Leading Off
FL-AG, FL-Sen, FL-Gov
The Democratic Attorneys General Association is sending $5 million to former state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez’s campaign to unseat Republican James Uthmeier as attorney general of Florida, a former swing state where Democrats are eager to prove they can win again.
DAGA, which tells Politico this money is “just the start” of its involvement, is jumping in at a time when polls show conflicting signals about Rodriguez and the rest of the Democratic ticket.
Uthmeier enjoys a wide 50-40 advantage in a Targoz Market Research poll released Friday by the James Madison Institute, a conservative Florida-based think tank. That poll also finds the two most prominent members of the GOP ticket, Sen. Ashley Moody and gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds, with identical 52-42 advantages in their respective contests. (See our Poll Pile section below for other results from this survey.)
But Rodriguez and his fellow Democrats got some considerably more encouraging numbers the previous day when St. Pete Polls, working on behalf of the news site Florida Politics, gave Uthmeier just a 45-43 edge.
That survey similarly showed Moody ahead just 47-45 in her race against Democrat Angie Nixon and found Donalds deadlocked at 45 apiece against Democrat David Jolly in the race to succeed termed-out Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Sunshine State’s sharp lurch to the right over the last decade, as well as strong fundraising on the GOP side, has left Democrats in a difficult position, though DAGA’s contribution will help Rodriguez make up what had been a huge financial gulf. Campaign finance reports filed Oct. 2 showed Uthmeier with about $10 million on hand, compared to $1 million for Rodriguez.
Democrats are also hoping a scandal involving a charity called Hope Florida will have voters looking for new leadership—a scandal that could be especially troublesome for Uthmeier.