleared the field for her. She did not face a primary opponent, allowing her to focus on fund-raising and sidestep same-party attacks. Ms. Sink also had statewide name recognition from her recent race for governor.

A moderate with a business background, she ran as someone eager to set aside ideology to end legislative gridlock in Washington. Ms. Sink said that while she supported the president’s health care plan, she would push to fix it....

Still, Mr. Jolly, polished on the stump, proved a formidable opponent in this Republican-leaning district. He campaigned as Mr. Young’s successor, and he recently tacked toward the right on issues like military intervention and abortion, saying he would support an end to Roe v. Wade. 

And while underscoring that he would leave Social Security untouched for those who have paid in for 10 years, Mr. Jolly said all options, including privatizing the program, should be considered for younger workers. Ms. Sink and outside groups pilloried him over this position, as well as for his work as a lobbyist."

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David Jolly beat the Sabotage Republicans:

GOP didn't want David Jolly, they tried to get 3 others to run. Boehner didn't want him, Jeb Bush didn't want him, Fla. sicko power broker Jack Latvala supported another candidate against Jolly in the primary which he won easily but was practically broke going into the gen. election.

3/7/14, "National GOP turns on Florida candidate," Politico, Alex Eisenstadt

"Jolly, a longtime aide to Young who left Capitol Hill in 2007 to start a lobbying career, wasn’t the Republican establishment’s first choice. In fact, GOP officials sought out three other prospects, eager to find a candidate with a higher and more appealing profile than they believed Jolly possessed.
 
After longtime GOP Rep. Bill Young died in October, House Speaker John Boehner called Rick Baker, a popular former mayor of St. Petersburg, and pressed him to run for the vacant seat. The Baker courtship didn’t stop there: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also pushed the former mayor to run, according to two sources. (Bush has since gotten behind Jolly, appearing in TV ads calling him “the best candidate to go to Congress.”)

After mulling it over for a few days, Baker turned them down. By that time, Jolly’s name had emerged as a possible candidate. But national Republicans went after two other possibilities — former Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri — both of whom also declined. That left Jolly to face off against state Rep. Kathleen Peters and one other candidate in the Republican primary.

As soon as the GOP primary began, problems emerged. State Sen. Jack Latvala, a powerful local powerbroker, bypassed Jolly and threw his support to Peters. And in a bizarre twist, Young’s family was divided: The late congressman’s widow, Beverly, backed Jolly while his son, Billy, was behind Peters.

Jolly won the mid-January primary easily. But his campaign entered the general election nearly broke — and, according to multiple sources, lacking a clear plan to catch up to Sink in the cash race. Jolly hadn’t hired a finance director, and some Republicans grumbled that he was reluctant to make fundraising calls.

Republicans grew worried. According to two sources familiar with the matter, NRCC officials pressed the Jolly campaign on whether it had come up with a blueprint to address the fundraising problems and counter the looming Democratic attacks on his lobbying career.

The Jolly camp response was dismissive: We’ve got it under control, staffers told them.

Unconvinced, the NRCC in late January dispatched a finance staffer to Florida to help the candidate fill his coffers. Soon after that, the committee sent three additional aides to the state to help Jolly’s team in a variety of ways.

With Jolly’s campaign basically insolvent, Democrats began pounding him on the airwaves. In the three weeks following the GOP primary, Sink and her Democratic allies outspent the Republican side nearly two-to-one on advertising. Many of the Democratic spots would echo an attack line that the party would use throughout the race: Don’t elect a D.C. lobbyist as your next congressman.

One ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee portrayed a suit-clad Jolly imitator walking from a K Street office to the Capitol. “So little gets done for us, while the special interests have lobbyists like David Jolly. He’s what’s wrong with Washington,” the narrator said.

To date, Jolly has raised $1 million to Sink’s $2.5 million. National Republicans say it’s hard to fathom how a candidate with deep connections to the D.C. influence world — and one who’s running in such a high-profile race — has struggled to draw donations.

Jolly’s lack of cash has left him dependent on outside conservative groups over which he lacked control — including the NRCC and Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads — to do much of his bidding. The NRCC spot that Jolly distanced himself from, to the consternation of GOP officials, criticized Sink for using a state plane for personal travel. Washington Republicans believed it was an effective attack; Jolly suggested it wasn’t fair game, saying there was more “nuance” to Sink’s conduct than the ad claimed.

Some of the ads that Jolly’s campaign produced were done on the cheap: One showed him standing in front of an obviously fake backdrop of the Florida coastline.

Mike Fasano, a popular former GOP state representative from nearby Pasco County, said it’s surprising, given the Republican candidate’s problems, that Jolly might still win.

“It’s not been run as I’ve seen other campaigns been run,” Fasano said. “I think he was probably getting bad advice from whoever he was getting advice from — his consultant, his campaign manager, whoever.”

Addressing a small group of reporters Wednesday, Jolly admitted his campaign lacked the money to defend himself adequately on the airwaves.

“Look, I’m a first-time candidate. I don’t come from personal wealth. I don’t come from family wealth,” he said. Sink “brought to her campaign statewide name recognition and a national party that clearly promised they’d put all the fundraising resources behind it.”...

Behind the scenes, his campaign has caused grief for Republican leaders in Washington. The NRCC has spent nearly $2 million in the race, precious resources that could be used to help other candidates this year. But on at least two occasions, Jolly declined to say he would back Boehner as speaker. 

After the second response, Jolly sent out a tweet clarifying that, indeed, he would back Boehner.
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That wasn’t enough for the speaker’s allies.

“After all that was done to help Jolly, his noncommittal statements on if he supports the speaker made Boehner advisers furious,” said one Republican official close to Boehner’s operation.

If Jolly has a strength as a candidate, it’s his accessibility. While Sink’s public events are tightly controlled, Jolly takes any questions thrown his way."... 

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1/8/13, “The Sabotage Republicans,” By Jeffrey Lord, American Spectator

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Ed. note: The bright white background behind part of this post was put there by google hackers.

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