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Florida Governor Race To Get A Jolt
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Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's worst political nightmare has become a reality - and the news came on Halloween, for a little comic effect.
As reported in her hometown newspaper on All Hollow's Eve morning, Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery is said to be joining McCollum in the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, automatically injecting some life into what had been aan uninspiring - to say the least - GOP campaign to date.
Dockery has been a state legislator for thirteen years, the first six in the State House of Representatives, and was facing the prospect of being term limited right out of office in 2012, a year when unlike 2010, none of the juiciest State leadership spots will be up for grabs.
This is clearly the right window of opportunity for the 48-year-old conservative, originally from Queens, New York, to jump through in an effort to try wresting the brass ring right out of McCollum's wobbly grip.
Dockery is doing her best to continue basking in the glow of her legislative victory in the 2009 session, spearheading a successful effort to kill plans for an Orlando-based high speed rail line that would have run right through her home base of Lakeland.
But what else do we know about Paula Dockery and the kinds of positions and policies she might advance if elected governor?
For some frightening clues, one might start with the ratings she gets from key Issues advocacy & interest groups. Low ratings on pro-worker/labor issues , very low ratings on pro-environmental issues, high ratings on pro-business/industry issues, very high ratings on pro-life/anti-choice issues, and stellar ratings on pro-gun issues.
This is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative here, one who is going to try to capitalize on the rail system victory to run as a "fighter for the people", as a fresh new face in the Florida Republican Party. Compared to Bill McCollum's miserable, extremist record, she has a very good chance of getting away with it, and upsetting the carefully stacked apple cart that State GOP chairman Jim Greer and his crowd have been trying to steamroll to victory.
In preparation for the possibility of a Dockery-Sink general election campaign, there's no time like the present for Democrats, Independents and open-minded Republicans to start taking a very close look at the Dockery political profile.
A good place to start would be the Project Vote Smart website. This independent, non-partisan site sets out simply to provide all citizens and voters with factual information about candidates and elected officials - voting records, interest group ratings and the like. They also ask every official and candidate to make clear statements about their positions on a wide range of issues in what they call a "Political Courage Test". Here is their note about Dockery's responses:
"Senata Paula B. Dockery repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on the issues..."
Hmmmm.
Get informed, and stay tuned.
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