Florida 2018 Gubernatorial

[Confused Democrat]

Used to be on the Graham train, but Morgan managed to convert me. 

His stance on vaccines is dreadful, but it's definitely not a deal breaker for me. Also Gillum just rubs me the wrong way.

[Confused Democrat]

I'm really hoping John Morgan runs for Governor. He's got that nice southern charm and could reinvigorate the Southern Democrats.

His views? They are no less important then charm.

- Legalize marijuana
- Raise the minimum wage
- Stricter enforcement of labor laws
- Criminal justice reform (against private prisons)
- Lower the cost of prescription drugs and crack down on drug companies
- Invest in public schools and teachers (against charter schools)

He's a solid candidate, and I'll be enthusiastically campaigning for him when he decides to run.

[Confused Democrat]

On the impacts of Graham's name, since it just occurred to me: the past three "legacy candidates" were LeRoy Collins Jr., Bud Chiles, and Connie Mack IV, and none of them won their races (or really even came close). Only Mack has the political experience Graham does, but it's something worth noticing.

To be fair, not only was Mack the only one with the sort of experience Graham had, but even Mack was a pretty awful candidate.  Say what you will about Gwen Graham (and she's not some sort of perfect candidate or anything like that), but I think she's far stronger than Connie Mack and unlike him, she's actually won a very competitive race in a huge wave year for the other party.  Admittedly, Steve Southerland was a weak incumbent with a tendency to say really stupid things about women IIRC and Graham has only won one house race, but even so, I do think she's at least somewhat battle-tested in a way that Mack never was by virtue of his district.

Yeah definitely, not meant to be a brilliant piece of political insight. Just something I realized while bored on the CTA this morning.

I agree with your analysis of Graham's weaknesses, but I think you're overestimating Morgan—I think his implosion is almost a certainty, and though Putnam would probably be favored against Graham, the odds of Morgan imploding are so great that she would still be more likely to win.

Why is Morgan's implosion a certainty in your opinion? I don't see it.

[Confused Democrat]

I agree with your analysis of Graham's weaknesses, but I think you're overestimating Morgan—I think his implosion is almost a certainty, and though Putnam would probably be favored against Graham, the odds of Morgan imploding are so great that she would still be more likely to win.

Why is Morgan's implosion a certainty in your opinion? I don't see it.

Hearsay from friends who've been interviewed for staff positions.

Interesting. I've been out of the loop, I wasn't entirely convinced he'd run at all. That's good news (even if he implodes).

So what exactly makes you think that, without spilling any beans? Is he erratic or something like Jeff Greene?

Kinda erratic in the sense that Trump was erratic - just occasionally saying stuff that gives you the gut feeling that, were he to win, he may not be all that great at doing the job. The anti-vax comments to Politico are probably the best recent example of it from Morgan.

On a related note, the guy I know wasn't interested in the job after meeting Morgan, but mentioned that Morgan will probably be able to assemble the best team possible. Got flown in for the interview on a private jet and everything.

I definitely get some Trump vibes from Morgan, but I don' think he's as incompetent or intellectually uncurious as Trump.