Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) “Running Scared”?

Florida is considered a key state that must be carried by President Obama to win a second term. There is only one statewide race and it is for the U.S. Senate. Incumbent Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) will be challenged by the winner of the Republican primary election held on August 14, 2012. The winner of the Senate seat will help his or her party carry the state of Florida in November and can determine which party will hold a super majority in the Senate.

According to Powerline.com there are a number of Senators “running scared” when it comes to raising taxes on those making over $250,000 a year.

Paul Mirengoff, in his column “Has Obama Carved Out The Wrong Class Against Which To Wage War?” states, “Now look at the states these candidates are running (scared) in. Three of them — Florida (Nelson), Virginia (Kaine) and Nevada (Berkley) — are among the small number of states that are rated toss-ups in the presidential race, and are considered key to winning the presidency … What does this mean? Unless Nelson, McCaskill, Kaine, and Barkley don’t know their states, it means that Team Obama’s decision to to raise taxes for people making more than $250,000 is likely to hurt Obama in states, and among voters, that he needs to win.”

Seung Min Kim, Manu Raju and Scott Wong from Politico report, “President Barack Obama’s renewed push to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 is facing some strong head winds: [With] Democrats running for Congress in 2012 … Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson’s ‘favored’ position is to permanently extend the Bush-era tax cuts for those making less than $1 million, according to his office.”  Read more.

Real Clear Politics shows Florida to be a toss up with President Obama leading Mitt Romney by an average poll margin of 0.8 of a point.