With Marco Rubio continuing to stumble in his battle with Charlie Crist for the GOP Senate nomination, pundits and political junkies have to find another race to watch. While it is not getting much attention, the contest for the Democratic attorney general nomination is setting up to be one of the closest and most important of the statewide 2010 primaries.
State Sen. Dave Aronberg is taking on State Sen. Dan Gelber for the nomination. While Aronberg started the race first, Gelber is not too far behind when it comes to fund-raising. Both of them are doing better than expected when it comes to raking in the dollars. As the second quarter ended, pundits were musing that the two candidates needed to break $100,000 to prove they were viable. Aronberg has brought in $173,000 and Gelber has over $150,000 despite his late start.
While Aronberg needs to spruce up his website, Gelber is using his site to trump various endorsements. While behind Aronberg in funds, Gelber is starting to gain a lot of endorsements including those of Betty Castor, a host of Tampa Bay legislators and Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler. Both Gelber and Aronberg hail from Miami and are generally unknown in the rest of the state. With both candidates having the same geographic base, endorsements would seem to be more important than usual.
This will be a tight contest and an important one. A Democratic AG would clearly be a viable candidate down the road for future U.S. Senate and gubernatorial contests.