The race for US House of Representatives from Florida’s 13th District is a two-way affair: Incumbent Republican David Jolly, who beat Libertarian Lucas Overby and Democrat Alex Sink in a special election earlier this year, faces only Overby in the November vote.
In the first poll of their mutual prospects, commissioned by St, PetersBlog.com, Jolly leads Overby 47%-31%.
In a two-way race featuring major party candidates, that would look like a complete shutdown. But topping 30% six months out for a Libertarian candidate is a completely different story. If Overby and the Florida and national Libertarian Parties can find a way to put real money into the election, it could turn into a genuine horse race.
I will be voting for Lucas Overby again in November. I feel fortunate to be registered in that District.
The American Free Soil Party has decided to endorse Lucas Overby. We believe he will fight for fair ballot access laws and we like his position on marriage equality.
James W. Clifton, Chairman
American Free Soil Party
http://www.americanfreesoilparty.org
He has a shot. The R didn’t break 50%.
This race represents a big opportunity for the Libertarian Party since there is no Democrat and no other minor party or independent candidate in the race. Lucas Overby stands a better than of being elected than most LP candidates for US House do, and even if he does not win, he should definitely be able to bring in a respectable vote total. Libertarians around the country should donate to this.
There is going to be a Medical Marijuana initiative that Florida voters will get to decide on this November, so lots of pro-marijuana legalization voters will be going to the polls. Lucas Overby ought to take advantage of this and campaign hard on the issue of marijuana legalization. He should put up billboards in the district that have a pot leaf on it and says, “LEGALIZE – LUCAS OVERBY FOR CONGRESS” or something like that. If he were to put a few billboards like this up in some high traffic areas I know that it would get him a lot of publicity.
He also needs to have a major effort put into reaching out to independents and non-voters. He really ought to do a voter registration drive in his district, which should be aimed at getting people who are not registered to vote, but who would vote for him if they were registered to vote, to register. He should get people to sign up for mail in ballots, and also have teams of people doing door-to-door canvassing through his district.
We can see the advantage of someone running for office more than once. He is probably doing better because of the name recognition that he got from running in the special election a few months ago.
No amount of money will tip the scales. Hypothetically if the LP were able to dump $5 million into the Overby campaign, the Republicans would just dump $105 million.
It is nice to see Lucas polling so high. Should be interesting to see what amount he gets on election day.