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Special Election FL19: Edward Lynch in the First House Campaign of 2010

Posted on | February 25, 2010 | 2 Comments

Of all the candidates making the rounds at CPAC last week, arguably the most important was Edward Lynch, the Republican candidate in Florida’s 19th District. Why? Because (a) Lynch has already won the GOP nomination, (b) most Democrats don’t yet realize how vulnerable this seat could be, and (c) it’s a special election scheduled for April 13 — making it the first U.S. House election of 2010.

As Lynch told me during a brief interview at CPAC, this April special election offers Republicans a chance to continue the momentum they’ve built with last year’s wins in Virginia and New Jersey and last month’s Scott Brown win in Massachusetts. Lynch was a big hit with conservatives when he spoke on an immigration panel at CPAC:

“He is a candidate for the next House election that’s going to occur…It’s the seat vacated by that loudmouth Robert Wexler in Florida that you might remember from cable television,” said Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund in his introduction of Lynch.
Lynch, who is Hispanic and head of the Latin American Republican Club in Palm Beach County, was part of a four-member panel discussing immigration reform. He spoke for six minutes and got big applause when he called for making English the official language of the United States.
“One of the most racist things we do in our country is not make English the official language,” Lynch said. Failure to learn English limits opportunities for Hispanics, Lynch said.
Lynch also got a big response when he suggested a phone-answering system that says “push 1 for English and push 2 to go home.”

Here’s video of Lynch’s CPAC interview with the American Future Fund:

And here’s video of Lynch’s interview with Ed Morrissey of Hot Air:

Lynch faces a tough fight: The 19th District is one of those gerrymandered nightmares — the Democrats controlled the state legislature in 1990, naturally — and repeatedly re-elected Robert Wexler by wide margins (XX% in 2008). The district went by 2-to-1 margins for Gore in 2000, Kerry in 2004 and Obama in 2008.

What this means is that the gutless staff pukes at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) — you know, the vicious worms who backed Dede Scozzafava in NY23 — won’t lift a finger or spend a penny to support Lynch. So if he’s going to get elected, it’s going to be up to grassroots activists to make it happen.

There are plenty of reasons to believe Lynch can pull off a shocker in FL19:

  • Wexler’s not on the ballot this time. The name-recognition of an incumbent won’t be a factor because the Democrat quit to join a Middle East “peace” group (a liberal outfit that historically played pattycake with Arafat and his PLO thugs). Wexler’s handpicked replacement is a state senator named Ted Deutsch who, in the first debate two weeks ago, endorsed amnesty, saying it’s “just not realistic” to deport illegals.
  • Health care, bailouts and the economy. There are lots of senior citizens in the 19th District who know that Democrats are pushing a health-care plan that will require MediCare rationing. The Democrats’ bailout-and-stimulus agenda is as unpopular in Florida as anywhere, and the state’s economy has been devasted by the economic downturn, creating a throw-the-bums-out mood. Lynch is not a politician, but a successful businessman and entrepreneur — just the kind of “outsider” candidate who can appeal to swing voters tired of business as usual in Washington.
  • It’s a special election. Turnout will be low, which creates a real opportunity if conservatives can mobilize in the district to get Republican voters to the polls.
  • Tea Party activists support Lynch. The GOP candidate can count on lots of volunteer supporters to help in his campaign, because Lynch has been endorsed by the South Florida 9/12 group and by other Tea Party groups.

If you want to make a difference, it’s important to get active now. Like the Hoffman campaign and the Brown campaign, this FL19 special election will probably stay below the national media radar until the last minute. But already the Democrats are worried. After the Brown upset in Massachusetts, Wexler sent out a fundraising e-mail warning about “teabaggers”:

In my 13 years in Congress, my seat was generally considered a safe Democratic seat.
But as we saw in Massachusetts last night, there are NO safe seats. . . .
Now those same Tea Bag Conservatives are targeting my old seat in an effort to defeat a very capable and accomplished Democrat, Ted Deutch.
I need your help to make sure that what happened in Massachusetts doesn’t happen in Florida. . . .
Ted’s opponents are going to have a lot of help as groups smell blood in the water.

Heh. “Blood in the water”! C’mon, people, what are you waiting for?

EDWARD LYNCH for U.S. CONGRESS

Category: Congress, CPAC, Election, Florida

Comments

2 Responses to “Special Election FL19: Edward Lynch in the First House Campaign of 2010”

  1. Me
    July 19th, 2010 @ 1:07 am

    How’d this all work out for you?? Did anyone vet this man? Obviously not but everyone that voted against Deutch was blinded to voting for this man due to rhetoric like this. When November comes, can we at least vote for someone because we like them? Probably not since there will only be two people running in November… great, more of the same.

  2. Me
    July 18th, 2010 @ 9:07 pm

    How’d this all work out for you?? Did anyone vet this man? Obviously not but everyone that voted against Deutch was blinded to voting for this man due to rhetoric like this. When November comes, can we at least vote for someone because we like them? Probably not since there will only be two people running in November… great, more of the same.