Primary lessons

Money doesn’t buy you much if you are Jeff Greene and tried spending $26 million to knock establishment-pick Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) out of the race for Senate in Florida, but more than $20 million bought victory for both Republican Rick Scott running for governor of Florida and Republican Sen. John McCain running for reelection in Arizona. 

Polls don’t mean much since surveys had Scott being overtaken by Florida’s Attorney General and former Rep. Bill McCollum by a large margin. Scott beat him by three points. Polls showed Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski well ahead of Tim Miller, but Miller — the insurgent GOP candidate endorsed by Sarah Palin — is now ahead as the last votes are being counted. 

{mosads}But as the late great Tim Russert said: “Florida, Florida, Florida.” No matter how quirky the primary battles have become in the Sunshine State this year, the outcome of both the gubernatorial and senate races this year is critical to both parties. Democrats aren’t thrilled with Meek and worry he could split the vote for a victory by GOP candidate Marco Rubio. Many Democrats secretly hope Gov. Charlie Crist wins and caucuses and votes with Democrats in the Senate. Some are working for him. Rubio is the Tea Party darling conservatives were hoping was their own Barack Obama. The handsome 39-year-old father of four is a former speaker of the House in Florida with a great personal story and the backing of former Gov. Jeb Bush and other establishment Republicans in Florida. They will be crushed if he loses to Crist after he pulled out of the GOP primary to become an independent rather than lose to Rubio. Rubio is trying for a second act, and has 70 days left to pull one off. 

The Scott candidacy is also big news. The Democrat, state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, is now considered better positioned than she would have been against McCollum because Scott will be answering questions over fines a hospital chain paid for Medicare and Medicaid fraud while he was CEO. 

And as we all know, who is governor of Florida matters much in the next presidential cycle. Stay tuned.

WILL THE MOSQUE DEBATE BE A FACTOR IN THE MIDTERMS? Ask A.B. returns Tuesday Aug. 31. Please join my weekly video Q&A by sending your questions and comments to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. Thank you.