I-4 Corridor Madness

There were three, maybe four accidents on I-4 this evening--the interstate linking Tampa-Orlando-Daytona Beach. Sitting in traffic, hitting my defective car radio, I had plenty of time to ponder the "swing voter" made famous by I-4.

Who is the swing voter? I guess what makes them special is their unpredictability. Lean Democrat one day, Undecided another, Lean GOP, all the way up till Election Day. Even after talking to so many of them, I'm still not completely sure how to define one.

I know that Lawton Chiles was instrumental in getting I-10 finished in North Florida. I wonder how he thought about growth as an issue. I'm sure he knew already in 1970 that Florida was going to boom. I wonder what he thought about public transit and how to fund.

At least I have a good sense of how to think about Orlando: a couple historic neighborhoods surrounded by cookie-cutter suburbs connected by Applebees, Starbucks, and Super Wal-Mart...and Steak and Shake. To me, Eatonville is the only old area that stands out. The rest is just a blur of McDonald's arches and palm trees, obscuring more arches and palms.

Maybe I should not fret over the swing voter. Chiles lost Orange County his 1970 campaign. He lost it to the GOP in 1994, too. Orlando is the crown jewel of the I-4 Corridor, the textbook case of swing voters nationwide. There must have been something that baffled Chiles, too.