The consensus seems to be that Jeff Atwater is the successor to Rick Scott for Governor. Adam Putnam might be the better bet for Senator, and he also the Congressional experience in addition to his now two statewide wins. My worry is that the GOP will put up a flake like Atty Gen Pam Bondi. The only other statewide candidate left would be Lt Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, but I don’t know enough about him to rate him.
Of course, Rick Scott himself might feel emboldened to try, since it’s at the end of his second term, but given that he won by the skin of his teeth thanks to a pro-GOP national climate against an unpopular twit, that would probably be unwise (unless his popularity goes through the roof over the next 4 years).
Atwater would have won the gubernatorial race comfortably in both 2010 and 2014, with none of the drama that we got with Scott, and he’s a solid conservative as well. I would think that the governorship would be his for the taking in 2018 (not that the Democrats would roll over and die).
As for Nelson’s Senate seat (which I think will be open in 2018, as Nelson is acting like someone who either will run for governor or retire from politics altogether), yeah, Putnam would be a great candidate, with a fine record in Congress and two statewide wins under his belt. But I don’t think that Bondi is as bad as you depict her, and four more years as AG should give her more gravitas. As for Lopez-Cantera, I don’t know enough about him, either, but he might make a good replacement for Ileana Ros-Lehtinen when she finally retires from Congress (or maybe we’ll need him to run in the FL-26 in 2018 if RINO Curbelo coughs up the district in 2016).
WFLA Tampa Bay AM is always saying when Adam is on that he’s the next governor. Both of them (Atwood or Putnam) would be great as Senator or Governor. Bondi is okay.