The Graham Team - "Graham has a brand-new campaign manager, Paul Johnson, a veteran Democratic strategist who most recently managed the successful campaign of Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Graham also is close to hiring Karl Struble as his outside media strategist, Washington sources said. Struble, who got his start working for Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, handled media in the winning campaigns of three Democratic senators last year: Pryor, Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. ''He's one of the best guys on the Democratic side,'' said Gordon Hensley, a Washington-based Republican political operative. Graham also now has three full-time fundraisers: Lori Samuels, who was the state finance director in his last two Senate reelection campaigns; Steve Paikowsky, who has raised money for Democrats in Florida since 1990; and Michelle Wallach, who was the national finance director in his 1998 reelection campaign." "Graham making key hires", from the Miami Herald.
City Wars - "Florida Democratic chairman Scott Maddox has pledged to rebuild the party by promoting new political talent, but his sizeable investment in city politics this year may promote something else. It likely will escalate the bidding war between Democrats and Republicans over jobs that are, by local charter, nonpartisan." The reset of the St Pete Times editorial: "Cities as partisan prizes".
No Shame - This via FlaBlog: "A freshman lawmaker was so unfamiliar with his own bill Wednesday that he couldn't answer any questions posed by a legislative committee. So he turned to someone he said was the expert: a lobbyist for the state's biggest developers." See "Whose water is this bill carrying?"