Florida's Senator Bob Graham has announced he will not seek re-election. Graham dropped out of the Democratic presidential nomination race last month. We had hoped he would run again for Senator. Except for his support of the death penalty, he's been a good, liberal senator for Florida.

This compounds problems for the Dems on the national scale as it opens up another seat in the 2004 elections:

CNN noted that Graham and three other Senate Democrats from the South -- John Edwards of North Carolina, Zell Miller of Georgia and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina -- have all decided to leave next year, forcing the party to defend four open seats in a region that is becoming increasingly Republican.

We offer two helpful ideas for the Dems: Rock the Vote (get the younger voters currently feeling apathetic or turned off to politics registered) and push the felony disenfranchisement bills so that ex-offenders can vote. Both of these groups would likely tilt towards the Dems.