Ah, Florida: Scarface, Disney, Golden Girls, Seinfeld's parents, Tiger, Elian, Crockett, Tubbs, sugar, swamps, spring training, LMFAO, oranges, chads, (Jimmy) Buffett, Marino, Lebron and so much more, including one of the most exciting Senate races in the country this cycle, a three-way match up between conservative wonder boy Marco Rubio, the bronzed chameleon Charlie Crist and one of two democratic contenders, the highway patrol congressman, Kendrick Meek, and a billionaire named Jeff Greene, whose Morrocan love den was once featured in Vanity Fair.
Beyond the obvious, here are five reasons the Sunshine State will be worth watching this year:
1. In most elections there is a battle for the middle, leading to bland nothingisms on the stump. But since this race will be a three way race, it is likely that each candidate will have a different route to victory. Rubio will need to hold the Republican vote, capture some of the anti-incumbent dissatisfaction, and get huge voter turnout at the polls. If Meek wins the primary, he can run a similar race, focused mainly on denying Crist the 30 to 45 percent of the Democratic vote the governor needs to win. Crist's job will be to convince Floridians that party labels are as outmoded as Capitol building spittoons. He will be trying to hold as much as a quarter of the Republican vote, while grabbing a chunk of the Democratic base. If Greene wins the primary, he will likely spend great gobs of his fortune on television in a so-far less-than-successful attempt to tamp down voter skepticism of a man called the "meltdown mogul" by the Wall Street Journal who decorated his Beverly Hills home with "two huge erotic paintings" and a "dark metal rendering of a dollar bill."
2. The race is already creating great tensions within the Democratic establishment. In recent months, three key Democratic aides have signed on to the Crist campaign: Josh Isay, a former chief of staff to Democratic Senate boss Chuck Schumer; Eric Johnson, the former chief of staff to onetime Florida Rep. Eric Wexler; and Democratic pollster Keith Frederick, who also has worked for the Florida Education Association, Unite Here and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner. Crist has not said whether or not he will caucus with Democrats, but the fact that Crist attracted such high profile talent suggests Senate leaders want to encourage the possibility. As political handicapper Charlie Cook put it, rather diplomatically, "The conventional wisdom is that Isay would not have taken on Crist as a client if there were strong objections from the Democratic Senate Leadership."
3. This has predictably infuriated allies of Meek, who have been calling for a much more vocal and direct support from President Obama. "Come on down and show me that you mean it," Alcee Hastings, a Florida congressman and Meek booster, told me Tuesday. "I need to see him say it." Hastings called the recent image of Obama walking Pensacola's white sand beaches in shirtsleeves with Crist, "this haunting picture." In response, the White House has restated Obama's Meek endorsement and Rahm Emanuel has scheduled a fundraiser on Meek's behalf. But that is not enough for supporters like Hastings, who have threatened to withhold campaign aide from Obama in 2012 if the president does not do more. Some suspect history may be at work here as well: In 2008, relations between Meek and the Obama team were not so good after Meek decided to endorse Hillary Clinton.
4. The characters are larger than life.
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