Florida Senator and Former House Minority Leader Dan Gelber is getting closer to an official announcement of his candidacy for running for the U.S. Senate. It's interesting to compare Gelber and Ron Klein who share a natural South Florida Jewish Democratic constituency, but fairly limited name recognition through-out the state. Klein has proven to be a better fund-raiser and is less caustic than Gelber, and is a bit more conservative. But Gelber can have his cake and eat it too; Florida has a "Resign to Run" law that effectively bars one from holding office and running for another office. The Florida legislature, however, created an exception that would exempt one who holds state office and runs for federal office (largely thought to have been for Governor Crist, opening a pathway to the Vice Presidency). For all of the other Democratic contenders, including Klein, they will have to give up their current federal seats when running for the Senate; Gelber can have a nice-fall back job should he fail to win the U.S. Senate seat.
