Mitch PerryNationally, Republicans are having all the fun these days.
Jeb Bush transformed the 2016 race last month, coming out of the starting gate with intense alacrity, demonstrating to everybody that he’s serious about a presidential run for the GOP nomination. Last week Mitt Romney met with some former fundraisers to essentially announce that he was all in, and yesterday, Chris Christie held his State of the State address in New Jersey that pundits deemed more appropriate to being a State of the Union.
Marco Rubio continues to say he’s not intimidated with all of these heavyweights affecting his potential candidacy, and Rand Paul is throwing verbal bombs at all of the contenders.
But what about the Democrats?
Hillary Clinton seems to be where the story begins and ends for the party, though there are plenty from the progressive wing who aren’t satisfied with that limited choice. Although polls show nobody within another state of challenging Clinton for the nomination, the favorite from the “Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” as Howard Dean called it in 2003, continues to be Elizabeth Warren.
While the Massachusetts senator has maintained that she’s not intending to run, that hasn’t stopped her supporters from working on a Draft Warren movement.
But yesterday she made it pretty clear she has no intentions of running. Asked by former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairwoman and Fortune magazine columnist Sheila Bair if she will run for president, Warren simply responded “no.”
When asked what the Democratic nominee needs to do to win in 2016, she said, “They need to speak to America’s families about the economic crisis in this country. It starts with the recognition that Washington works for the rich and powerful and not for America’s families. From there, it has to go into what changes we need to make, and that gets back to education, infrastructure, and research.”
But if Hilary Clinton isn’t the vehicle to deliver that message for the Democrats, who will? Obviously the Republicans feel that 2016 is their year. The reluctance to challenge Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party may bring the party together and avoid a messy repeat of 2008, but it doesn’t mean it’s giving them the best chance of winning.
Today the Hillsborough County Policy Leadership Group convenes for the first time in months. The group has lots of issues to deal with over the next few months, all leading up (or not?) to a transit referendum in 2016.
Also today in Tallahassee, there’s a press conference as a movement to give Floridians the choice of getting solar power on the ballot next year kicks off.
The day after last year’s gubernatorial election, Bob Buckhorn still was resisting telling people whom he voted for. But in a Miami radio interview yesterday, Hizzoner causally slipped in the admission that he did vote for Charlie Crist.
St. Pete-based political operative Cesar Fernandez is leaving politics for the moment to work for Uber.
