The first congressional race of 2014 is drawing national attention – but it’s not the kind of attention the Democrat in the race is looking for.

Alex Sink, the Democratic nominee for governor four years ago, turned down an offer to have NBC’s Chuck Todd host her debate with Republican David Jolly in their fight to replace the late Rep. C.W. Bill Young in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, according to Politico.

The national spotlight would pose too many questions about Obamacare, according to Politico, so she’ll stick with a local debate, thank you very much.

That’s rich.

Democrat National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz claims Democrats are going to run on Obamacare. Charlie Crist, the turncoat Republican now running for the Democrat nomination for governor, insists the disaster of Obamacare just needs to “get kinks out.”

And libs in the media – like the Washington Post’s insufferable Eugene Robinson — are keeping up their Potemkin journalism claim that everything’s hunky-dory.

But the Democrat who lost to Gov. Rick Scott in 2010 wants no part in talking about her party’s “signature” achievement – in front of local voters or a national audience. And no matter what the party chairwoman says, Sink would rather talk about anything other than the future of the country she wants to help govern.

That means a scheduled Feb. 25 debate between Jolly and Sink at the Clearwater Chamber of Commerce will go off without the bright lights of national television.

Sink was the only one who objected to the national format. According to Politico, the Jolly camp was fine with having the NBC cameras around, and the Clearwater Chamber would have loved the publicity boost for local businesses.

“It was absolutely huge. It was a great opportunity – not just for our chamber, but for our community,” Chamber President Bob Clifford told Politico. “I think it had great value.”

Sink is the first Democrat to face normal, sane, voting Americans (as opposed to Democratic primary voters), but she’s not the only one scared of getting hit by a GOP pitch. Dem senators like Kay Hagen of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Prior of Arkansas are trying to convince voters this whole Obamacare thing must have happened while they were in the bathroom.

And in Sink’s own Sunshine State, panicked Dem congressmen like Patrick Murphy in the 18th district and Joe Garcia in the 26th are pretending the law that passed without a single Republicanvote in 2010 just needs a little fixing by the same party that’s spent four years foisting it on the country.

But Sink is the one with the immediate problem of actually getting elected less than a month from now, and the less light that shines on her race the better.

In the Politico report, Jolly’s campaign mocked Sink’s scrambling.

“What will she ask for next?” spokeswoman Sarah Bascom asked. “A teleprompter or for one of her handlers just to do the debate for her?”

The handlers wouldn’t want to talk about Obamacare, either.

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Joe Saunders

Joe Saunders, a 25-year newspaper veteran, is a staff writer and editor for BizPac Review who lives in Tallahassee and covers capital and Florida politics. Email Joe at [email protected].

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