The Palm Beach Post reports on the frenzied battle currently taking place in Mark Foley's district:

Despite Negron's uphill climb -- with just 14 days until early voting starts -- few professional politicians are ready to hand the seat to Democratic candidate Tim Mahoney.

Negron's best hope, analysts said, is the demographics of the district. Florida's Republican-dominated legislature gave the district a more socially conservative base when they redrew the districts in 2002, by dropping much of southwest Palm Beach County from the district and adding most of Charlotte County.

The changes increased the number of registered Republicans by just two percentage points, but the difference in performance has been staggering.

The old district wanted Al Gore as president and Bill Nelson in the U.S. Senate in 2000. Voters in what would become the new district picked George W. Bush and Bill McCollum, who lost to Nelson by five percentage points.

In 2004, U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez finished six points higher than Democrat Betty Castor in the district. The rest of the state also chose the Republican, but by just one-tenth of a point. [snip]

The only way for Negron to undermine Mahoney's year-long campaign and to overcome the horrendous publicity attached to Foley's name, analysts and politicians said, is for state and national Republicans to bring in their sluggers on short notice and make an epic push to mobilize Republican voters.

"If the party comes forwards and really helps him get the Republican base to the polls, he can win," said state Rep. Gayle Harrell, a Stuart Republican who ran for the seat briefly in 2003. "You absolutely have to make sure you get the voters to the polls."

The National Republican Campaign Committee spent $21,000 on a poll for Negron last week, according to a Federal Elections Commission filing, and sent in a campaign manger. Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman plans to travel to the district to help raise money.

"Things are happening," Negron said. "The party is not going to just throw up its hands in despair. This race has national implications."

For 18 months, Negron was a candidate for the state attorney general's post, until he dropped out in July.

He estimates that about 60 percent of the $1.5 million raised in that contest can be applied to the current race.

I don't want to paint too optimistic a picture for Negron, even with a decent amount of money and support from Jeb Bush and others in a conservative leaning district, he faces an incredibly tough challenge to reach out to enough voters in just 30+ days to introduce himself and to educate them about the need to overcome their disgust and cast a vote for Mark Foley on November 7. Negron really is sailing in uncharted waters.