Miami Herald Logo

Sen. Bill Nelson prefers campaign trail to convention | Miami Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Site Information
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Herald Store
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • YouTube

    • Sections
    • News
    • South Florida
    • Miami-Dade
    • Broward
    • Florida Keys
    • Florida
    • Politics
    • Weird News
    • Weather
    • National & World
    • Colombia
    • National
    • World
    • Americas
    • Cuba
    • Guantánamo
    • Haiti
    • Venezuela
    • Local Issues
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • In Depth
    • Issues & Ideas
    • Traffic
    • Sections
    • Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Pro & College
    • Miami Dolphins
    • Miami Heat
    • Miami Marlins
    • Florida Panthers
    • College Sports
    • University of Miami
    • Florida International
    • University of Florida
    • Florida State University
    • More Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Auto Racing
    • Fighting
    • Golf
    • Horse Racing
    • Outdoors
    • Soccer
    • Tennis
    • Youth Sports
    • Other Sports
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Florida Influencer Series
    • Sections
    • Business
    • Business Monday
    • Banking
    • International Business
    • National Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate News
    • Small Business
    • Technology
    • Tourism & Cruises
    • Workplace
    • Business Plan Challenge
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Cindy Krischer Goodman
    • The Starting Gate
    • Work/Life Balancing Act
    • Movers
    • Sections
    • Living
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Pets
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Wine
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Dave Barry
    • Ana Veciana-Suarez
    • Flashback Miami
    • More Living
    • LGBTQ South Florida
    • Palette Magazine
    • Indulge Magazine
    • South Florida Album
    • Broward Album
    • Sections
    • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Games & Puzzles
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music & Nightlife
    • People
    • Performing Arts
    • Restaurants
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Jose Lambiet
    • Lesley Abravanel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Miami.com
    • Contests & Promotions
    • Sections
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Op-Ed
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Jim Morin
    • Letters to the Editor
    • From Our Inbox
    • Speak Up
    • Submit a Letter
    • Meet the Editorial Board
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Blog Directory
    • Columnist Directory
    • Andres Oppenheimer
    • Carl Hiaasen
    • Leonard Pitts Jr.
    • Fabiola Santiago
    • Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Place an Obituary

    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Apartments
    • Auctions/Sales
    • Automotive
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Employment
    • Garage Sales
    • Legals
    • Merchandise
    • Obituaries
    • Pets
    • Public Notices
    • Real Estate
    • Services
  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Real Estate
  • Mobile & Apps

  • el Nuevo Herald
  • Miami.com
  • Indulge

Politics

Sen. Bill Nelson prefers campaign trail to convention

By Marc Caputo

    ORDER REPRINT →

September 05, 2012 05:52 PM

Bill who? Nelson where?

The embattled senior senator from the nation’s biggest battleground state has almost no profile at the Democratic National Convention.

Bill Nelson neither asked for nor was offered a speaking role. He held no big public events. He didn’t appear at the Florida delegation breakfast.

But he did stop by and visit delegates on the floor, grant a handful of news-media interviews, attend a fundraiser and then hustle out of Charlotte N.C. after less than a day on the ground.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

It’s vintage Nelson: low key and averse to overt partisanship — the essence of a political convention. Nelson, who has shied away from President Barack Obama while backing much of his agenda, didn’t have a speaking role in the 2000 convention, when he first successfully ran for Senate, in 2004 or in 2008.

“The campaign’s in Florida, not in Charlotte,” Nelson explained. “I start in Panama City and start working back from the Panhandle out east on Thursday. That’s where the campaign is.”

Nelson just isn’t the type of speaker a convention would feature anyway, according to those who know him.

“His style is more tailored to small groups, speaking with voters one-on-one,” said David Beattie, a pollster who works for Nelson.

“I don’t know all of the inner workings of how a convention is put together,” Beattie said, “but it all depends on who fits their messaging, what’s right for the hall.”

By that standard: Florida isn’t right for the Democratic National Convention.

The party’s chairwoman, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Broward County, has a high-profile role. But she’s not speaking in primetime. No political figure from Florida is.

Compare that lack of Florida presence to the role of politicians from highly liberal Massachusetts, where Gov. Deval Patrick spoke Tuesday, followed Wednesday by Sen. John Kerry and Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.

Nelson’s absence is made more conspicuous in a convention that came just days after the Republican National Convention in which Florida’s junior senator, Marco Rubio, basked in a prime-time final-day speaking role that, polls show, was favorably received.

Rubio’s so well known that Democrats from North Carolina to California recognized his name when asked by reporters. Ask about the two-term Nelson, and they draw a blank.

Nelson’s opponent in his Senate race, Rep. Connie Mack, also had a Republican convention speaking slot, albeit far earlier in the day, when many delegates paid scant attention to the candidate at the podium.

So far, Nelson’s beating Mack, according to recent polling.

Late last month, Quinnipiac University found Nelson ahead by a 9-percentage-point margin. Public Policy Polling, a firm that typically surveys for Democrats, found Nelson ahead by a lesser 7-point margin.

But Public Policy Polling’s Tom Jensen found indicated that Nelson won’t walk away with the race because he has “middling approval numbers, with only 35 percent of voters approving of him to 42 percent who disapprove.”

“The reason Nelson’s ahead despite being unpopular is that Mack is even more unpopular,” Jensen wrote in an analysis. “The Florida Senate race is one of the strangest in the country this year.”

The criticism is nothing new for Nelson, who has a knack for drawing weaker opponents — Bill McCollum in 2000 and Katherine Harris in 2006 — while his popularity numbers remain relatively low. As the only Democrat elected statewide in Florida, Nelson is the ultimate political survivor.

But Mack is waging a far more aggressive campaign than Nelson’s prior opponents. The congressman, noting the two-term Nelson’s voting record, has tried to frame the incumbent as a “lockstep liberal.”

Voters, however, have drawn a distinction between Nelson and President Obama, who’s essentially tied with Republican Mitt Romney while Nelson nurses a comfortable lead.

Nelson’s secret: He has shied away from Obama at times, said he disagreed with the president and has championed causes like stopping pythons in the Everglades or ensuring that BP adequately compensated Gulf Coast residents after the oil spill.

Though Nelson voted against the bank bailout, he did provide crucial support for the stimulus and the president’s healthcare bill, which narrowly passed. Mack has made those votes central to his attack on Nelson’s record.

In voting for Obamacare, Republicans note, Democrats like Nelson signed off on future reductions to Medicare of more than $700 billion.

Nelson notes that Mack voted for vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s budget plans that vested the Obamacare cuts and would have reduced future Medicare benefits by turning the program into a voucher-like system that relies more on private health-insurance companies.

Mack’s campaign on Wednesday issued a written statement from a surrogate, former Republican candidate Mike McCalister, that criticized Nelson for voting to cut the defense budget and raise the debt ceiling.

“As I travel around Florida,” McCalister said, “I can assure Bill Nelson that he can no longer hide behind his fraudulent moderate mask.”

But Nelson said Mack is the one hiding his identity because many voters think he’s his father, Connie Mack III, a senator-turned-lobbyist. Still, this could be Nelson’s toughest race for Senate yet, especially as outside third-party groups dump money into Florida on negative ads attacking the Democrat.

When asked how tough the race will be, Nelson gave atypically low-key answer.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll have to let you know closer to the election.”

Related stories from Miami Herald

politics-government

Former President Bill Clinton: Obama can bring back economy

September 05, 2012 11:52 PM

  Comments  

Videos

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants statewide grand jury into school security across state

Who is Amy Klobuchar? | 2020 presidential candidate

View More Video

Trending Stories

Haiti is once again on edge, and humanitarian aid groups debate whether to go or cancel

February 14, 2019 07:24 PM

He was robbed while mowing a lawn. He talked. Then 40 bullets were fired into his house

February 14, 2019 08:45 AM

Here’s Jimmy Johnson’s multi-step guide as the Dolphins begin their rebuilding program

February 14, 2019 03:05 PM

Hearts are heavy, attendance is light at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

February 14, 2019 09:05 AM

Dolphins sign former second-round defensive end and a young cornerback

February 15, 2019 03:30 PM

Read Next

Nigeria delays election until Feb. 23 over ‘challenges’

Business

Nigeria delays election until Feb. 23 over ‘challenges’

By CARA ANNA Associated Press

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 15, 2019 09:36 PM

Nigeria delays presidential election until Feb. 23 over unspecified 'challenges'.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE POLITICS

The Latest: Nigeria delays presidential vote until Feb. 23

Business

The Latest: Nigeria delays presidential vote until Feb. 23

February 15, 2019 08:58 PM
The Latest: Police block Aurora shooting suspect’s apartment

Nation & World

The Latest: Police block Aurora shooting suspect’s apartment

February 15, 2019 08:10 PM
DeSantis asks for $100 million so low-income students don’t have to wait for aid

Education

DeSantis asks for $100 million so low-income students don’t have to wait for aid

February 15, 2019 02:17 PM
DeSantis reappoints Department of Environmental Protection secretary

Environment

DeSantis reappoints Department of Environmental Protection secretary

February 15, 2019 04:17 PM
Author of homophobic slur among 8 ousted in new Broward sheriff’s ongoing purge

Broward County

Author of homophobic slur among 8 ousted in new Broward sheriff’s ongoing purge

February 15, 2019 03:26 PM

State Politics

Appeals court agrees that Florida’s signature rules on mail votes are ‘serious burden’

February 15, 2019 05:15 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Miami Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Public Insight Network
  • Reader Panel
Advertising
  • Place a Classified
  • Media Kit
  • Commercial Printing
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story