Rod Smith

2006-05-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/14504265.htm

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/sfl-dlcol06may06,0,7133513.column

Thanks to a school voucher program, Rod Smith has gained the backing of the Broward Teachers Union which is Florida’s second largest. I don’t, however, think this will help him in the race for governor. He still seems to be virtually unknown to the voters.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll, Rod Smith and Jim Davis are running neck-and-neck as the democratic candidates.

2006-04-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

It would appear that Rod Smith’s campaign for governor of Florida remains in trouble. He is still largely unknown to the voters. According to a poll by the Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., Smith is favored by only 9% of the voters, while they have a preference for Davis with 28%. In the lead for the race is Republican Candidate Attorney General Charlie Christ, who has a double digit lead over the other candidates.

With the Primary set for September 5th, I would have to say that Rod Smith definitely has his work cut out for him. There is, however, 63% of the vote that is undecided according to WESH.com.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/03/29/State/Survey_shows_Crist_s_.shtml

http://www.wesh.com/news/8300837/detail.html

2006-04-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

Here is another candidate with skeletons in his closet. It turns out that Rod Smith is a former dead-beat dad. He was divorced in 1981 and in 1990 was ordered to pay $17,963 in unpaid child support, including interest. Surprisingly, none of the other candidates seem to be using this against him. The article reports that in the past the issue has been brought up. It is nice to see candidates, at least so far, trying to stick more to the issues that launching personal attacks.

http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB1F1ZERLE.html

2006-03-03T06:05:00.000-08:00

It seems as if Rod Smith has a lot of work to do if he hopes to be the next governor of Florida. He is pretty far behind in the polls. Republican candidate Charlie Crist has a 10 point lead over Smith.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/10985

It appears that even between the democrats, Smith is far behind. U.S. Representative Jim Davis is favored by a 2-1 margin over Rod Smith. Only about 13% of voters seem to be behind Rod Smith although 82% of voters say they want to learn more about Smith. He definitely needs to get out and meet the public and make his name and face known to stand a chance, because right now things look pretty dim for him.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13938510.htm

2006-02-16T12:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060130/LOCAL/201300334/1078/news

There is not a great deal of information about how the race is going and how my candidate is faring. It seems that he is relatively unknown outside of Alachua Florida, where he comes from. Three out of four democrats in a recent poll report not knowing enough about him to make a decision about the primary. He has raised about $1.3 million toward his campaign. Smith has the backing of Attorney General Bob Butterworth. As far as the issues go, he seems to not be different in his ideas from his major competitor.

It is hard to make a decision at this time about how his campaign is going. I would have to say that he definitely needs to step up his game and find a way to pull out in front of his democratic competition. He has to make himself more know to the public if he wants to win the democratic primary, let alone the race for governor.

2006-01-28T19:17:00.000-08:00

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060115/COLUMNISTS0302/601150369&SearchID=73233978783485

Rod Smith has received the endorsement for governor from the Florida Police Benevolent Association. The states largest correctional officers union is backing Smith even though as a state prosecutor, he led the states case against some of the correctional officers. In 1999, officers were charged in the beating death of a man who was on death row. The DOC has also been investigated for several other allegations including steroid use and hiring employees just to play on their softball team, just to name a few. Smith is even friends with James Crosby who is secretary of the DOC, although Smith says that Crosby will probably not remain in the position.

This article does not say how Smith’s campaign is going, but I do think the endorsement of the Florida Police Benevolent Association is definitely positive for his campaign.