Congressman Steve Southerland and Democratic challenger Gwen Graham rallied supporters in their home counties on the final Saturday of the campaign. Southerland hosted a rally with former Congressman Allen West in Panama City.
West represented Palm Beach and was the first Republican African-American Congressman from Florida since reconstruction when he was elected along with Southerland on the 2010 Tea Party wave.
Graham was part of the Florida A&M University Homecoming parade in Tallahassee. The candidate and a contingent of supporters marched behind a trio of clowns wearing over-sized stove-pipe hats and floppy shoes.
At the front of the route when the Graham marchers exhorted onlookers to “vote for Gwen” a contest seem to occur among those in the viewing line to come up with a better chant.
Some spectators began responding first with “get em Gwen,” then “let’s go Graham,” and finally “win with Gwen,” a chant the Graham camp adopted by the parade’s end. Graham was warmly received by the crowd darting across the street to greet supporters with hugs and to pose for photos.
“She’s the right voice,” said George Clayton, with a smile.
When asked why he said that he began, “While her opponent,” when his companion Angela Bosley joined the conversation.
“His ads alone, blaming the President for Ebola – now, come on,” said Bosley, to the approval of others in the crowd. “Now, that’s just ludicrous.”
Graham is betting heavily on Leon and Gadsden counties. Two years ago, Democrat Al Lawson carried the four biggest counties of the district by 2,000 votes. The Tallahassee area gave him nearly two-thirds of the vote while Southerland carried Bay and Jackson counties by the same margin. The election was decided by the 10 rural counties which Southerland carried by a 20,000 vote margin.
The Democrats calculation is too increase voter turnout in the cities and count on former Gov. Bob Graham’s Blue-Dog reputation providing an opening among voters in the farming and logging counties surrounding Leon and Gadsden counties.
To that end, Democrats registered more than 11,000 new voters and former President Bill Clinton, Civil Rights hero Congressman John Lewis and Jimmy Buffett all spoke in Tallahassee this week and encouraged their listeners to vote and to make sure their friends voted also.
Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, has been telling his audiences to recruit voters at traffic lights.
“There will be an increase in the number of voters,” said Williams, comparing turnout to 2010. “I think the machine President Obama put in place will benefit Democratic candidates statewide and Gwen’s message resonates with voters.”
Graham’s theme is a need to get past hyper-partisanship in Congress in order for Washington to function. From the campaign’s beginning she has been reminding folks that Southerland is proud of the role he played in last year’s government shutdown.
“We have to get beyond Steve Southerland’s I’m not going to do nothing the President wants,” said Williams. “We’ve got to get beyond politics and back to doing what’s best for people.”
The Southerland camp called foul on Williams’ statement.
“That’s characterization is completely false,” said Matt McCullough, Southerland’s spokesman. “Just weeks ago when the President came to Congress and asked for authorization to address the ISIS threat, Steve put politics aside and voted for the bill because it was right for America. That’s the way Steve’s always governed and it’s not going to change.”
The Democrats’ efforts to increase voter turnout to create a more favorable electoral environment seem to be paying off in early voting. In Leon County, 47,537 ballots had been cast by Saturday’s end to early voting, 10,284 more than in 2010 – the last mid-term election.
Most of that increase, 9,295 came from in-person early voting, conventional wisdom holds, Republicans vote by absentee, Democrats by in-person early voting.
In the District’s four biggest counties, which accounted for more than two-thirds of votes counted two years ago, Democratic voters led Republican voters 46,587 to 36,144 with 9,720 ballots from people not affiliated with either of the two major parties, as of at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Saturday.
During Saturday voting the Democrat’s advantage increased by 1,066 in the district’s four most populated counties.
