Dr. William Escoffery, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida.
When Florida Governor Charlie Crist left the Republican Party earlier this year to continue his campaign for U.S. Senate as an independent, the Republican nomination seemed like a lock for Marco Rubio.
At that time, Rubio was facing only three lesser known challengers. The most credible of them was Dr. Marion Thorpe, a former Chief Medical Officer of the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration. The others were Dr. William Escoffery and Billy Kogut, who had also run for this seat in 2004. Both filed for the race at the last minute.
Since then, Thorpe has dropped out of the race with little explanation. That ensured Rubio will sail to the nomination, likely with 85%-90% of the vote or higher.
Both remaining alternatives are totally uninspiring.
Kogut polled dead last in 2004, winning only 0.4% of the vote in the Republican primary. He finished well behind a candidate who had already pulled out of the race.
His interview with the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board was, to be honest, hilarious.
During the short discussion, Kogut made it very clear that for the last several weeks he had been doing everything but preparing for the interview.
At one point the candidate admits that the numbers he’s throwing out are completely wrong, and repeatedly asks, during an on-camera interview, to not be quoted. He tells a rambling story about a Cuban man he knew who built a boat out of a tree and sailed to Panama.
One of Kogut’s top priorities seems to be auditing foreign aid spending and eliminating most of it.
“Take Haiti, approx 1 million people. If you divide 1 million by 2 billion, is that about 2 million per person? They should all be multi-millionaires, not starving for food,” says Kogut. ” These are all things that have been overlooked.”
What he’s saying, no one will ever really know. Haiti’s population is about 9 million people. We assume he’s suggesting that $2 billion is the dollar figure on foreign aid?
Even if Kogut’s numbers had been correct, that’s $2,000 per person… not $2 million per person.
The whole thing was just painful to watch.
Escoffery, the slightly more serious candidate (just barely), is a doctor who was born in Jamaica.
To say that Escoffery considers himself a conservative would be putting it mildly.
His colorful website just about sums it all up.
“God has been driven from our schools and public places, ethics and morals are degraded, unborn children murdered, sexual perversions encouraged, education dumbed down, Hollywood and Sports Thugs idolized, The Family destroyed… and our culture has become depraved,” says the first paragraph of Escoffery’s website.
He continues: “Now, following our recent financial meltdown, the radical President Obama & his Marxist Czars are intent on wrecking private enterprise in America, instituting Socialism throughout the land, bankrupting our Nation, bowing down to foreign leaders, demeaning America, thwarting our fight against Islamic Terrorism and crippling our foreign power!”
The only thing worth watching on Tuesday will be to see how many Republicans, unhappy with Rubio for some reason, decide to cast a protest vote against him. It may be an indicator of the level of support Charlie Crist can expect to win among dedicated Republican primary voters in November.
If Rubio somehow polls less than 75% against these two clowns, that would be a huge red flag for his electoral hopes. But considering the quality of the alternatives, that would be very unlikely to happen.
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