Establishment candidates

Graham and Putnam are well known to longtime party activists.

Both can raise truckloads of campaign cash. (Putnam’s political committee, Florida Grown, raised $3.7 million in the first quarter of 2017. Graham transferred $250,000 from her congressional campaign account to her political committee, Our Florida, to jump-start its operations. Our Florida is run by Graham’s decadeslong friend, Stephanie Toothaker, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer.)

Both have served in Congress — Graham for a single term; Putnam rose to the top echelons of the House Republican leadership.

What isn’t known, by the candidates or anyone else, is whether that kind of resume will resonate with voters in an era in which Donald Trump exploded on the scene to win the presidency, and Bernie Sanders generated massive excitement and loyalty even as he went on to lose the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

The two candidates who are most outside the system, Republican Bergeron and Democrat Morgan, have similar catchphrases. Bergeron said he wants to be the “people’s governor.” The slogan for Morgan and his personal injury law firm is “for the people.”

Foreman said Democrats face a choice. “The Democratic Party in Florida is trying to reinvent itself and determine whether to pursue a more progressive path or try to stick with more traditional campaign tactics,” Foreman said.

Among the questions Foreman said Democrats face: Does the Graham name — her father Bob Graham is a former governor and former U.S. senator — mean much? He hasn’t been in the Senate since 2005, and Florida has had many newcomers since then. Can Gillum generate excitement among the Sanders wing of the party? Will the party give every candidate an even shot, or will it tip the scales in favor of one contender before the primary as it did in 2010?

Gillum’s Forward Florida political committee raised $507,000 in the first quarter. In the month after he announced his candidacy on March 1, his separate campaign account took in $242,000. April fundraising reports are due Wednesday.

A big question for the Republicans, Foreman said, is what lessons Putnam has learned from the primary losses of other high-profile establishment favorites — McCollum in 2010 and former Gov. Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential primaries? He said the Republicans “would probably be wise not to have a competitive primary and watch Democrats beat themselves up.”