I wrote yesterday morning about the effort to get the erratic Allen West out of Congress, highlighting the campaigns of Democrats Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy to challenge West in the general election of Florida’s 22nd congressional district. A good deal has changed since then.
Yesterday, on the day of Florida’s Republican presidential primary, right wing Congressman Allen West announced that he will not be running for re-election in his current congressional district after all. Apparently, Frankel and Murphy were too strong for him to defeat.
Representative West isn’t dropping out of Congress, however. He will be running for the seat currently held by Republican U.S. Representative Tom Rooney. Rooney, in turn, will shift his re-election campaign to a newly-created congressional district.
Who will be the Republican candidate in Florida’s 22nd district? That will be Adam Hasner, a Florida GOP insider who has been running a U.S. Senate campaign.
At least that’s what political rumor says – an official announcement of Hasner’s shift to the U.S. House race has yet to be made. The Miami Herald has reported Hasner’s move as a mere possibility, saying that Hasner’s move to the 22nd district’s race was only “likely” – not that it had been officially decided. The Herald wrote last night at about 8:00 PM that Hasner will make an announcement some time today.
