We all know that running mates don’t win elections for those who top a ticket. Bobby Brantley didn’t carry the gubernatorial day for Bob Martinez any more than Jeff Kottkamp and Jennifer Carroll did for Charlie Crist and Rick Scott, respectively. Rod Smith couldn’t help the fumbling Alex Sink.
But campaigns can never totally discount a scenario that just maybe, given the right demographics and geographics, the second slot can be a difference maker in a close-call election. Indications are this fall’s likely match-up between former Gov. Charlie Crist and current Gov. Rick Scott will be just that.
Such that Democratic turnout–for a chameleon candidate who has become the anti-Scott–will be the critical factor.
And the key area will be South Florida, home of the largest concentration of Florida’s Democrats–but the Achilles Heel of recent Democratic gubernatorial nominees, especially Sink, for whom the South Florida turnout was beyond disappointing. Thus, it makes eminent sense that Crist has chosen Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, working-mom businesswoman, well-regarded chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party and former host of a CNN Latino show called Taddeo2day, as his running mate.
Naming a liberal, Hispanic woman–of Colombian descent–who’s a serious player in South Florida Democratic politics, is a pragmatically sound move. Even if Nan Rich thinks it’s insultingly presumptuous. Even if Taddeo-Goldstein has never held elective office.
Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic in Florida, and Hispanic women now outnumber Hispanic men among Florida voters. It’s no surprise that Taddeo-Goldstein will campaign as Taddeo solamente.
Approaching crunch time, Crist couldn’t afford to ignore any possible turnout-booster in Democrat-rich South Florida.
Maybe ex-Sen. Dan Gelber, who would be this state’s attorney general if judgment and character had gotten their due in 2010–would have been the superior running mate. He’d likely be better prepared to succeed an incapacitated governor if the need ever arose.
But first, of course, the ticket has to get elected. The Democratic base needs stoking. And identity politics in places such as Hispanic-driven South Florida could be decisive in a statistical toss-up election.