David Shapiro loses support in bid to unseat Vern Buchanan

The Democratic Party has pulled more than $800,000 worth of air time for ads it was planning to spend in the Congressional District 16 race to benefit Democrat David Shapiro, who's challenging U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key.

The move could mean that the party, which once thought Shapiro had a good shot at unseating Buchanan, no longer thinks so after a couple of polls recently showed Shapiro trailing.

Buchanan spokesman Max Goodman said the Dems' move "confirms what independent polls have shown over the past two weeks—Vern Buchanan is going to win re-election."

Still, the move comes at a time when Shapiro is boasting highly successful fundraising, $697,988 in August and September plus a $150,000 loan from the candidate, with $434,553 in cash on hand at the end of the period.

For the same period, Buchanan showed $176,727, but gave his campaign his second loan of $250,000, and finished with $1,484,572.