Bob SparksIt was quite a week for Florida Congressman David Jolly. Until the last week in April, Jolly was one of five Republicans running to succeed Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate.
That is still the case, but in an important race overwhelmed by the saga of Donald Trump, name recognition is the key. Bonus points are available for anyone who can name the other candidates from both parties.
This race seems to hardly register a blip on the political sonar. Despite this, Jolly took full advantage of multiple opportunities to get his name in front of millions.
Jolly’s GOP opponents are Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Congressman Ron DeSantis, businessman Todd Wilcox and a recent entry, developer Carlos Beruff.
The Democrats have two distinctly different members of the House of Representatives. Far left flame-thrower Alan Grayson is in a close race with former Republican Patrick Murphy.
Grayson is clearly the best known among the seven. According to the most recent polling conducted by Public Policy Polling, almost half of those surveyed (47 percent) have an opinion about him.
Only 16 percent view him favorably. He is best remembered as the guy who proclaimed that the objective of the Republican health care plan was for patients to “die quickly.”
Murphy was the only candidate surveyed with a net plus favorability rating, 16-15. That leaves 69 percent unfamiliar with him.
More than seven in 10 are unfamiliar with all of the Republican candidates. The poll showed Jolly as the most well-known within his party with 30 percent offering an opinion (11 percent favorable) on him.
Lopez-Cantera has only a 9 percent favorable rating among the 26 percent who are familiar with him. According to a few Tallahassee wags, the sitting Lt. Governor is in the witness protection program.
Neither Murphy nor Grayson is putting significant distance between the other in the primary. Grayson led the first polls earlier in the year, but Murphy has now led in five of the last six.
Jolly has led in five of the six polls taken since September. DeSantis holds a slight edge over Lopez-Cantera for second.
Perhaps sensing the need for a breakout moment, Beruff channeled his inner Donald Trump. He adopted the Trump position of favoring the halt of immigrants from the Middle East “until they fix” the system.
He must have figured “why not?” because such a view got Trump plenty of attention and hasn’t hurt him with GOP primary voters. Beruff will discover what works for Trump does not work for anyone else.
Jolly appropriately used his office for political benefit. The week began on Sunday when the iconic CBS program “60 Minutes” did a piece on Jolly’s bill that would ban members of Congress from personally calling for campaign contributions.
Jolly extolled the virtues of H.R. 4443, the Stop Act, to correspondent Norah O’Donnell and millions of viewers. The bill is not likely to become law, but it put Jolly in the forefront of a concept people can easily support.
“First, members of Congress spend more time raising money than doing their job,” said Jolly, “and second, I’m not going to do it. And I’m putting everything on the line to stop it.”
Part two of the interview was conducted at a spring training baseball game in Clearwater. Hot dogs and apple pie were all around the ballpark.
Interestingly, Grayson signed on as a co-sponsor on Thursday.
Monday was a debate, or forum, with Grayson. Those not involved fired verbal volleys at Jolly, but such an event was clearly beneficial for the Jolly campaign.
Lopez-Cantera criticized Jolly for advocating an “up or down vote” for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Senate Republicans have vowed no such vote will take place.
The DeSantis campaign blasted Jolly, describing his debate with Grayson as a “Democratic Senate debate.”
On Wednesday, USA Today published a significant story on the troubling practice of nurses and medical staff serving as guards in understaffed federal prisons. Featured prominently, with a photo and a pullout quote, was Jolly.
The next round of polling will show whether Jolly’s last week in April gains him any separation from the field. There is still time for his opponents to find their issue and market their candidacy, but Jolly’s messaging and communications team is hitting their stride.
Can the other four make voters pay attention to them for the right reasons?
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Bob Sparks is a business and political consultant based in Tallahassee. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
