Greetings from St Petersburg

I'm here in Pinellas County on a fact finding mission and as usual the best place to gague swing voters is the I-4 corridor. Enthusiasim seems to be peaking among Democrats, not only because of the Foley scandal but also because of Bob Woodward's new book which takes the administration to task for the handling of the Iraq War.

The hot State Senate contest is this area. Rep. Kim Berfield (R-Clearwater) is facing Rep. Charlie Justice (D- St Petersburg) for the right to replace term limited Republican Sen. Jim Sebesta. This campaign is about the nastiest and most personal I have seen in some time. The GOP seems desperate to hold this seat, even though in past elections they have had little trouble holding similar type seats in the state Legislature. The aggressive nature of the Berfield effort indicates to me some worry on the part of GOP strategists that they are going to lose this race.