On Saturday, the generally conservative Tampa Tribune endorsed Bill Nelson in his bid for re-election against Republican Connie Mack IV.
The Fort Myers-based Congressman derided Nelson as being a "lockstep liberal" with President Obama, and the Trib admits that its view would be different "if there was a strong conservative alternative, someone like Jeb Bush who approaches issues with intellectual honesty, not slogans."
But alas, there is no Jeb on the ballot, and the Trib's editorial stated that Mack "lacks the qualities of statesmanship" that his father, former U.S. Senator Connie Mack III, possessed.
The conventional wisdom is that the Senate race is Nelson's to lose, with analysts pointing to the Real Clear Politics average of the Democrat holding a 6.5 percent lead some two-and-a-half weeks before the election.
Al Cardenas, current chairman for the American Conservative Union and the former Republican Party of Florida chair, said he's been here before — specifically in 2004, when Republican Mel Martinez trailed Democrat Betty Castor just weeks before that year's election.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2012.