http://www.sptimes.com/2004/06/13/State/Senate_race_putters_t.shtml<snip>
Bigger issues have pushed the contest to the back of voters' minds, but planned TV ads may liven it up."They have crisscrossed the state, but the dozen candidates for the U.S. Senate are struggling to attract attention despite raising millions of dollars, sparring in a series of debates and airing a few television ads.
Among the eight Republicans and four Democrats seeking to succeed retiring Democrat Bob Graham, not one is a household name statewide.
Voters will winnow the field to two when they choose party nominees in primaries on Aug. 31. But until they start seeing more TV ads in the weeks ahead, they will have to look hard to find sharp differences among contenders.
"I don't think anyone has captured the imagination of the public," said James Harris, a Democratic strategist not involved in the race. "It's being overshadowed by the presidential race and everything else that's going on in the world right now."
Polls indicate only about 5 percent of Floridians are undecided in the presidential race, but the Senate race is wide open, with more than one-third of voters in both parties undecided. The early front-runners are Republican Bill McCollum, the former congressman and unsuccessful Senate candidate four years ago, and Democrat Betty Castor, the former state education commissioner and former University of South Florida president."