So, we're more than a year out from the primary, so anything can happen. But so far, it looks like the race for Florida's 13th Congressional seat is once again going to get weird.
While we're waiting on incumbent U.S. Rep. David Jolly to make up his mind on whether he'll vacate his seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat Sen. Marco Rubio left to run for president, the candidate roster on the Democratic side is taking shape — and that shape is probably going to be a big shape, especially if Jolly vacates.
Former Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern, an outspoken, progressive Democrat, has said she's in, and plans on moving to Pinellas County to run for the seat, she confirmed with CL via text message Tuesday. She added she has met with the Super PAC Emily's List, which helps pro-choice female candidates get elected.
St. Pete City Councilwoman Darden Rice, who has spent the first half of her first term in elected office championing progressive causes, has also expressed interest in running for the seat. She told The Tampa Tribune that other local Democrats have encouraged her to run, and she is also talking with Emily's List about possible support.
There also does happen to have been an announced Democrat who has been in the running for months. Eric Lynn, who for years worked at the Pentagon under three secretaries of defense, announced his run months ago.
It'll be interesting to see how things play out in the district, which covers Pinellas from Dunedin southward to St. Pete (though much of south St. Petersburg, a predominantly African-American area, was cut out and added to U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor's ironclad Democratic district in a blatant act of gerrymandering).
When Jolly won the seat, it was in a a brutal special election months after the death of U.S. Rep Bill Young, who had safely held his seat for some 40 years.
Democrats and Republicans pumped millions into the early 2014 race, mostly because they were bored, and they wanted to use the district's voters as a test case for campaign messaging they could use in other races to trick voters in the midterms the following November.
Alex Sink was the Democrat in that heavily scripted race (after D.C. Democrats rassled — yup, rassled — lesser-known Democrat Jessica Ehrlich out of the primary), and Libertarian Lucas Overby made the race interesting by calling bullshit as needed. Sink lost by about a point and a half. If her people had thought to target anyone under 65, who had no idea there was an election, she might have had a shot.
With Mulhern and/or Rice in the primary/general race, debates would probably be pretty fun to watch for their brutal honesty, even if we know going into this that it'll likely be a tough year at the polls for Democrats (albeit a presidential one, which bodes well for turnout) and there's a good chance the Republican in the race will be a well-funded, pretty well-liked incumbent.
Already, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the PAC that aims to help Republicans get elected to Congress, is sending out messages criticizing Mulhern and Rice.
They're attacking Mulhern for being a "carpetbagger" like Alex Sink, who moved from her home in Thonotosassa to Feather Sound — literally the first exit off the Howard Frankland in Pinellas County coming from Tamoa — to run for the seat. Though legal, it was a sticking point then and probably would be now. Mulhern said she's hoping to move to the beach (though her husband likes St. Pete proper), but it all depends on where the best school is.
The NRCC has also been critical of Rice for "flying the coop" in the middle of her first term and for being vocal in her progressive politics — which might not be the worst thing in the world in a district that has elected a majority Democrat County Commission as recently as last year.
Jolly is expected to announce his decision on a Senate run sometime this summer.
Rice will announce her decision by the second week in July, she said.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2015.