Congratulations to the Florida Democratic Party and Chairwoman Allison Tant on a successful (Jefferson-Jackson ) Leadership Blue weekend. The commitment the FDP is making to a field program is laudable though in fairness it is too late for 2014 to make a big difference. Still the mere discussion of this by the party chair is music to my ears. Still questions need to asked about the structure, fundraising and candidates for 2014. We’ve editorialized about the party’s failings here in the past and we remain concerned about much of it. The fundraising haul from the dinner is also a reminder to many progressives that raising money for state campaigns is nearly impossible without some outreach to business interests. All you need to do is to look at the LB program to see how important business interests were to this effort. The pragmatism of some in the party helped make this happen.  Even progressives must be grateful for this. However, we at TFS will be making sure party is held accountable for the promise that the $1.1 million number that was released to the press  is in fact spent on field efforts. – KK @kkfla737

While many of you probably haven’t heard about Glo Smith for Congress (pictured), she is a Republican woman running against Congresswoman Corrine Brown. Now, everybody knows that District 5 is one of the most gerrymandered districts in the nation and is at the center of several pending lawsuits. I do not know where the Republicans found a black woman to run against her, but Glo Smith has mounted a professional campaign that is at least organized and funded. Even though Corrine Brown is perfectly safe (as is the result of her gerrymandered district), the fact that Republicans went out of the way to challenge her speaks of the long-standing political tensions in the district. On Saturday, Smith had most of her large campaign signs stolen or vandalized, painting her face ghost white in an obvious racially charged statement. Now this brings several interesting questions about playing race in politics – will cause the same reaction considering she’s a Republican? While I do not rule out that this is a publicity stunt from the Smith campaign because they have had woeful luck getting any press in this race, it does seem a bit strange on all counts. Very curious to see how this turns out or if anyone is arrested or what happens next. – KB @BurnettKaty 

The media’s obsession over Carole Crist this week reminded me of the persecution that was levied at Hillary Clinton in the 1990s by a similar media complex. If a female spouse of an executive is successful financially red flags go up. If a male spouse of a female politician does well financially it is questioned less. While I rely on anecdotal evidence to make this claim, it seems obvious enough to write about. The efforts to make Carole Crist a campaign issue by the Scott campaign and some allies in the media are beyond shallow. We saw similar smacks of sexism from the RPOF levied at Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz last year. A pattern developing? Perhaps. Sexism like racism is played subtly in this day and age by savvy pols. The RPOF is nothing but savvy, and this might be part of an ongoing effort to gender bait. – KK @kkfla737

If you happen to hang out with truckers in north Florida around Tallahassee (just to be clear, this is not something I actually recommend), you will have heard strange rumors about Governor Scott from this past spring. During session while he was curiously absent from the halls of the capital, there are stories that the truckers tell that he was out in the small towns around Tallahassee doing small listening tours. No press, minimum staff, just small one hour meetings where he listened to small problems and offered to help fix them. And from the stories, it seems like he did – small bookkeeping adjustments for truckers got them all talking. The first time I heard this I laughed and dismissed it as a hairless Sasquatch sighting, but as I heard more of them – a lumber camp in Perry, in a lime-rock mine in O’Brien, a small Republican meeting in Havana, I began to doubt my dismissal. And I sat and realized how genius move it may have been. Truckers talk and spread information like wildfire. While Democrats have been working on Twitter bombs, he’s been out, quietly working the rural base. Is he onto something? Some special formula to connect with rural workers? While I am still skeptical of these stories, there is a lot to think of there. Surely the man was doing SOMETHING all spring, right?  –  KB@BurnettKaty 

This week advisers on Wall Street recommended United Airlines scrap its hub at Washington’s Dulles Airport. In the last few months United cut flights from Dulles to Miami, Fort Myers and Fort Lauderdale (which coincided with JetBlue shifting all Orlando and Fort Lauderdale to Washington flying to National Airport) though Frontier Airlines will begin Dulles-Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers flights in September. I felt after 9/11 National Airport should have been closed for security purposes and the Federal Government should have invested in a high speed rail line from Dulles to Union Station. Instead National remained open and the Silver Line of the Metro took 13 more years to complete. While the areas around Dulles in Fairfax and Loudon Counties have grown rapidly, the Airport still cannot sustain enough domestic traffic to be a viable air traffic hub. (For example in November 2012 I had to travel to Leesburg in Loudon County just minutes from Dulles and yet flew into National) What has resulted is that Washington unlike the great capital cities of Europe and Asia lacks an integrated aviation hub which connects domestic traffic to international traffic. An airport like London’s Heathrow, Paris Charles DeGaulle or Beijing’s Capital. The German government realizing it had a similar problem in Berlin is close to completing a new airport in the capital city, and the three existing commercial airports will be closed. – KK @kkfla737