GOP Civil War: Do Your Part Democrats!

Interesting story in today's Sarasota Herald-Tribune about the civil war competition for power in the Florida Republican Party. In addition to the TINO vs RINO Senate primary battle, a number of other divisions threaten GOP unity.

• Despite an attempt to have Republicans coalesce around Attorney General Bill McCollum for governor, Lakeland Republican and state Sen. Paula Dockery jumped into the race this past week. There will likely be GOP primaries for all three Cabinet posts. Dockery said a main reason for jumping into the race relatively late was her concern about the direction of the Republican Party.

• The state GOP fired its field operations director this week after it was revealed he set up a fake account on the microblogging Twitter site that targeted the Republican Party chairman in Brevard County, who has been critical of party leadership.

• A top Republican Party consultant came under fire last month after it was revealed that he helped set up an anti-Rubio Web site. Even though Rich Heffley is not working on any federal campaigns, Greer reminded consultants this week that they can be fired if they do anything inappropriate.

• Republicans in October set up a fundraising account for the 2010 elections that will be partially controlled by former House Speaker Allan Bense. While setting up a special elections account is not new, the move was done in part to ease concerns from McCollum supporters about how money he raises for the party would be used. McCollum has had to step up his fundraising efforts for the party because Crist now has federal limits he has to follow.

• Several Republican county leaders sent a letter to Greer this past week alleging he is using the party to help Crist in violation of party rules. Greer strongly denied the allegation.

This is the same Jim Greer, if you'll remember, who, in the run-up to President Obama's controversial speech to American schoolchildren said, "I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology." And this guy is with the moderates???

The path ahead for Florida Democrats is clear. Change your voter registration to vote in the Republican primaries to support the anti-establishment insurgent candidates. For Senate, we need to support TINO Marco Rubio and for governor, we need to support state Sen. Paula Dockery.