Why did Florida miss the national tidal wave?

[Dr.Phool]

I'll pin this right where it belongs.

Karen Thurman.

[seasat]

1. I don't know if I'd blame her.

We've had two very weak leaders of the state party prior to her. Poe did nothing and Maddox used his leadership as a stepping stone to get in the governors race. We also had the accounting scandal under Maddox. There's a lot of infighting with the local parties that she inherited. We've got a lot of the old Dixiecrats that are slowly being weeded out of the party. I think that the dixiecrats have hampered the party more than they've helped. Thurman hasn't been in power long enough to either make a difference or totally screw up.

IMHO, we need to build an activist network base here in Florida. Thurman may not be the one to do it but we did gain 7 seats in the Florida legislature under her leadership. Those are the first gains in 16 years. We also gathered more of the Hispanic vote. They supported Davis more than Crist. We need to start doing something to get the African-American base to trust us. Chameleon Charlie peeled off too many of them.

We need to rally behind the amendment to make redistricting non-partisan. We also need to pressure our Democratic legistors to make real campaign finanace an issue. Between the 527s and the unholy amount of money the RPOF was able to raise, it's tough to field any competition. Finally, Thurman or whoever runs our party, needs to apply Dean's 50 state strategy to Florida. We need candidates in every race. We had that for the US house races this year but we also need it for the Florida legislature. We definitely need to draft someone to challenge Mel Martinez and get behind them early. I'd support Daryl Jones.

[Dr.Phool]

2. I know of a lot of behind the scenes bullshit her and Navarro were pulling

She totally cut off most federal candidates, other than Bill Nelson, for any type of aid. She actively worked to undermine several candidates.

We had a commitment from Max Cleland a month before the election to record a robo-call for us, but they said the request had to be routed through Thurman. She finally got off her ass and made the call 4 days before the election.

I could go on for hours.

She's another old dixiecrat who's gotta go.

[seasat]

3. Please do go on.

Those of us that don't have time on our hands to spend actively in the party politics need to know this stuff. I'm finishing a dissertation and have to watch my twin sons while my wife works during the week so I wasn't able to get as involved as I would like and hope to do in the future. The DU and a couple of my better connected friends are the only way this information filters down to folks like me. Man, Nelson surely didn't need any aid.

Do you know anything about the Ed Helms/Karen Thurman fight that's going on in my local Pinellas party? I've only heard negatives about Helms. The St Pete times has had a running fight with him and Thurman heavily criticized him over his supposed illegal campaign financing. He also endorsed some Pinellas candidates over others in the primary. I know he endorsed Smith over Davis for Gov. and I'd prefer my local party chairs to be neutral in most cases. Though, I did vote for his house pick in my area, Gerdes over Kriseman in the primary. I even recieved a weird bulk email from the local party webmaster after she was fired by Helms. It was pretty critical of him. Is he as bad as they make him out to be or is it the old entrenched party folks fighting against him?

[Dr.Phool]

4. That's a tough one.

I've only met Ed Helms a couple of times, and he seemed like a very nice progressive guy. He was Dennis Kucinich's Florida Co-ordinator. I talked with him for a long time at a fundraiser for Carl Zimmerman. And he even drove all the way up to Floral City (Citrus County)for a fundraiser for us (John Russell for Congress, FL-5)and did a good Mark Twain performance. I needed to get in touch with Kucinich about a possible fundraiser, and Ed gave me Dennis's cell phone #.

I went down to the opening of the North Pinellas campaign office, and a lot of people that I've known for a long time were talking about him like a dog. Even my former campaign manager who, was Jim Davis Pinellas co-ordinator. They said he threatened to have everyone thrown out and arrested if they opened that office. And I heard about the deal with the webmaster there. I'll be having lunch in St. Pete next week and find out more.

As far as endorsements go, maybe Ed took his lead from Thurman. She put out the word a year ago that Jim Davis was their guy. And Rick Penberthy in the 5th District. Democratic clubs lost their charters and a DEC Vice-Chair lost her position for supporting (any support) John Russell or Rod Smith. After John beat Penberthy by 10 points in the primary, he still could get no support from the DEC's or the FDP. DEC's were told not to form Federal PAC's, and all support would come through the DCCC. You know how that works. She didn't even start the GOTV effort until 2 weeks before the election. After early voting started.

This whole FDP is corrupt from the top down. I could say a lot more, but at the moment I'm considering resigning from my DEC. As a former congressional candidate, and campaign manager, I'm just having a hard time dealing with these corrupt, incompetent, lying people. I wish the entire Pasco DEC would switch over to Republican, and do some damage to their candidates for a change.

And the St. Pete Times took a decided turn to the right about 2 years ago with a new Editor. What used to be a fairly progressive paper is damn near as conservative now, as the Tampa Trib. I know they did some nice hatchet jobs on Dem candidates during this election. If you don't believe that, google "Elena Lesley". She's their Hernando-Pasco-etc. political reporter. Dealing with her during the election was an exercise in futility. A real right-wing hack.

[seasat]

6. Thanks for the inside info. I didn't know all that about Thurman.

Even though I was a Davis supporter before he even officially entered the race, I don't care for our party chairs trying to pick the candidates. Their job should be to recruit, support the primary winner, and GOTV.

It seems like most of the Florida locals are in disarray. I've seen where several other posters have problems with their local DECs.

I agree that the St Pete Times has moved to the right. We came close to canceling our subscription last year but realized that there isn't any other decent local news source to replace it. It actually surprised me when they endorsed Jim Davis. They endorsed Smith and Crist during the primary. The Times ran several hit pieces on Davis up until near the election, then endorsed him at the last minute. They probably only did that because the Tribune endorsed Crist.

Who do you think we should support to bring our party back together? I can't think of any Florida Democrat that has the necessary skills and would be willing to campaign for the FDP chair.

[madfloridian]

15. Karen Thurman and Luis Navarro, the political director...

whom she pays 180,000 a year...are old school who resent grassroots having a say. Luis speaks out about DFA people often, once he did in an email and once at a state meeting. Snide remarks.

They don't like the 50 state strategy, and they say so out loud. They say it takes money from Florida.

I don't think Luis is a DNC paid guy, but I can't prove that. I feel for the ones who are unless they were just picked by Thurman.

They do things top down. There was someone running for state chair, and Bill Nelson and others managed to narrow the field.

The grassroots are ignored here. When Russell beat out Penberthy, who was their guy....the tap was turned off.

I could go on, especially about local stuff...but best not to do so. There is only enthusiasm when Karen says so. We felt so much in 03, and when Dean became chair. But then we saw what was happening. We keep trying and speaking out. It is all we can do.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. Quitting is the losers' way out

Rather than quitting the DEC, you should try to take it over. You could recruit like-minded Democrats to run for committee spots in the next election.

Or you could just give up and quit.

[justinrr1]

12. Hillsborough County Infighting

The Hillsborough County Democratic Party is at war with itself and terribly disorganized. My cousin has a radio show here in tampa (The Mark Beiro Program) on 970 WFLA sundays from 7 - 10. He has done several shows going into detail about this. It is a real shame.

[newyawker99]

17. Hi justinrr1!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bullimiami]

5. i think that without the election shenanigans, voter suppression,

screwed up machines and outright thievery.

democrats would actually hold a majority here.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[fladonkey]

8. Let's face some facts....

Crist has essentially been running for Gov. for 8 years. He had $22 million dollars in his war chest. I voted for Jim Davis who seems like a nice guy but he just didn't catch fire with a lot of people.

As far as Karen Thurman goes. The state Democratic Party is in bad shape financially after a former employee used it as a personal piggy bank. Give the woman a break.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. I disagree that Florida missed the national tidal wave

Democrats picked up at least two (and perhaps three, pending the recount). There was an increase in the number of Democrats elected to the State House (the first time that has happened in 16 years) and Florida elected its first Democratic Cabinet member in eight years.

[SteppingRazor]

10. Florida didn't miss the national tidal wave...

we picked up two House seats, maybe three -- more than just about any other southern state -- while retaining our Democratic senator. The fact that Charlie Crist got elected by playing himself off as a moderate only reenforces the fact that Republcians needed to court moderates to win this year.

I guess we're looking at the Florida election and yet seeing two different things. I don't think there's any question that this was a great year for Democrats in Florida, especially when compared to the rest of the South.

[iamjoy]

13. Something Was Screwy

But I don't know if Thurman deserves all the blame or not.

I know the Seminole County DEC Chair ticked off a lot of people when she used the DemsLink program to send out an e-mail right before the Primary saying why she was supporting Jim Davis. It seemed to some like she was using her position to "endorse" Jim Davis. Whether that was her intent or not, I don't know. Whether that's cool or not, I don't know. The people ticked were Rod Smith supporters.

Two weeks before the election, I was at my DEC meeting and signed up that I would be a poll watcher. They never submitted my name to the Supervisor of Elections office. There was no concentrated effort in the party to give us a strategy for managing our precinct, chasing absentee ballots, etc. They never contacted me to put me to work on Election Day. I had to figure it out myself.

Not very organized. I have to wonder if Stuart couldn't have beaten Ric Keller for US District 8 if we'd had a better effort/presence here.

[RagingInMiami]

14. Crist outspent Davis 4-1

He had purchased more TV ads than any politician in the country.

Davis's campaign was very slow to get off the ground. It wasn't until the final debate where he seemed to finally get an edge. But by then, it was too late.

And Davis was never able to capture the black vote because only 1 of 3 registered black voters ended up voting.

[stuartrida]

16. I think Florida did ok. Considering it voted for HW Bush over Clinton in 92

it isn't going to be a progressive state anytime soon.