By the end of this week, about almost a million people will have already cast their ballots and while the Democrats are still far behind the Republicans in vote-by-mail, they are making important gains in all the right places. Even though that in-person voting is the overall preferred method of most democrats, there was a drastic increase in VBM from 2008 to 2010 and the Dems kept up that increase in 2012. If this holds and the Dems can shave off a little of the Republican edge in VBM, things are looking up. While Republicans always have dominated early vote, Dems tend to pull ahead in early voting and especially on election day, so this is an excellent sign. Pay close attention to the districts with close house races – if the Dem VBM numbers can keep up, it is likely that things will go well for the Democratic candidates on election day. –   KB@BurnettKaty 

A video of my reaction after the Fort Lauderdale Strikers beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies is on YouTube…but an even bigger sensation seems to be a staged photo I took on the pitch in St Petersburg before the game. That photo has gone viral on soccer message boards throughout North America. I am not quite sure what all the fuss is about, but it reminded me to sometimes tread carefully when things can be posted on the internet.  – KK @kkfla737

The video:

The photo:

I have become fascinated by the South Dakota US Senate race. Why? Larry Pressler! In my early political days, Pressler was an enigma. A Rhodes Scholar who had drifted from moderate Republican to something of a party hack. He had gone from seeming well reasoned and intellectual to as dumb as some of our Florida legislators. In 1995, he pushed hard to defund The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In those days, as a college student at the University of Florida other than watching sports I lived on PBS. Pressler quickly emerged as my least favorite US Senator. When Democrat Tim Johnson defeated Pressler in 1996 it was my highlight of the night besides Bill Clinton’s reelection (That was the night Florida Democrats lost the State House). But something happened to Pressler once he was out of office. He reverted to his moderate instincts and in 2008 openly campaigned for Barack Obama. With Republican abandoning President Obama in 2012 using slogans as “buyer remorse,” Pressler again endorsed him and penned an editorial stating exactly why. Now Johnson is retiring and Pressler is running for his old seat as an Independent. Fascinating stuff, and the three-way South Dakota Senate race might just be the one to watch election night. – KK @kkfla737

Speaking of PBS, I sense the network is making a comeback in people’s minds following the epic Roosevelt’s series and the recent improvements to shows like the NewsHour. Thank goodness for the Millennials who have revived activism in a way my generation did not, that PBS still exists and Larry Pressler lost his fight in 1995/96. – KK @kkfla737