• Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010
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Commentary: Will Florida follow Massachusetts in Senate upsets?

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As goes Massachusetts, so goes Florida?

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio is salivating at Scott Brown's U.S. Senate victory in Massachusetts, as he should. Rubio is young and attractive and a powerful speaker, even if you disagree with him as he stumps to be the next GOP senator from Florida. Rubio hasn't posed in the buff for Cosmopolitan, which didn't seem to hurt Brown the hottie.

Florida Democrats say there's no comparison because, unlike Massachusetts, Florida's majority in the Legislature, the governor and most of the Cabinet are Republican. Surely, they say, voters will blame the GOP for Florida's unemployment, foreclosures and struggling schools and health services. They point to gains made in Democratic voter registration, too.

Pobrecitos, they're just not getting it.

It's not about Democratic registration or keeping the base happy with trillion-dollar spending sprees that are crushing America's economy as deficits go astronomical.

It's about swaying non-affiliated voters, independents who make up about one in five voters in Florida. We vote for the candidate, not the party. We decide on issues, not on platforms created by corporate America or labor unions or religious leaders. And most independents are fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

To read the complete column, visit www.miamiherald.com.

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Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2004. He is the author of the Novel, Before I Forget. Read his latest commentary here.

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