Word: districting
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During the week, Tim Mahoney, the Democratic candidate for Florida's 16th congressional district, is a millionaire investment banker in Boca Raton, Fla. On the weekends he plays cattle rancher at his spread west of Lake Okeechobee. Given that just a week ago Mahoney trailed six-term Republican incumbent Mark Foley by double digits in the polls, it seemed politics was destined to be just another of his expensive hobbies. But since Foley dropped out of the race last Friday - felled by the growing scandal over inappropriate e-mails he sent to young congressional pages - Mahoney suddenly appears to have...
...long enough to mark his name look slim at best. Even Florida's Republican Governor Jeb Bush conceded today that Negron "has an extraordinary challenge here. It's never been done before [in Florida]." Still, Bush dismissed suggestions that the G.O.P. should simply cut its losses in the 16th district as the wrongheaded advice of the "talking heads" and "politicians in Washington." Said Bush, "I think [Negron will] be a good candidate given the unusual circumstances...
...Making things worse for Negron is the fact that Mahoney, 50, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is the kind of conservative Democrat whom many Republicans in the G.O.P.-leaning 16th District, which includes Palm Beach and the state's eastern Treasure Coast, can stomach more comfortably in the voting booth. Mahoney, in fact, was himself a Republican until he decided to challenge Foley last year. Born in New Jersey and raised an Irish Catholic Democrat, he became a Reagan Republican in the 1980s; his platform is heavy on economic-related issues like the growing financial struggles of small businesses...
...That's one reason why conservative Democrat and former Florida Senator Bob Graham had endorsed Mahoney. Still, it wasn't until Foley exited that the Democratic national election committee declared the 16th a "blue" district worth fighting for. Democratic leaders like Massachusetts Senator John Kerry swooped in over the weekend to promote Mahoney. And though his campaign won't say yet how much national money has poured into Mahoney's coffers since last Friday, a campaign spokeswoman says it's "more than sufficient" to keep Mahoney on the TV-ad offensive throughout October...
...Negron's campaign, meanwhile, will have to spend less time going after Mahoney and considerably more effort educating the district's voters about the strange electoral situation ahead. Palm Beach County G.O.P. Chairman Sid Dinerstein says the party is gearing up a major campaign of direct mail and polling place signs, and he believes he can still count on the party's base. "As a party we're still motivated," Dinerstein insists, but admitted that the "anti-Foley backlash" will be a large obstacle. Negron says his most important task will be to remind G.O.P. voters "to vote Republican...