The St. Petersburg Times today has a striking piece about Alex Sink's campaign for Florida governor. She had been touted by state and national Democrats as a top-tier candidate in a race that always has national implications. But some of the on-the-record quotes from those identified as her supporters sound strikingly similar to comments we heard about Martha Coakley as her Senate campaign went downhill.

The piece describes Sink, currently the state Chief Financial Officer, as "a hypercautious candidate without a potent message or viable political operation." More:

Sink is the first Democratic gubernatorial candidate in two decades to raise more money than the leading Republican, and that matters enormously in a state as vast as Florida. But money and a lackluster Republican opponent are about the only things her campaign has going for it at the start of an election year shaping up to be tough for Democrats everywhere.

"There's certainly time to turn it around and get it on the right path," said Democratic consultant Jeff Garcia of Miami, "but the campaign appears to be behind the eight ball and a little bit slow in developing."

...

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek is everywhere holding grass roots political events, while Sink's main Republican gubernatorial rival, Bill McCollum, regularly has "Breakfast with Bill" community meetings or rolls out grass roots campaign teams. Democrats say they see little pulse with the Sink campaign unless it involves soliciting campaign checks.

"As a grass roots organizer, it's difficult to make a case for a candidate who is unknown. I've never been contacted by the campaign,'' said Ann Zucker, president of the Weston Democratic Club in Broward County. "I am disenchanted with Alex Sink. She doesn't seem to like talking to the grass roots."

Sink herself is quoted in the piece, and she concedes her inexperience in the art of politics -- trying to turn it against her opponent, state Attorney General Bill McCollum:

"Unlike my opponent who's run for office 14 times, I've only run for office one time and it is a different experience from the world I came from,'' said Sink, adding that she's always working to improve. "I don't know anybody who likes a Web cam stuck 6 inches away from your face. . . . But that's the way it is. I just have to suck it up."

The end of that quote harkens back to Coakley's infamous quote -- asking rhetorically if her time would have been better spent "standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold?"

One thing is for sure though: Sink does have time to turn things around. But as the polling in Florida shows, she's got some tough work ahead of her, and the trend doesn't bode well.

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