Garcia's Entry Puts Florida Open Seat In Play

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CQ Roll Call

Garcia's Entry Puts Florida Open Seat In Play
By John McArdle, CQ-Roll Call John Mcardle, Cq-roll Call – 22 mins ago

Miami-Dade County Democratic Party Chairman Joe Garcia officially announced Wednesday that he will take another shot at winning Florida's 25th district seat this fall, a move that elicited cheers from Democrats hoping to flip a GOP-held seat in South Florida this cycle.

The successful recruitment of Garcia by Democratic officials has prompted CQ Politics to change the rating of the 25th district race from Likely Republican to the more competitive category of Leans Republican.

Garcia came 6 points shy of knocking off Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) in the 25th district in 2008. After that election, Garcia took a job in the Obama administration and appeared content to pass on a 2010 campaign. But when Diaz-Balart announced in February that he would step down from the 25th district to run for the more GOP friendly 21st district open seat (where his brother, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R), will retire at the end of his term), Democratic leaders turned to Garcia in the hopes of going on the offense in what otherwise will be a very defensive cycle for the party.

Garcia had a meeting with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) in late February about the race and was also encouraged by officials within the administration to take another look at the 25th. He may have finally been convinced to run by the results of a poll that the DCCC conducted on the race in late March.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20100414/pl_cq_politics/politics3640518

[heliarc]

1. Happy dance...

If we flip that seat, I'm going to do the happiest dance of my life.... This may be one of the campaigns I'm going to send real money to.

[nyy1998]

2. As opposed to monopoly money?

[happygoluckytoyou]

3. IN A RELATED STORY it has been determined that in 2010 monopoly money is worth more than real money