Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday will be the beneficiary of a fundraiser put on by the people of Maggie's List, the anti-Emily's list, and kind of an Angie's list for conservative lady politicians, SaintPetersBlog reported a few weeks back.
The event's public portion begins at 5:30 in the evening at the Columbia Restaurant's museum in Ybor City.
Arguably more important than the amount of dough she raises, Bondi—remember her?—is reportedly going to tell people what she's raising it for via a "special announcement."
Bondi, who was reelected to her post in 2014, is terming out in 2018. Despite catching a lot of heat earlier this year for very doggedly and very publicly opposing same-sex marriage, to a point where it began to strike some of us as bizarre and obsessive, monied GOP powers that be seem to think she's electable. There's been a bit of chatter over what she'll end up shooting for next, and it sounds like tomorrow that speculation might come to an end.
Here are some possible scenarios:
She's running for U.S. Senate in 2016. So, off the bat, we're going to put this in the probably-not pile, given that she's already said she's not interested. Currently the only announced Republican candidate is east coast tea party Congressman Ron DeSantis. Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera is also supposedly going to jump in. But ya never know. This is Florida politics and thus incredibly unpredictable.
She's running for Governor in 2018. It's only 2015; get ahold of yourself, man! Okay, because we can't just talk about an election that's a year and a half away anymore (boring!), we have to now talk about the midterm elections that will happen two years beyond that, because the question of who will win is more important than, you know, having a meaningful impact on the lives of millions through good governing.
Nevertheless, Bondi for Governor would be wonderful in terms of entertainment value—drag queens protesting outside her fundraisers in impossible stilettos and such—but we haven't heard much rumbling of that. Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam is rumored to be interested in running, and he's much less controversial.
She's running for Senate in 2018. This would also be a safe bet, even though announcing a run for a seat when you're more than three years out from your primary seems a little cuckoo; something a whacko write-in candidate would do. On the other hand, it would give her more time to raise the disgusting amount of money she'll need to face Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a longtime incumbent, assuming he's not tired of watching Congress degrade into a partisan cesspool with less diplomacy (and intelligence) than a preschool sandbox.
So, whatever her announcement is, we'll be there, assuming they let us in, and we'll let you know as soon as we know, the event is closed to the media, so I guess we'll never know...until an hour or so later when her people send out a media release.
