From: januarybaybee@gmail.com   
      
   Tomorrow is the election for Florida governor.  Here are those in the race:   
      
   The competitive Democratic primary includes former congresswoman Gwen Graham,   
   businessman and former Miami Beach mayor Philip Levine and Tallahassee Mayor   
   Andrew Gillum.  In a June tweet, Trump backed Rep. Ron DeSantis (R), an Iraq   
   War veteran and ardent    
   supporter of the president, over agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam.  Gov.   
   Rick Scott (R) is term-limited.   
                                                          ______________________   
   NY Times   
      
   ‘Sick of Losing,’ Democrats Race to the End of a Wild Florida Primary for   
   Governor   
      
   Aug. 27, 2018   
      
   HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — She made her way past a man in a coconut-shell bikini top   
   and a burly guy in a parrot-head hat, and then the candidate trying to become   
   Florida’s first female governor began swaying to an escapist island tune   
   being played onstage in    
   her honor. Just days before a stubbornly close primary election, the show   
   stood a chance of helping win over an undecided Democratic voter or two.   
      
   “What would Jimmy Buffett do?” Jimmy Buffett hollered as he belted out   
   “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere,” a testimonial to situations in which it   
   is always happy hour. “I’d vote for her, that’s what I’d do!”   
      
   The crowd cheered for Gwen Graham, the former Tallahassee congresswoman and   
   senator’s daughter seen by national party leaders as a formidable contender   
   to break the Republican Party’s 20-year hold on the Florida governor’s   
   mansion.  A mainstream    
   Democrat, Ms. Graham is a former P.T.A. mom with a golden pedigree who could   
   appeal to the moderate women who have been abandoning the Republican Party   
   since the election of President Trump.   
      
   “Help is on the way,” she promised the audience.   
      
   But this is Florida, where political races, much like Floridians, run a little   
   wild.   
   - snip -   
   The campaigns of Mr. Levine and Mr. Greene have dominated the television   
   airwaves. Mr. Gillum, Ms. Graham’s friend turned rival, could make history   
   as Florida’s first black governor.   
      
   Polls suggest Ms. Graham and Mr. Levine are in the lead, with Mr. Gillum   
   gaining ground. Mr. Greene, a billionaire who made a late entry into the race,   
   briefly appeared as a top contender before seeing his popularity wane.    
   Apparently concluding he could    
   not win, he preserved the rest of his fortune by taking his TV ads off the air   
   last week.   
      
   Ms. Graham has nicknamed the race “Gwen and the men.”   
   - snip -   
      
   In a state roiled this year by the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas   
   High School in Parkland, dueling toxic algae crises in Lake Okeechobee and the   
   Gulf of Mexico, and the delayed arrest of a white man who shot dead an unarmed   
   black man at a    
   Clearwater gas station, the Democratic candidates have also pledged to push   
   for gun control, adopt robust environmental regulations and try to repeal the   
   controversial self-defense law known as Stand Your Ground.   They have also   
   promised to expand    
   health insurance to about 700,000 more Floridians.   
   - snip -   
      
   Mr. Levine, who offers voters an ideological middle ground between Ms. Graham   
   and Mr. Gillum, had campaigned largely on his work as mayor to protect Miami   
   Beach from sea-level rise.  He realized quickly that he cut a similar profile   
   to Mr. Greene.  Both    
   are self-made Jewish entrepreneurs from South Florida, and voters appeared to   
   confuse them.   
      
   So Mr. Levine refined his message, comparing Mr. Greene, who until recently   
   was a member of President Trump’s elite Mar-a-Lago club, with another   
   wealthy Palm Beach real-estate investor turned politician with no prior   
   government experience.   
   - snip -   
      
   “I’m sick of losing,” Mr. Gillum declared. “I’m sick of losing not   
   because of the names that are on the ballot — I’m sick of losing because   
   of who we lose when we lose these elections: our kids, who are being told they   
   attend failure    
   factories.  Our teachers, who are being called failures and evil.”   
      
   “Let’s make history right here, together,” he said.   
      
   Behind him, though, was the candidate who had won the endorsement of the   
   statewide teachers’ union.  She took the microphone.  It was Ms. Graham.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)