Let's compare how "successful" the current GOP Senator from FL's campaign was compared to the last GOP Senator to representate that state.
U.S. SENATE - FL
Mack (R) 2,894,726 70.5%
Rodham (D) 1,210,412 29.5%
U.S. SENATE - FL
Martinez (R) 3,672,864 49%
Castor (D) 3,590,201 48%
Bradley (O) 166,642 2%
Connie Mack was Senator as recently as 2000. He got a landslide 70% of the vote WITHOUT an hispanic surname -- running against the brother of Hillary! Mel Martinez got a pathteic 49% of the vote (the majority of Floridians didn't even vote FOR him) against a political unknown and won by 1%. If not for a third party guy sucking votes from the Dem and so many Cubans voting for a fellow "latino", this guy would have been toast.
Florida is a very heavily Republican state where the Republicans have solid control over both houses of the legislature, most of the statewide offices, and put their electoral votes in the GOP column unless the Dems nominate a folksy southerner, etc., etc. It's fairly easy for any decent "R" to rack up 48%+ of the vote in a statewide election there unless their name is Katherine Harris. Mel Martinez's 1% margin of victory was lousy. If this guy had to run for Senator in a "swing state" like Iowa, he would have been crushed. Note that Michael Steele nearly matched Martinez's percentage running in the bluest of the blue states.
Although Martinez's VOTING record has been solid, he's had completely medoicre "leadership" skills in the Senate (see Trent Lott and Liddy Dole for further examples) This is the dope who actually HANDED the ENEMY a memo with the "Terry Schivo talking points" on it so the Dems could politize the issue and have it explode in the GOP's face. The ONLY reason Martinez is the exclusive club of 100 is because his last name is "Martinez" instead of "Martin". There were far more qualified and accomplished Floridian Republicans passed up in favor of Amnesty Mel. He is the pick of the "Affirmation action" wing the GOP who wants to appoint people on the basis of skin color.