Joe Henderson
The latest voter survey by Public Policy Polling — the one showing Philip Levine with a double-digit lead in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial race — is interesting and should be taken seriously.
His strategy of blanketing the airwaves seems to be working, although it would be more impressive if the primary was held in early June.
But it’s a long game (just ask the Houston Rockets what it means to be ahead at halftime). Toward that end, over lunch the other day, a friend was saying nice things about Adam Putnam, having met him a few times. That is welcome news to him, I’m sure, considering recent events.
But then, my friend casually asked who was running on the Democratic side. I said, well, there’s Philip Levine — he used to be mayor of Miami Beach.
I got a quizzical if-you-say-so look.
Well, and there is Gwen Graham. Remember U.S. Sen. Bob Graham? That’s his daughter.
Um, no. No clue.
At that point, I didn’t bother to mention Andrew Gillum or Chris King.
Now, my friend is older, smart, only peripherally interested in politics but will turn out to vote.
That is the kind of voter Democrats are going to need if they have any realistic hope of regaining the Governor’s Mansion in November. To many folks, though, their efforts have been a tree falling in the forest.
It’s not for a lack of trying.
They’ve all been out on the campaign trail, meeting with every civic or political group (or fundraiser) that will offer an audience.
Only Levine has been peppering the TV airwaves with commercials though, especially the one where he says public school teachers deserve a $10,000 annual raise.
I did some quick math on that.
There are about 180,000 public school teachers in Florida.
That works out to about $1.8 billion in extra money the state would have to find to make Levine’s wish come true even if he becomes the next Governor.
If you believe that will happen, fly to Vegas immediately and put it all on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win the Super Bowl next season.
It’s a message that Levine is planting in voters’ minds, though.
I mean, it’s never bad to be on the side of public school teachers; they are the firewall between us and a future straight out of a zombie apocalypse. 
They should be paid accordingly.
It’s fair game, though, to ask Levine exactly how he would plan to do that.
And since during a debate he fumbled over the question of how much money the state budgeted this year for public education (along with each of Democratic competitors), I think the devil might be in the details on this one.
The good news for Levine is that it’s probably too early for the vast majority of voters to care about details, or platforms, or even to get serious about knowing candidates who might as well be from the planet Zortron for all they know.
After all, they are competing for attention with seismic stories like the cancellation of the Roseanne Barr show on TV after her racist (but predictable) Twitter meltdown.
So, polls show Levine with a big lead. It shows Rick Scott leading Bill Nelson.
Interesting? Sure.
But what’s all mean?
Three words: Hillary. Rodham. Clinton.
After all, we are about three months away from the primaries and more than five months from the general election.
Candidates who are way behind should be aware and maybe a little concerned. But anyone in the lead probably shouldn’t start thinking about measuring drapes for their new office just yet.
