ben pollara. | ap photo/j pat carter by matt dixon 11/14/16 05:24 am est tallahassee <u+2014> a hillary clinton bundler and longtime political consultant is starting an effort to draft prominent democratic donor john morgan to run for governor in 2018. <u+201c>he greeted it with mostly laughter,<u+201d> said ben pollara, who helped lead the successful morgan-funded ballot initiative this year to legalize medical marijuana. <u+201c>but he did not say <u+2018>no.<u+2019> i would not be doing this if he was not all right with it.<u+201d> story continued below pollara is filing paperwork with the state to create the <u+201c>for the governor political committee.<u+201d> it<u+2019>s a play on <u+201c>for the people,<u+201d> the slogan used by morgan & morgan, a national personal injury law firm. morgan, the firm's founder, did not return a request seeking comment. the effort is being led by pollara and fellow democratic consultant brian franklin. so far, the democratic short list for governor in 2018 includes names like outgoing rep. gwen graham of tallahassee, miami beach mayor philip levine, and tampa mayor bob buckhorn. republicans considering a run include agriculture commissioner adam putnam and former house speaker will weatherford. <u+201c>i<u+2019>m just a big john morgan fan,<u+201d> pollara said. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s not about not liking anyone else.<u+201d> he says so far he and franklin have $25,000 in commitments for the political committee. along with leading the medical marijuana ballot initiative, pollara also raised more than $270,000 for clinton<u+2019>s failed presidential bid. the early push to get morgan to run comes as democrats deal with a difficult 2016 election cycle. they lost the presidential race, florida<u+2019>s nationally watched u.s. senate race, and were defeated in a series high-profile legislative races. marc caputo's must-read briefing on what's hot, crazy or shady about politics in the sunshine state.
democratic consultants trying to draft john morgan to run for governor
matt dixon