SARASOTA -- Vice President Dick Cheney will make his first official visit to Sarasota on Friday, with an appearance at a $1,000-a-plate luncheon to support congressional candidate Vern Buchanan.

About 200 people are expected at the event, which local Republicans hope will energize voters in one of Florida's most pivotal races.

"This is an important seat, and he's coming to show his support," said Sarasota Republican Party Chairman Bob Waechter. "He is a Republican icon."

When he arrives at the Hyatt Sarasota lunch, the vice president will also be greeted by protesters angry with the Bush administration.

Organizers of the protest say they'll be on U.S. 41, as close to the Hyatt as they can get.

"We are going to be out there to give him a warm Sarasota welcome," said Julia Aires, a local activist and member of World Can't Wait, an anti-Bush group. "We just want to send him a message: We want to see change."

According to the Buchanan campaign, Cheney will be at the Hyatt Sarasota by noon Friday. He plans to speak.

So, when a candidate like Buchanan is dogged by questions about his business ethics and accused of having conducted very suspicious real estate deals; when a Primary was so vituperative that it cost the winning candidate around $200 per vote to finish with less than 33% of the vote; and when your big-name supporters turn out to be Mark Foley, Dennis Hastert, Tom Reynolds, John Shimkus and John Boehner, what's left but to call in Dick Cheney?

If you can tell a lot about people by the company they keep, then you know that we cannot risk letting Vern Buchanan get to Washington

(Interesting side note: if raising $10,000 for Vern's campaign is required for a photo with Cheney, Vern himself has earned 35 pictures just since this past Friday alone.  Vern has pumped more than $650,000 of his own money into his campaign just since the September 5th Primary, including another $350,000 this past weekend.  Counting the money he loaned himself during the Primary, Vern Buchanan has self-funded this election to the tune of over $2.7 million dollars.  No wonder this is predicted to be the most expensive House race in the country--Vern will pay any price to buy this seat in Congress.)

Fortunately, our candidate is as strong as theirs is shady.  Christine Jennings has over two decades of local community and business ties, helping local small businesses through the bank that she founded and directed.  The Jennings campaign has been named to the "Red to Blue" list, and Christine is currently polling eight points ahead of Buchanan, despite the Republicans' registration advantage in the district.

Voters here don't want Cheney, they want change.  And while we may have lucked out in Katherine Harris's decision to -tilt at windmills- run for Senate, her far-right agenda is still being championed by Vern Buchanan.  <u>Florida's 13th District is where we can turn back the Culture of Corruption and take a stand for honesty and accountability in government.</u>

But, as always, we need your help!  If you have a few dollars (and a Netroots penny) to spare, please head over to ActBlue and help us take back the 13th District and the House of Representatives. We need to hit 250 contributors on ActBlue by the end of the day to meet our goal--please help if you can.

P.S.- Don't miss today's NY Times editorial about Vern's friends and how they handle themselves in Washington.  Like I said, you can tell a lot about people by the company they keep.

Cross-posted on DailyKos