Gwen Graham, the daughter of former governor and senator Bob Graham, has formally launched a bid against sophomore GOP Rep. Steve Southerland

And here's another good recruiting score for the blue team: Gwen Graham, the daughter of former governor and senator Bob Graham, has formally launched a bid against sophomore GOP Rep. Steve Southerland. Graham only appeared on the radar recently, with the local press  describing her as a DCCC target just a couple of months ago. She had been talked up for a different seat back in 2006 but this is her first time actually running for office. Graham is  currently an official in the Leon County school system, and while she sports a very famous name, she insists, as you'd expect, that "I love my dad and I'm very proud of him, but I am running this campaign as Gwen Graham."

There's a wrinkle here, though: Former state Sen. Al Lawson, who has unsuccessfully run here twice before, says he's thinking about a third bid and will decide by June. Lawson nearly unseated then-Rep. Allen Boyd in the 2010 primary, then last year won the Democratic nomination over establishment favorite Leonard Bembry. Lawson was a weak fundraiser, though, and only managed to keep things close against Southerland (he lost 53-47) thanks to aninfusion of outside cash from the D-Trip and the House Majority PAC. But he could well prove hard for Graham to beat, seeing how Lawson easily dispatched Bembry, 55-26, thanks to his local profile and probably also because many primary voters are black, as is Lawson. Bembry, though, didn't manage to raise much either, a problem Graham hopefully won't have.

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