The Florida Senate Race

Assuming the Politico report that Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink will not run against Mel Martinez is correct, that's definitely disappointing news for Florida Democrats. Sink would have been an extremely strong candidate.

The fact remains though that PPP polling over the summer showed four different members of the Florida Congressional delegation extremely competitive in possible matchups against Martinez:

-Allen Boyd led Martinez 37-33.

-Ron Klein also led Martinez 37-33.

-Debbie Wasserman Schultz led him 38-37.

-Robert Wexler tied him 31-31.

One thing that will be interesting to see is whether Florida Democrats can avoid a divisive primary. A spirited primary season can actually end up making a candidate stronger, as happened in the Presidential race this year. But since Florida doesn't hold its primaries until September, that doesn't leave a lot of time for party healing before the general election compared to an intra party battle that's resolved by the spring or early summer. It will be interesting to see if Washington higher ups try to clear the field for a preferred candidate- that seems less likely with Sink out of the mix.