I was over at Swing State Project (it’s an election night in Colorado and Connecticut) checking out the big Dem-swing in registrations in numerous Florida congressional districts when I came across this:
The biggest black eye for Florida Democrats continues to be the open seat of FL-15, where despite having cut into the GOP’s voter registration advantage by over 9000 votes, Democrats were not able to find a top-tier candidate for the race. Democrats held retiring Rep. Dave Weldon to a 56-44 margin with an unknown candidate in 2006, but it appears that our candidate this year won’t be much stronger: both Democrats in the race have raised under $40K each.
I kind of remembered that this district was a bit of a recruitment disappointment, but the surge in Democratic registrations and the fact that it is an open seat piqued my interest again. So I looked up the Democratic candidates and found Steve Blythe and Paul Rancatore. It’s been at least five months since I checked in with these sites and I was disappointed to see that Blythe is still running a substandard political website (Rancatore’s looks fine). But then I noticed a link from Blythe’s site to an endorsement he received from the Vero Beach Press Journal and it caught my eye. Knowing my audience I knew I had better share.
WHY WE ENDORSED: You think the 2008 election is about “change”? The striking difference between retiring incumbent Dave Weldon and Democrat Steve Blythe makes John McCain and Barack Obama look like clones.
Though Weldon and Blythe are both Brevard County physicians with similarly taciturn dispositions, the philosophical gap between the two could hardly be greater. Where Weldon ranked among the most conservative members of Congress, Blythe takes a decidedly left-wing slant on virtually everything from regulation to taxes — and, yes, health care.
While Weldon cultivated a healthy suspicion of government, Blythe looks to Washington for answers, and he wants to provide a few of them.
Blythe serves up red meat for Democrats nursing an eight-year grudge against George W. Bush. He professes “outrage” at an administration that “tortures, kidnaps and spies without warrants, that lies and that flagrantly breaks laws.”
He’s unabashedly opposed to “supply-side economics” and wants to abolish the Bush tax cuts. He supports national, single-payer health care (a la Dennis Kucinich) and would use the income tax to fund it.
Kucinich was too far left for Democrats in the presidential primaries, and Blythe has his own issues with some party leaders, calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “gutless” for failing to confront Bush on the war and for what he sees as a systematic dismantling of civil liberties.
But Blythe has his bipartisan moments, and these reflect a more thoughtful approach. He likes the energy plan espoused by oilman T. Boone Pickens (no liberal he) to aggressively tap wind power and natural gas. The family physician also speaks authoritatively about waste and fraud in the medical sector. He’s critical, and justifiably so, of a lack of oversight and enforcement of Medicare rules.
Most impressively, Blythe comes across as a sincere husband and father of “two fantastic daughters.” He’s worked hard for the past year and a half on this race, spending more time campaigning in Indian River County than his Vero Beach-based rival.
Some mainstream Democrats may worry that Blythe’s hard-edged rhetoric might turn off swing voters. That’s a legitimate concern, and one that Blythe needs to address in this primary campaign if he expects to compete in November.
And his opponent?
Rancatore’s performance on the campaign trail has been erratic. Shortly after announcing his candidacy, he dropped out, citing his mother’s illness, then he got back in. He’s also needlessly coy about his party bona fides, saying he’s been a Democrat “in principle” for “my whole life.” Only when pressed does he acknowledge he had recently been a Republican. There’s nothing wrong with switching parties — “in principle” — but there’s no need to obfuscate either. That little bit of dissembling, along with some answers that occasionally sound too glib by half, give the edge to Blythe.
I report, you decide. This is a contest that is winnable, but Blythe first has to beat Rancatore in an August 26th primary. And then he is going to need some cash to compete against a well-financed Republican challenger. It’s an open seat that is moving left and Blythe is as pissed off as any of you.
Blythe says: “Many members of Congress, including the speaker of the House, are gutless. They should be shouting blood murder at the abuses of our Constitution. Instead, they roll over and say, ‘We’ll wait our turn.”
You can ActBlue for this guy if you want a shot at a real firebrand who wants single-payer universal health care and some frigging accountability.