Florida Mayor’s Race Could Be Early Indicator of Tea Party Decline

"While Hogan focused on GOP/Tea red meat about cutting taxes (a pretty outrageous platform for a tax collector), Brown talked about jobs, revitalizing the downtown core, and improving Duval County’s abysmal public education system. And voters responded.

There are two takeaways here. First, even if an honest accounting of outstanding ballots and the recount that currently looks inevitable produce a Hogan victory, Northeast Florida Republicans have been put on notice that they take voters for granted at their own peril with their “we always win” mindset.

Second, as Abel Harding again noted, “Gov. Rick Scott’s approval ratings could have complicated the race. He endorsed the GOP candidate and campaigned for him.”

It could be an overreach to extrapolate from one race in one metropolitan area that the tea party’s reign is over. But recent polls show that the more voters get to live with the results of electing tea party candidates, the less they like the movement. Stay tuned to see where this goes next."

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2011/05/18/florida-mayors-race-could-be-early-indicator-of-tea-party-decline/

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There will undoubtedly be numerous articles analyzing the reasons why Brown was able to pull off this race in such a heavily-entrenched GOP area (TeaParty, no less), but there is also little doubt that the republicans have been served notice that they had best not take anything for granted come 2012.

Nor should WE.