Mel Martinez Declines a Second Run

Florida Senator Mel Martinez won’t run for a second term. Apparently, he’s not very popular in his region.

I first became familiar with Martinez during the Terry Schiavo controversy. Recall that Martinez’s legal counsel issued a memo explaining how the GOP could take political advantage of the Schiavo situation—specifically, how the Republicans could stir up the base and how the party could exploit the Schiavo matter against Florida’s Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. When the memo was exposed, Conservatives claimed it had been produced and circulated by Democrats to discredit the GOP.

Although Martinez gave the memo to a fellow Senator (surely on accident as he gave it to a Democrat), he claimed to know nothing about it until the memo’s contents hit the news. When Martinez’s aid, Brian Darling, ‘fessed up to authoring the talking points, he resigned. So how did Martinez get it?

"It was intended to be a working draft," Martinez said. "[Darling] doesn't really know how I got it." (Washington Post)

Whoops.

Update: Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is considering a run for Martinez's seat.