Breitbart News visited the Florida Congressional 13th district Democrats failed to pick up and noticed one week before Republican David Jolly held the seat of the late Bill Young, his opponent Democrat Alex Sink was no where to be found. According to sources, Sink had disappeared from the public arena and stuck to door knocking and political literature drops around neighborhoods. Rep. John Larson (D – CT) called the special election a bellwether almost two weeks prior, but House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer took a more cautious approach telling Breitbart News that it was “hard to say if it is a bellwether since it’s a Republican leaning district,” adding, “She’s going to do very well.”
While Jolly made himself available to both local and national press in the final days, some reporters conceded that talking to Sink was like jumping through hoops. Breitbart News found that even talking to Sink’s press secretary required an appointment, when the individual, Max Steele, was standing in front of this reporter at Sink campaign headquarters. This press strategy was similar to the Terry McAuliffe campaign, especially since both candidates were prone to gaffes on the campaign trail. However, Sink was looked at as evading the media as opposed to controlling it, specifically when it came to her residency issues. Would she sell her longtime residence 30 minutes outside of the district if she lost? What would she do with that residence if she won? After all, she only started renting a condo within Florida’s 13th CD back in November of 2013.
“I met her a few times and I wasn’t really impressed and her campaign bumped someone who was working really hard, so I’m not really crazy about it. And it turns out that this guy, Jolly, has been running the office for Bill Young for a long time helping set the policy and all the policy out of the office is good,” a 51 year old Clearwater resident told Breitbart News. He added he did not believe it was very “kosher” of Sink to move into the district last minute. “She’s not very charismatic. She doesn’t really seem to be a charismatic person and it’s been attack, attack, attack on her ads. And it’s just not good. It’s just not helpful.”
Additionally, the millions of dollars spent on TV ads for Sink focused on the Jolly’s supposed connection to the Koch brothers as well as ads on abortion. On the other hand, supporters of the Jolly campaign ran ads usually fixed on criticizing Obamacare. In a district with many senior citizens on Medicare, Obamacare may not necessarily be an ace in the whole, but neither is the abortion issue either. One Clearwater retiree told Breitbart News at a Jolly campaign event last Wednesday in a local diner that he’s “been on Social Security and Medicare so long” the Obamacare issue did not matter to him, but that he would still go with Jolly, because the Republican “was definitely for the Social Security stuff.”
Jolly told Breitbart News, however, the Obamacare issue really did motivate his base, saying, “Obamacare is an issue that represents two different views of government. We can talk about solving the healthcare coverage issues that need to be solved, but in a macro way Obamacare is seen as a view of government that is pushed by the president and so some people will embrace that and some people accept that view of government. But it is also a reminder to people who have a different view of government–of less government.”