RSS Feed of the blog

Contributors:

Reporter William March has covered state and national politics since 1994. Email

Reporter Mike Salinero has covered Hillsborough County government for The Tampa Tribune since 2007. Email

Reporter Lindsay Peterson has been a general assignment reporter at the Tampa Tribune since 2005, focusing on higher education since 2009. Email

TBO RNC 2012 Section

Florida Political Blogs:

• State Of Sunshine
• Pushing Rope
• Interstate4Jamming
• News Service of Florida
• FLA Politics
• Sayfie Review/

News Blog Search

Advanced Search

Most Recent Entries

• How come the poll results don’t match?
• Q Poll: Mack has long lead in primary, ties Nelson in general matchup
• Mack campaign retracts Fortuno endorsement quotes
• Coburn backs LeMieux, answering Mack’s Fortuno
• Q Poll: Romney has significant lead in Florida
• Storm The Swarm: SOCCENT deputy chief asks for technology to stop threat of Iranian small boats
• Nelson disses Obama on Castro daughter
• Hoyer to campaign with Ehrlich
• Mack dumbest speaker in Congress?  It’s complicated
• Guetzloe sentenced for not filing tax returns
• Mack asks feds to investigate LeMieux appointment
• Pentagon Reports Deaths of 7 Troops This Week in Support of Operation Enduring Freedom
• Mack demands investigation of LeMieux appointment
• Ross backs Mack
• LeMieux wins East Hillsborough GOP straw poll

More

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• RNC 2012: The Road to Tampa
• Political Safari

Monthly Archives

• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011

Fox including Gary Johnson in debate; RPOF not pleased

Posted Sep 21, 2011 by William March

Updated Sep 21, 2011 at 06:12 PM

Fox News has decided to include former New Mexico governor and minor presidential candidate Gary Johnson in the debate it will hold Thursday night at the state Republican Party’s Presidency 5 convention, which doesn’t please the party—they’re not including Johnson in the party’s straw poll.

According to party spokesman Brian Hughes, the party stayed with the same criteria it thought Fox was using for the debate when it chose the straw poll candidates—at least 1 percent in credible national polls. But Fox found Johnson crossed that bar in some recent polls, while the party said he didn’t in the ones it looked at.

Hughes didn’t criticize Fox’s decision—“It’s their debate,” and Fox can admit whom it chooses, he said.

Johnson is even more of a misfit in the GOP candidates’ field than Libertarian Ron Paul. He’s in favor of gay rights, legalized marijuana and prostitution, and isn’t religious.