Florida 16th news

The latest on who the GOP will get to run against incumbent Tim Mahoney.

State Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and attorney Tom Rooney are taking an early organizational lead among the five or more Republicans looking to challenge freshman U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Palm Beach Gardens.

Mahoney will be one of the national GOP's top House targets in 2008. He was elected with 49.5 percent last November in a Republican-leaning district after the implosion of six-term Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Foley.

Harrell has lined up consultants Randy Nielsen and Rich Johnston of West Palm Beach-based Public Concepts to handle her campaign. The firm handled Foley's successful congressional bids. Harrell also has secured the support of state Senate President and Treasure Coast powerhouse (and Public Concepts client) Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie. And she's scheduled three fund-raisers for this month, including a Manalapan event headlined by Contract With America impresario Newt Gingrich.

Rooney has tapped Tallahassee lobbyist and Republican A-lister Brian Ballard to head a campaign finance team. Ballard's sister, Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, is endorsing Rooney, who has scheduled two fund-raisers this month. His campaign will be managed by Phil Vangelakos, who piloted Attorney General Bill McCollum's 2006 campaign.

I hope Harrell gets the nomination. If so she is likely to win, just as if she would have if she had been chosen to replace Foley on the ballot last fall, instead of the 'annointed one' Joe Negron. Only twenty months till the 2008 election, I can hardly wait.(Cue the sarcastic laughter.)

Linked to- Bright & Early, Bullwinkle, Right Wing Nation,