BREAKING NEWS FROM LAKE BUENA VISTA...AND ALREADY POLLING FOR 2008!

First, the breaking news, which is no surprise: Former Tallahassee mayor Scott Maddox has been reelected as Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party during a meeting of it's State Executive Committee today at Lake Buena Vista. The Associated Press is reporting that while the totals are not available, it was noted that Maddox's reelection was "by a wide margin". He was challenged by Doug Courtney, a state committeeman from Flagler County.

The big question now is: How long will Maddox stay? It is widely speculated that he will only stay a year or a year and a half before stepping aside to run for a statewide office, possibly governor.

Speaking of which...with thanks to fellow blogger Florida News:

The Web news site NewsMax noted that the results of a recent poll conducted over five days by Strategic Vision LLC, an Atlanta-based PR/public affairs firm, of registered Florida voters regarding a variety of political issues, including their current preferences for governor in 2006 and president in 2008. Please note that the amount of the sampling and margin of error was not noted in either the NewsMax piece or at the Strategic Vision Political site, so take it for what it may be worth...or not.

Among the registered Republicans participating in the Strategic Vision poll, here are the results of their picks for Governor of Florida:

33% - State Attorney General Charlie Crist
27% - State Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher
19% - Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings
21% - Undecided

Among Democrats:

21% - U.S. Congressman Jim Davis, Tampa
20% - State Senator Rod Smith
18% - State Senator William "Skip" Campbell
15% - Florida Democratic Party Chairman Scott Maddox
26% - Undecided

And looking even farther ahead to 2008, here is the results of the preferences among Democrats for their presidential candidate?

35% - New York U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
18% - Former Vice President Al Gore
14% - Massachusetts U.S. Senator John Kerry
6% - North Carolina U.S. Senator John Edwards
5% - Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean
2% - Retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark
2% - New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson
1% - Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell
1% - Iowa Governor Thomas Vilsak
1% - Indiana U.S. Senator Evan Bayh
15% - Undecided

And among Republicans (NOTE: Where there are two numbers, the one on the right is the percentage when Governor Bush's name is not in the mix if it is different):

39% - Florida Governor Jeb Bush
30% / 33% - Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani
14% / 20% - Arizona U.S. Senator John McCain
2% - Tennessee U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
2% - New York Governor George Pataki
1% - Virginia U.S. Senator George Allen
1% - Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
1% - Nebraska U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel
1% - Colorado Governor Bill Owens
9% / 39% - Undecided