Curbelo

South Florida Republican Carlos Curbelo was defeated last month by a weak Democratic opponent, 119,761 (50.9%) to 115,663 (49.1%). He blames Trump, rather than his own unwillingness to break with Trump over the last two years.

Donna! Donna! Donna!Democratic performance was up... but not by enough. There was a little good news. In Miami-Dade, two red seats flipped blue, although both are fairly strong blue districts. FL-27, where Ileana Ros Lehtinen retired, has a PVI of D+5. Hillary beat Trump there by TWENTY points-- 58.5% to 38.9%, so you wouldn't think it would take a wave.

Total lesser-of-two evils race (FL-26)In August GBA Strategies, working for the DCCC, polled FL-26 voters and found incumbent Carlos Curbelo 7 points ahead of Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

There are 3 South Florida districts held by Republicans that are heavily Latino:

The DCCC & EMILY's List has their candidate and there is also a progressive runningSteve Machat is a guy I knew from the music business who, in one way or another-- attorney, publisher, manager, etc-- worked with Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Leonard Cohen, Phil Spector, ELO, Snoop Dogg, New Edition, Bobby Brown, etc.

Yesterday, a prominent Democratic campaign manager read the post about the Democratic win in Missouri Tuesday and said, relieved, "so I guess there's a wave coming after all." Only people in a state of delusion, I told him, think otherwise. That state legislative seat that flipped from red to blue, was a district that Trump won by around 28 points.

Hagel won 2 Purple Hearts as an infantryman while Señor T was pretending he had a boo-booRepublican Congressman Carlos Curbelo is representing a very blue Miami area district.

Like me, Steven Machat comes out of the music business. His time at Warner Bros Records, though, predated my own and it was years later that I learned who he is-- a lawyer, an accountant and a visionary who became famous working with artists at every level of their careers. He’s a a team builder-- called the “dreamers dreamer” by those who know him best.

Remember how well Trump's coattails worked out for Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire?We still have a year and a half before the 2018 midterm election day and I feel confident we'll be seeing a LOT more stories like the one Politico's Jake Sherman wrote to start this week off: