Work it, girl! Anitere Flores runs hard like she has a real race

After trust fund baby Andrew “Kid” Korge jumped into another Senate race, the common political thought was that Sen. Anitere Flores had nothing to worry about. In fact, we thought Korge jumped because polls showed him she had nothing to worry about. Now with Korge and his attack money out, everyone thought Flores would coast.

But she is campaigning like she never has. Flores is spending money on bus benches and TV ad buys — her first TV commercial aired this week — and driving regularly to the Florida Keys and securing endorsements from almost every group of firefighters there is.

Does she actually think she has a race?

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Flores faces some unknown Democrat named Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who filed right before the deadline. Mucarsel. Mucus (moco) plus carcel (jail). Debbie “Boogerjail.” La pobre. She’s a fundraiser for Florida International University who is just as pretty as the senator and who has raised a respectable-for-a-newby $66,230. She’s only had to spend $4,000 because the Florida Democratic Party has provided in-kind consulting and research worth $46,000.

This is one of the seats they’re desperate to flip, because it’s in a newly redrawn district that President Barack Obama won by five points in 2012. It might be slightly more red, but it appears that the independent voters will make the difference.

So the senator is sweating it.

Flores, who has raised close to $1 million ($946,243) since 2013, has spent a quarter million of it just since June 25. That includes $113,000 on media buys and $62,000 on outdoor advertising (like bus benches and/or billboards) in the same six weeks. Ladra saw the first TV ad over the weekend. And she has about $343,000 left to spend. She also has about $400,000 left in her PAC, Floridians for Strong Leadership.

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And she’s all over the place herself. Saturday she was distributing backpacks in Homestead. Monday she was visiting Wesley House in Key West, which provides services to foster and adoptive families. She’s taken several trips to the Keys, which is a new constituency for her and she seems to be courting them.

So even Korgeless, it looks like there might still be a race in District 39. Or at least Flores is treating it like one.