Israel Matzav

Senator Allen West?

Politico reports that Representative Allen West (R-Fl), a freshman Republican who has already made a name for himself as one of the most pro-Israel members of the Congress, is considering a run for his party's Senate nomination in 2012.

“I cracked it open enough so that people can slip a note under the door and I can read the note and I can write back on the note ‘probably not’ and send it back out under the door,” the newspaper quotes West saying.

That’s in contrast to the “definitive ‘no’” that the Sun Sentinel reported West gave reporters and editors on Aug. 9 when asked “if there was ‘any chance’ he’d run for the Senate instead of seeking reelection.”

If West did run for Senate, he would join a GOP field that already has several announced candidates to take on Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla).

On Monday night, West told the tea party crowd he intended to run for a second House term, representing Broward and Palm Beach counties. So far, West has raised $1.5 million from April 1 through June 30, more than any other Republican Senate candidates, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Here are the current results of a poll from a conservative website based in Florida.


A few points. First, this poll obviously does not yet include West (although I voted for him as a write-in and I'm sure others did too). Second, not only does this poll have the usual web poll disadvantage of being unscientific, it's also meaningless because it lets people like me - who don't vote in Florida - vote in the poll. Third, who the heck are these people? McCalister and Hasner both have ads on the page, but I would venture to guess that West has more name recognition than both of them.

Fourth, the last thing I would want to see is for Allen West to run for the Senate and lose, because then we would lose a strong advocate in Congress. The next to last thing I would want to see is Allen West running against Marco Rubio in 2016 for the Senate, because those two would make one heck of a team together in the Senate or in other positions. How realistic is it to think that West could win the nomination and how realistic is it to think that he could defeat Nelson? You know all the Jews in Dade County (Miami) would vote against him....

Anyone in Florida (especially) want to comment?

Labels: Allen West, Campaign 2012, United States Senate

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:39 AM