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Fight With Party Might Push Unknown Senator To National Stage
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Candidate
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| Contributor | The Sunset Provision |
| Last Edited | The Sunset Provision Dec 07, 2007 11:45pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Wednesday, November 21, 2007 05:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | He's an affable if not bland U.S. senator from Florida who once orbited the planet but has few lofty legislative achievements and little national name recognition.
Is it any wonder, then, that Democrat Bill Nelson - inoffensive, mostly unknown, and unattached to any major issues, causes or scandals - is again being talked about as vice-presidential timber?
"People around the country may vaguely think he is some character on a 1950s TV sitcom," jokes Steve Tally, author of the book, "Bland Ambition: From Adams to Quayle - The Cranks, Criminals, Tax Cheats, and Golfers Who Made It to Vice President."
Jennifer Duffy, an expert on the Senate with the Cook Political Report, a national newsletter, acknowledges "he's a very nice guy who is just not very dynamic."
But both Tally and Duffy say there is this one important other thing: Nelson enjoys significant popularity at home in what is a presidential swing-state, one of the few that could go from red to blue in 2008.
The two-term senator says he is aware of the speculation about his being a potential vice-presidential choice in newspaper columns, political blogs, newsletters and elsewhere.
However, when asked whether he wants, or expects, to be considered, Florida's senior senator doesn't directly answer the question.
"It's too early for any of that," says Nelson, 65, adding that no presidential candidate has talked to him about it anyhow.
As for now, Nelson remains perhaps the least-known big-state Democratic senator, says Ross Baker, a political science professor and expert on Congress at Rutgers University.
Nelson's relative national obscurity, Baker says, comes despite his sitting on two important Senate committees: Armed Services and Foreign Relations.
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