FLORIDA HEATS UP – AT 12:16 P.M. ET:  The candidates in the Florida gubernatorial race were just selected in Tuesday's primaries, and already the race for the governorship is red hot.  From AP:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Andrew Gillum, who engineered a surprising upset victory in Florida's Democratic primary this week, is picking up endorsements, money and plenty of national attention in the aftermath of his win.

But as the Tallahassee mayor mounts his bid to become Florida's first black governor, he is already coming under swift attack from Republican opponents who are trying to use a slow-moving corruption investigation into Tallahassee city government to portray Gillum as untrustworthy.

The investigation broke into the open last summer shortly after Gillum joined the race, but it was not extensively debated or discussed by his Democratic opponents before he won Tuesday's primary. But by Thursday, the Republican Governor's Association launched a digital ad that blasted Gillum. It focused on both the City Hall probe and an earlier incident in which Gillum paid back the city after he used city money to buy software that was used to send out campaign emails. Likewise, the campaign of U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, who won the GOP primary, is also trying to draw attention to the investigation.

The 39-year-old Gillum — who will appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CNN"s "State of the Union" this Sunday —contends he is ready for the onslaught of attacks that have just begun to ramp up.

COMMENT:  This guy is a bad piece of work, but is a real smoothie.  He's being compared to Barack Obama, though he's actually to the left of Obama.  He's being financed by George Soros and backed by Bernie Sanders.  Under his leadership, Tallahassee has the highest crime rate in Florida.  He's already on record as favoring the impeachment of the president.  He wants to increase the corporate tax rate by 40 percent, which will drive jobs out of his state.  Enough said?

Congressman Ron DeSantis is the worthy Republican opponent, a man of high ability.  But DeSantis lacks Gillum's human touch, phony as it may be.  And Gillum has the excitement factor going for him.

We can hope that the Republicans run this race correctly.  The stakes are high.  It will be bitter.  The Dems are already playing the race card.  The press loves Gillum even more than it loved Obama.  If Gillum wins, he may wind up on the Dem 2020 ticket.

Work hard.

September 1, 2018