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I was going over the Florida Division of Elections web site on Friday, Checking to see how the congressional races were shaping up. Noon, Friday was the deadline for qualifying.
I knew my friend, John Russell was filing at the last possible minute, because of bad blood between him, FDP Chair Karen Thurman, and Congresswoman Debbie Weaselman-Schlitz. Had he filed earlier they had a spoiler they were going to back.
Then I scrolled down to the 13th District, home of the great election fiasco of 2006. 18,000 missing votes, yada, yada, yada. I noticed that Jan Schneider filed and qualified as "No Party Affiliation", and is guaranteed a spot on Novembers ballot. She'll be up against Christine Jennings and Vern Buchanan.
But, a little history. I knew Jan from the 2004 race. She was running against Katherine Harris, and I was running against another repuke incumbent. She ran a respectable race against Harris, and filed to run again in 2006. Her primary opponent again was Christine Jennings, whom she beat handily in 2004.
Now, enter the trash. A full year before the election, I was at a dinner fund raiser for the Hernando County DEC. Karen Thurman was the guest speaker. All she did was talk about what great candidates we had for Florida in 2006. She singled out Jim Davis (Loser-Gov)
Rick Penberthy (Loser-primary 5), and Christine Jennings. Jennings was another republican convert that Emmanuel liked to recruit for the DLC and DCCC. She was another millionaire who could be self funding. She owned a bank.
I had a conversation with Thurman after dinner. I brought out my concerns about party neutrality in primaries. Rod Smith was slated to run against Davis for Governor, my candidate, John Russell was running against Penberthy (we beat him by 10 points in a 3-way race), and as far as I knew back then Schneider was running again. Thurman babbled a bunch of nonsense and changed the subject. I went back to the campaign and told them that Thurman was openly hostile to our campaign, and was supporting Penberthy. She proved that in spades in the general election, openly undermining our efforts. John got some revenge later.
But, anyway, back to the 13th. In 2006 the DCCC sent Barbara Boxer down here and raised $400,000 for Jennings, BEFORE the primary. When Schneider called the DCCC to ask what the fuck they were doing, they said they didn't realize Jennings had a primary opponent. Jan asked, "You guys can't look at your own web site"? All told they spent over $900,000 on her campaign BEFORE the primary. Half a million dollars on attack adds on another credible Democrat from the DCCC.
Well, Jan decided to run again, as a Democrat, this year. There was only one stipulation. The DCCC remain neutral in the primary. They refused. Even after she showed polling data showing her 10 points ahead of Jennings. Everyone remembers that last dirty campaign. They refused. And Rahm Emmanuel and Steny Hoyer keep coming to Florida to raise funds for Jennings.
I called Jan this morning. We talked for about an hour. She said that Jennings refuses to make any kind of statement about the war in Iraq. Buchanan votes with Bush all the way down the line. She plans on making the war the centerpiece of her campaign.
She just had one request. Please don't get angry over the decision I made. Don't be appalled. I said, "Angry? Appalled?, I'm sending you a check". I've been there, and dealt with those people at the DCCC. All they had to do was stay neutral, like they're supposed to. They cooked Jennings goose for her.
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