By Chris Ingram

Just recently I made up my mind to vote for Mitt Romney for president. In assessing the rather weak field of GOP candidates, I believe Romney is the only one who has the experience, temperament, steady hand, and enough appeal to independents and swing voters to beat Barack Obama.

Newt Gingrich’s potential jackpot victory in Florida on Tuesday will only come at the behest of conservative Republican voters who don’t like Romney. Gingrich is betting they will leave their conscience at the door and forget about all the things they claim they value (morality, smaller government, no amnesty for illegals), roll the dice and vote for him. It’s an election strategy most Vegas odds-makers called a long-shot just weeks ago.

Newt Gingrich with Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson (left). Adelson and his wife have contributed over $10 million to a Super PAC benefitting Gingrich.

But Newt’s silver tongue, intellect, and remarkable recollection of history have served him well.

He’s wagering voters’ memories aren’t as remarkable as his own.

Gingrich would rather voters forget about the strangeness surrounding his marital affairs, and extramarital affairs. He hopes they will overlook his Kumbaya moment with Nancy Pelosi and global warming. He is crossing his fingers they won’t remember he once supported a government mandate for individuals to buy health insurance against their will. He is optimistic they won’t remember the historic reprimand and $300,000 fine he received for “intentional or . . . reckless” disregard of House rules while he was Speaker. And he is certain if they remember that he bounced 22 checks during the House banking scandal – one of which was for $9,463 to the IRS – they’ll buy his “blame the liberal media” excuse.

Gingrich is also betting voters will overlook that he is the best-paid history major to ever grace the planet earth. On this I have to admit I am jealous. My undergrad major was in history and I’ve never come close to getting a $1.6 million contract with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be the failed mortgage giants’ “historian.” But I’m polishing up my resume.

Gingrich voters don’t need to remember his mounds of baggage – Obama and the Democrats are chomping at the bit to do it for them.

Need proof? The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union is currently running television ads in Florida that benefit Gingrich by attacking Romney. Interesting side note: the AFSCME is the fastest growing labor union in America today. No surprise there under President “big government.”

Romney of course isn’t perfect. Oh sure, he’s got perfect hair, and a perfect smile, and he won’t ever embarrass the nation; but he’s no Ronald Reagan.  Romney is as stiff as Al Gore but lacks Gore’s warmth and charm. Plus, he’s a successful businessman, which according to Gingrich makes him a modern-day robber baron.

In Gingrich’s campaign of class warfare it is considered a negative to accumulate wealth and “rich” is a four-letter word. Newt should be ashamed; his “us versus them” tactic comes right out of the Democrat Party playbook and suggests that when hard work, determination, and the free markets create success, you should apologize for it. Ronald Reagan must be rolling in his grave.

I guess in Newt’s world, Republican voters prefer ladder climbing, academic elites from the Washington political class. The type who have never managed anything in the private sector, much less created a single job that wasn’t subsidized by taxpayers or related to government.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s a place for people like Newt Gingrich. His place is giving speeches at state GOP conventions, writing books, being a “histobbyist” for special interests, or as a pundit on Fox News. Heck, with his knack for the ladies, he could even take over Hugh Hefner’s job someday. But President Newt Gingrich isn’t in the cards. He’s just got too much baggage, too much hypocrisy, and is too much of a lightning rod to be successful in November. Never mind the fact that he will be a huge drain on every competitive down ballot Republican candidate in the country.

If the old saying “history repeats itself” is true, it’s only a matter of time before the inner-Gingrich escapes and implodes.  I hope it happens before the GOP picks its nominee. Because Mitt Romney is the only candidate who has a chance of beating Obama; the pragmatic members of the party know it, Obama knows it, and Newt knows it. Even Gingrich’s former pal Nancy Pelosi realizes it when she said, “[Newt’s] not going to be president of the United States. That’s not going to happen.”

Pelosi of course was playing an orchestrated card to further help Gingrich by allowing him to vilify her. The red meat of the GOP just loves that stuff but is too short-sighted to realize they’re being played. But the bottom line is Newt can’t win.

You can bet on that.

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of Irreverent View. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, and National Review online. He is the Republican political analyst for Bay News 9, the only 24 hour all news channel in Florida’s largest media market, a contributing columnist to the Tampa Tribune, and host of “Chris Ingram’s Irreverent Views” on News Talk 1470 AM Tampa.  The opinions expressed here are those of author and do not represent the views of Bay News 9, the Tampa Tribune, or 1470 AM. E-mail Chris at: Chris@IrreverentView.com.

Please feel free to submit a comment on our blogs. By posting a comment you acknowledge reading and following the terms and conditions of posting found here.  You may also submit a comment by e-mail. If you e-mail a comment you consent to your comment and name being posted on the Irreverent View website. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, please state so in your e-mail.

Listen to “Chris Ingram’s Irreverent View” radio show live tomorrow (Saturday) January 21 from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. with special guests: Republican Party of Florida chairman, Lenny Curry; Neal Freeman, a veteran journalist who is covering the presidential campaign for National Review and The American Spectator; William March, Tampa Tribune senior political reporter; and Bob Dardenne, chair of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida.

The show is broadcast live and can be heard on your PC or on your I-Pad, Android phone or tablet. If listening on your mobile/notebook/portable device, you must first load the app on your phone/notebook/portable to listen — see directions below or at http://www.rhinoonair.com.

Topics for today’s show include the upcoming South Carolina GOP presidential preference primary, the RNC penalties on the Fla. GOP conventioneers, and we’ll have Florida political consultant Kevin Keogh,  who is the former three-term chairman of the Maine Republican Party as our special guest . The listener call-in number is 727-388-4777.

To listen on your PC just click on the “Listen Live” button on the homepage of RhinoOnAir.com.

To listen on your phone or tablet go to the  IphoneApp Store or Android Market and click download/install to load the app to your phone. Then go to RhinoOnAir.com and click on “listen live.”

The Tampa Tribune

Published January 17, 2012

Ask any Republican — from the rank-and-file grassroots to party leadership — what their No. 1 goal for 2012 is and the answer is always, “Send Obama an eviction notice.”

Yet somehow the Republican National Committee, most of its members and its national chairman, Reince Priebus, are hellbent on airing the party’s dirty laundry by taking Florida to the woodshed for violating the RNC’s “rules” about election dates.

I have what I think is a great idea to solve this “problem.” But first, it’s important to understand the facts. They are:

The RNC has the right to do whatever it wants regarding the management of its convention, which will be in Tampa in August. This includes everything from the seating of delegates, to assigning hotel rooms for state delegations, to designating seating for delegates on the convention floor, to how many stupid hats, pins and buttons a delegate should be required to wear before plopping themselves in front of a TV camera to make total fools of themselves on national television.

Florida is a sovereign state with the legal right, power, will and authority to schedule its presidential primary election date whenever it chooses.

For years the RNC has recognized the Iowa/New Hampshire “first in the nation” election calendar is flawed and needs to be changed. The committee has failed to… (Click here to read the full column in The Tampa Tribune.)

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of Irreverent View. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, and National Review online. He is the Republican political analyst for Bay News 9, the only 24 hour all news channel in Florida’s largest media market. The opinions expressed here are those of author and do not represent the views of Bay News 9. E-mail him at: Chris@IrreverentView.com.

Please feel free to submit a comment on our blogs. By posting a comment you acknowledge reading and following the terms and conditions of posting found here.  You may also submit a comment by e-mail. If you e-mail a comment you consent to your comment and name being posted on the Irreverent View website. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, please state so in your e-mail.

The Tampa Tribune

Published January 10, 2012

Call in the kids, lock your doors, and cover your eyes and ears, the “Flori-duh” Legislature convenes today to conduct its annual business.

Last year’s embarrassing session saw Senate President Mike Haridopolous outmaneuvered by the House. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering this is the same guy who wrote a book with finger paint and got paid $150,000 to do so by some Podunk community college. The book sold about 100 copies.

I digress; that’s old news. But the players haven’t changed much, and I’m not optimistic that the same knuckleheads in Tallahassee, who in the midst of an economic recession last year spent four days talking about abortion and just one day talking about jobs, will get their priorities in order.

Instead of just complaining about what a bunch of out-of-touch do-nothings they are, I’ve made a list of a few things the Legislature ought to consider. They are:

∙ Act on Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign slogan of “jobs, jobs, jobs.” What can government do to create jobs? Easy; leave more money in the people’s pockets. Providing tax relief and cutting costly, burdensome and unnecessary regulations will spark economic growth.

∙ Ban texting and talking on a mobile phone without a hands-free device while driving. Thirty-five states ban texting, and nine states ban phone usage without a hand-free device. Texting is a huge problem, and it gets worse every day. Nearly every slow driver I see in the left lane is doing so because they’re more focused on their phone than the road. This is obviously a major safety issue as well as being an annoyance.

Click here to read the full column in The Tampa Tribune.

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of Irreverent View. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, and National Review online. He is the Republican political analyst for Bay News 9, the only 24 hour all news channel in Florida’s largest media market. The opinions expressed here are those of author and do not represent the views of Bay News 9. E-mail him at: Chris@IrreverentView.com.

Please feel free to submit a comment on our blogs. By posting a comment you acknowledge reading and following the terms and conditions of posting found here.  You may also submit a comment by e-mail. If you e-mail a comment you consent to your comment and name being posted on the Irreverent View website. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, please state so in your e-mail.

By Chris Ingram

Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-Tampa) recently sent out a taxpayer-funded “franked mail” piece that touts her “accomplishments” as a stooge to the liberal, Democrat Party establishment. Other big-government ideologues like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lennin would be proud of Ms. Castor’s record.

Photo explanation: In an attempt at shameless use of misleading imagery, I tried to find a photo of Ms. Castor on Google Images with Barack Obama to demonstrate what an out-of-touch zero she is. But she's apparently more politically astute than Charlie Crist because I couldn't find one of her and the POTUS. But to prove I looked, I found this pic of Barack Obama the worshiper of bovine regality bowing to THE Burger King. How disgraceful!

The following is a verbatim of Ms. Castor’s franked mail letter with my comments following in red italicized parentheticals (like this).

Enjoy the read. Whether you laugh, cry, (or both), you’ll understand why America’s glory days are behind us, and the future for our children is, quite frankly, going to suck.

Dear Friend,

Happy New Year! Working together, we made progress for our community in 2011 (Record unemployment, lower home values, and more foreclosures, not to mention our public school kids being let out on “early release” at 12:00 on Mondays in order to appease the teacher’s unions is progress?). Highlighted below are economic boosts we can build on in 2012. We will fight for every job for the Tampa Bay area (Apparently only as long as they are GOVERNMENT jobs). In fact, I am going to host a job fair (Paid for with stimulus money borrowed on the backs of our children no doubt) on March 3, so mark your calendar.

2011 HIGHLIGHTS (aka: Growth of GOVERNMENT)

We can count new jobs at the Port of Tampa (GOVERNMENT), MacDill Air Force Base (GOVERNMENT), Tampa Family Health Center’s new Sulphur Springs clinic (GOVERNMENT), Tampa International Airport (GOVERNMENT), and other businesses (Name one actual BUSINESS you helped grow Congresswoman). Existing jobs also were saved, particularly at the post offices (More GOVERNMENT and the epitome of government ineficiency, waste, and ineptitude) in East Tampa and Midtown St. Petersburg, as well as in the Hurricane Hunter Aircraft Operations at MacDill (Surprise! More GOVERNMENT).
• In 2011, we committed to helping our veterans by providing tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed veterans (This is called a qualified GOVERNMENT subsidy. Don’t get me wrong, I love our veterans, but this is shameless pandering at its best).
• Boosted travel and tourism through new airline flights from Tampa to Havana (Great for COMMUNIST CUBA’s GOVERNMENT! Don’t get me wrong here, I think the embargo is stupid but Castor’s pattern is not pro-business, it’s pro-government — even Fidell’s. And this claim is like saying because you like the color green you’re pro-environment!)
• Removed a burdensome tax on small businesses (Really? Name it. I’ll bet she ‘stalking about the $600 reporting requirement that would have required businesses to file a form 1099 for any business transaction in excess of $600 for goods and services. This requirement was part of the Obama Health Care bill that Ms. Castor voted for. It was eventually repealed after Republicans and pro-business groups like the Chamber of Commerce and NFIB opposed it. Read about it by clicking here.)
• Expanded infrastructure at MacDill Air Force Base (Guess what, more GOVERNMENT.)

NEXT UP (Survey said!: Even more GOVERNMENT!)

In the year ahead, I will work to play to the Tampa Bay area’s strengths. I will continue working to help small businesses create jobs (What do you mean continue? What single SMALL BUSINESS have you ever helped that wasn’t tied to GOVERNMENT spending or a GOVERNMENT contract of some sort?). Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and I urge you to support them and shop local (Forget the fact that I am adding more burdensome GOVERNMENT regulations and complicated GOVERNMENT tax codes and the GOVERNMENT health care mandate they have to comply with. Do as I say, not as I do.). We also must continue investing in medical research and education (Of course “invest” is a liberal code word for take YOUR money from you and letting the GOVERNMENT decide where to spend research and education dollars.) Moffitt Cancer Center and the Haley VA  (GOVERNMENT) are leaders in medical research, and the University of South Florida (GOVERNMENT) is No. 9 among universities worldwide earning U.S. patents. We must promote health innovation and fight for grants (Fight for grants! Are you s*#t*n’ me? This is just more GOVERNMENT! How about we get GOVERNMENT to get the hell out of the way and we let innovation and natural incentive to succeed drive research?)

2012 JOB FAIR (aka: All I can do to fool people into thinking I know anything about jobs)
Meet with potential (Probably GOVERNMENT) employers at my job fair. Learn how to improve your resume, and other job-searching tips. Experts will be on hand to help you navigate the (GOVERNMENT) job-hunting (And grant-writing) process.
WHEN: 10 a.m. Saturday, March 3
WHERE: Workforce Tampa Career Center, 9215 N. Florida Ave.

Sincerely,

(Your pal) Kathy Castor (Not a friend of Chris’; I don’t know how my mom can stand to sit next to him on set at Bay News 9).

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of Irreverent View. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, and National Review online. He is the Republican political analyst for Bay News 9, the only 24 hour all news channel in Florida’s largest media market. The opinions expressed here are those of author and do not represent the views of Bay News 9. E-mail him at: Chris@IrreverentView.com.

Please feel free to submit a comment on our blogs. By posting a comment you acknowledge reading and following the terms and conditions of posting found here.  You may also submit a comment by e-mail. If you e-mail a comment you consent to your comment and name being posted on the Irreverent View website. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, please state so in your e-mail.

When choosing gifts to give those you care about this holiday season, it’s always best to ask the experts! That’s why FLDemocracy asked some of Florida’s best pundits, professors, and pols for help in picking out the perfect gifts for the candidates ahead of our Jan. 31 primary.

Their suggestions were thoughtful (so nice of Chris Ingram to think of Gary Johnson), hilarious (Thanks, Mark Foley) and perfectly gift-wrapped (Sid Dinerstein composed a candidate-carol).  In honor of the holiday season, here’s what our selection of experts would give the field:

GOP consultant and Bay News 9 political analyst Chris Ingram:  “For Gingrich, (click here to read the full article on FlDemocracy.com)

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of Irreverent View. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, and National Review online. He is the Republican political analyst for Bay News 9, the only 24 hour all news channel in Florida’s largest media market. The opinions expressed here are those of author and do not represent the views of Bay News 9. E-mail him at: Chris@IrreverentView.com.

Please feel free to submit a comment on our blogs. By posting a comment you acknowledge reading and following the terms and conditions of posting found here.  You may also submit a comment by e-mail. If you e-mail a comment you consent to your comment and name being posted on the Irreverent View website. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, please state so in your e-mail.

(Editor’s note: The following commentary was written by Patrick Monteiga, editor of Tampa’s La Gaceta newspaper, the only tri-lingual newspaper in the United States. The column appeared in today’s edition. Monteiga and his family are of Cuban ancestory. The column is reprinted with permission).

Sen. Marco Rubio at CPAC. Photo by Gage Skidmore.

The revelations from Marc Rubio’s family history have brought us closer to the U.S. Senator than we’ve ever been before. You see, the real version of Rubio’s heritage closely resembles the Manteiga heritage.

My grandfather Victoriano, like Rubio’s dad and mom, came from Cuba to the U.S. for a job and a better life. My grandfather came in 1913 (at least that’s the story) and was hired by the workers at the Morgan Cigar Factory as the lector. Rubio’s father, Mario, came over in 1956 and found a bartending job.

Victoriano wanted to stay here permanently and become a U.S. citizen, but he was still interested in the family and friends left behind in Cuba. Mario seemed to follow the same creed.

Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was hated by my grandfather who hoped Fidel Castro would bring better days to Cuba. Mario left in 1956 during the reign of Batista supposedly because of the violence and uncertainty. It seems he also hoped that Castro would change things for the better.

In 1961, after Castro resumed relations with the USSR and nationalized American oil companies and  sugar interests, Rubio’s mom, Oriales, went back to either look after a relative or to see if things were better in Cuba so her family could move back depending on the version of the story. Odd, considering that most observers could see Cuba slipping towards Soviet-style communism by then.

Victoriano also made a trip to Cuba in 1961. According to family lore, it was in an effort to help family and friends who ended up on the wrong side of the revolution.

Here’s where the Manteiga/Rubio historic narrative separates. When my grandfather came back, many in the newly-arrived exile community called him a communist and boycotted our business.

When Rubio’s mom came back it seems the whole family falsely embraced exile status saying they fled Castro and who knows, maybe they even accepted the welfare that was offered to the exile community. My grandfather came back and was ostracized by many of the exiles, while Rubio’s family, because of their lie, was embraced.

There is one more similarity. When Mario was asked if he was a communist on the petition for naturalization, he wrote no. Victoriano was visited by the FBI in 1961 to talk about the current situation in Cuba and America. As part of that visit, the FBI commented that Victoriano presented leaflets distributed by the Communist Party of Florida accusing Manteiga of being a follower of Adolf Hitler. What better proof of not being a communist could you have than the communists accusing you of being a Nazi?

Rubio’s cohorts in Miami’s exile community blocked the naming of the Ybor Post Office after my father because our newspaper didn’t trash Castro quickly enough. We wonder if Rubio’s cohorts will now turn on him because, obviously, if the Rubios were considering a return to Cuba in 1961, they couldn’t have been too critical of Castro.

We are proud of our heritage and of my father and grandfather. I am very proud that they chose honesty over the convenience of sensationalism.

###

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of Irreverent View. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, and National Review online. He is the Republican political analyst for Bay News 9, the only 24 hour all news channel in Florida’s largest media market. The opinions expressed here are those of author and do not represent the views of Bay News 9. E-mail him at: Chris@IrreverentView.com.

Please feel free to submit a comment on our blogs. By posting a comment you acknowledge reading and following the terms and conditions of posting found here.  You may also submit a comment by e-mail. If you e-mail a comment you consent to your comment and name being posted on the Irreverent View website. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, please state so in your e-mail.

By Mark Sharpe

It’s the 4th of July so in respect to those who put it all on the line to create a new nation some 235 years ago – I make my own declaration. 

I am committed to working with anyone – Republican or Democrat, independent or tea party, vegan or meat eater, straight or gay, black or white, Hispanic or other ethnic origin so long as they are equally committed to answering America’s challenges and putting us on the course to greatness once again. 

Photo: Mark Sharpe

Some among us butter their bread dividing America or launching irresponsible invectives against their opponents.

I commit myself to eschewing fear-mongering or labels which attempt to identify the “other side” as unpatriotic or worse, preferring rather that we get on with the hard tasks of putting our country back on a sustainable path of economic prosperity and opportunity for all.

I declare a commitment to forge ahead with those who want to deal responsibly with our financial woes and check our unsustainable and poorly thought out military commitments. Working together we will make America great once again; a nation powered by the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and so brilliantly enabled in our Constitution.

James Madison would boldly declare 20 years after the Declaration of Independence that the U.S. Constitution was “nothing but a dead letter until life and validity was breathed into it, by the will of the people.” He recognized then that our uniqueness was embedded in a core conviction that the American people could be trusted to self governance, a then revolutionary concept. 

Today some seek answers in Washington, but my sense is that Madison had it right when he looked to the states and the people for their concurrence to the new Constitution.  Thus plans for dealing with the national debt, reforming entitlements, improving healthcare or disengaging from Iraq and Afghanistan might originate from the policy shapers in D.C., but it’s a “dead letter” until a concordance is established with the American people.

Continued fear-mongering by “placeholders” in  Washington who will fight any attempt at reform with wretched scare tactics to ensure their brief political survival, is as abhorrent as those talk radio pundits who seek to squelch any attempt to work together to solve our problems as unprincipled appeasement. 

The founders who bore the brunt of building a new nation had little use for loud-mouthed demagogues who cast stones from the safety of the sidelines, recognizing then, as New Jersey Governor Chris Christies does today, that “principled compromise” is critical when drafting a Declaration of Independence, when forging a Constitution, or when solving our current federal debt crisis. 

Madison joined with other Americans who decades earlier risked it all on the front lines in the drafting and signing of our Declaration of Independence, by bravely venturing into what Teddy Roosevelt would later describe as “the arena” to build a new nation.  We therefore need a new commitment by all today who seek to join our founders “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence”  to “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” in forging a renewed America.

America can successfully deal with our debt crisis and unshackle our military from unwise or dated overseas entanglements, but it will take a mature dialogue and principled dedication to real reform.

My declaration is to begin this discussion and follow its course by showing true leadership not fear mongering, partisan bickering or political pandering.

Join me.

Mark Sharpe is a Republican Hillsborough County Commissioner who is expected to run for the U.S. Congress next year. E-mail him at: msharpe1776@gmail.com.

Please feel free to submit a comment on our blogs. By posting a comment you acknowledge reading and following the terms and conditions of posting found here.  You may also submit a comment by e-mail. If you e-mail a comment you consent to your comment and name being posted on the Irreverent View website. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, please state so in your e-mail.

By Chris Ingram

I like Mike Bennett. His poorly chosen words about making people walk hundreds of miles to vote (as he alleges) like they do in Africa notwithstanding, he’s a political pro who knows what he’s doing.

So when he came out with his “I don’t have the fire in the belly” line as he announced his withdraw as a candidate for the 11th Congressional District (currently held by Kathy Castor, D-Tampa), I laughed.

Photo: Mike Bennett

Mike’s decision to pull out of this race had nothing to do with his belly, or heartburn, or wanting to spend time fishing or the proverbial “time with the family.” Mike Bennett is too smart and isn’t that shortsighted to allow belly issues to dictate his political future (which he incidentally says he still has — a political future that is, not belly issues).

No, Mike Bennett’s withdraw has everything to do with Congressman Vern Buchanan (R-Sarasota).

First, understand Bennett was never going to actually run against Castor. The only way Bennett was going to run in the 11th was if the legislature drew him a district that made Sarasota and Manatee counties the heart of the district. And that wasn’t ever going to happen. Mike Bennett is a politician, and politicians loathe taking the kinds of risks Bennett would have been taking by running against Castor; even post-redistricting, the 11th will more than likely remain a safe “D” district and Mike Bennett knows it.

What Bennett did by forming a campaign committee and saying he was going to run against Castor was allowing him the opportunity to raise money for a congressional campaign. The U.S. Constitution only requires that a member of Congress be a resident of the state they represent. They don’t have to actually live in the district. As such, Bennett could’ve run against Castor, all the while not even living there. Of course south Tampa residents would have balked at the carpet-bagger from down south and Bennett knows this. He publicly said he was willing to move into the 11th if he had to, but that was not likely and it only partly resolved the carpet-bagging/opportunist problem.

For Bennett, complicated federal election laws would have allowed him to run as a candidate for the 11th (even though he didn’t live there) and raise money. And as with all things politics, to understand an issue, you need only follow the money (or understand how it flows). Bennett could raise money as a candidate for the 11th District and then later transfer that money for his campaign for any congressional seat in the state so long as he did so by candidate qualifying day next year.

And that is what I think Bennett intended to do.

Enter Vern Buchanan, who represents the district where Mike Bennett lives.

Unless you believe in Santa Clause and the Tooth fairy, you don’t believe in coincidences — at least not ones like the following:

Early Monday, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) announced it was closing its case looking into allegations that Congressman Buchanan knowingly accepted illegal campaign contributions. Later that day Mike Bennett withdrew his candidacy for Castor’s seat. But remember, he never intended to run against Castor. Saying he was running against Castor just allowed him to raise money without having to announce what he was really hoping to do — which is run for the seat currently held by Buchanan — which he only intended to do if things with the FEC went south for Buchanan, or if at the last minute Buchanan decided to run for the U.S. Senate.

Mike Bennett was just bluffing and waiting to see what happened with his pal Vern. Fortunately for Vern the cards worked out well for him, but for Bennett he lost his seat at the table.

I spoke to Bennett this afternoon and told him of my theory to which he replied, “I hadn’t thought about that.” But like he said in his announcement earlier this week, he told me he’s not finished in politics.

He just needs to down some Rolaids and catch some fish first.

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of Irreverent View. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, and National Review online. He is the Republican political analyst for Bay News 9, the only 24 hour all news channel in Florida’s largest media market. The opinions expressed here are those of author and do not represent the views of Bay News 9. E-mail him at: Chris@IrreverentView.com.

Please feel free to submit a comment on our blogs. By posting a comment you acknowledge reading and following the terms and conditions of posting found here.  You may also submit a comment by e-mail. If you e-mail a comment you consent to your comment and name being posted on the Irreverent View website. If you wish to remain completely anonymous, please state so in your e-mail.