Cornelius McGillicuddy IV Eyes His Old Ft. Myers House Seat; Stumbles Over Puerto Rico

Best dressed Connie and Mary

This is a post about what's been happening politically in FL-19, one of the 3 or 4 Florida congressional districts being most savagely impacted by global warming. The hurricane-ravaged district, where salt water is seeping into the groundwater as the Gulf rises, starts down south around Turtle Island, works its way up through Naples, past Bonita Bay to Fort Myers and Cape Coral. It includes most of Lee County and half of Collier County. At just 28%, it's the congressional district with the lowest share of registered Democrats. Obama lost to Romney 61-39%.

Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy III won the seat in 1982 and held onto it until he ran, successfully, for the U.S. Senate in 1988. (In his 1994 reelection bid he defeated Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham in a massive 71-29% landslide, winning every single country in Florida!) He retired in 2000 and has been a sleazy Tallahassee lobbyist ever since. His not very bright son, Cornelius Harvey McGillicuddy IV, won the open seat in 2004 and served until 2012 when he ran for the Senate against Bill Nelson, the man who replaced McGillicuddy III. McGillicuddy IV was wiped out by over a million votes-- 55.2-42.2% Like his dad, he's also a sleazy Tallahassee lobbyist now.

When McGillicuddy IV gave up the House seat, Henry Jude "Trey" Radel III, a loud-mouthed Hate Talk Radio host who was both a teabagger and the owner of a network of hard-core porn web-sites. This is the kind of district FL-19 is: Radel won 62-36%. Caught selling cocaine to some colleagues in DC, he didn't serve out a full term and he was succeeded by another extreme right-wing lunatic and teabagger, Curt Clawson, who beat his Democratic opponent by an even greater margin, 67-29%. He spent $4,824,230 to win the seat, $4,017,543 of it (84%) self-funded. Thursday he unexpectedly announced he would be retiring after achieving nothing at all as a congressman.

Chauncey Goss, whose father was briefly the congressman for the district between McGillicuddy III and McGillicuddy IV, and who ran for the seat himself in 2012 but was beaten by the screaming coke-freak, is running. Ex-state Rep. Paige Kreegel, who also ran for the seat unsuccessfully says she'll probably run again too. Same with State Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, who came in second to Clawson in the 2014 primary. And it looks like McGillicuddy IV wants back in too. Oops... I forgot to mention that McGillicuddy IV (like McGillicuddy III) is known as "Connie Mack" and that McGillicuddy IV was voted best-dressed man in Congress and his then-wife, Sonny Bono's not-Cher widow, Mary Bono, who lost her reelection the same night McGillicuddy IV lost his Senate race, was voted best-dressed woman in Congress. They were the best-dressed couple; they divorced just after they both lost their last elections. Adam Smith, the Tampa Bay Times political editor:

We haven't back from CM4, now a lobbyist, so don't know how seriously he is processing this. If he is interested, though, his would-be campaign is already off to a mighty rocky start, considering the number of folks he ticked off this week. Mack represents bondholders owed money by Puero Rico is lobbying against a fiscal rescue plan for Puerto Rico that would allow it to restructure some $70-billion in debt, and he sent a letter to Republican House members listing conservative groups and individuals opposed to the plan.

Unfortunately, a bunch of the people on Mack's list of opponents say they should not have been:

"...NTU has NOT registered opposition to H.R. 4900, nor has NTU announced that it will urge Members to vote against the next draft," Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union wrote House members, correcting the record after Mack's memo.

Politico found quite a few more people accusing Mack of incorrectly invoking their names, including Speaker Paul Ryan's office: “The deceptive efforts to mislead on Puerto Rico have backfired as members understand this is not a bailout,” AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, emailed POLITICO. Ryan has helped push for a deal to help Puerto Rico avert default. “We look forward to moving a solution to protect taxpayers and fulfill our constitutional duties.”

"He's going to come under a lot of fire from people he's misrepresenting," Javier Ortiz, executive director of the Puerto Rico Economic Recovery Initiative, which supports the legislation, said of Mack. "I'm quite dismayed, surprised, speechless that he would stoop so low just for however much money he's being paid."

Needless to say, the DCCC hasn't bothered recruiting a candidate; too busy misleading their donors how Trump is going to help them win back Congress.