Former Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), who lost renomination in the GOP primary back in 2002, is now seeking a comeback for Senate — in Florida, the state to which he moved after his loss back in ’02!
Smith has now announced that he is running for the Republican-held seat of Sen. Mel Martinez, who is retiring in 2010, decrying moderate frontrunner Gov. Charlie Crist as a “movement away from our core conservative values.” And regarding the insurgent conservative former state House speaker Marco Rubio: “Leadership is not about counting votes and making compromises.”
Smith doesn’t seem like he’s likely to catch fire. Besides, this little fact should certainly count against him in a Republican primary: During the 2004 election, he endorsed John Kerry for President.
Even if Smith were to somehow win the Republican nomination, the history of ex-Senators seeking comebacks in different states than they’d previously represented is not in any way a bright one. Sen. James Buckley (R/Conservative-NY) was defeated in 1976 and then sought a comeback in the 1980 Connecticut election; and Sen. Bill Brock (R-TN), who also lost re-election in 1976, ran as the Republican nominee for Senate from Maryland in 1986. Both of them lost the general elections by double-digit margins.
