Florida Democrats Beware: Val Demings Is Your Queen of Hearts

Last we ran into Steve Israel-Debbie Wasserman Schultz creation Val Demings, she had just lost a congressional race against weak Republican incumbent Daniel Webster in a much touted race. Although the DCCC and its allies made sure she had far more money than Webster, he beat her 52-48%, even beating her in Orange County. She spent $1,932,580 to Webster's $1,498,872 but outside big money groups spent another $4.6 million on her behalf (against $1.2 million GOP groups spent on Webster). She lost anyway, a weak, inauthentic, incoherent candidate with no ability to come up with a compelling or cohesive message. Just another cog in the failed Steve Israel cycle that petered out even while the DSCC was winning Senate seats everywhere and while President Obama was racking up another outstanding win against Republicans. Israel's weak recruits, like Deming, lost all over the country. And now he and Wasserman Schultz want another go at it-- and, yes, with Demings again!

As most Floridians know, especially those in the I-4 corridor who were merely weeks away from defeating a crooked Republican mayor and vesting Orange County as the crown jewel of progressive politics in Florida, the once hopeful Orange County mayoral campaign has been dashed to pieces. Left holding the empty bag and Democratic broken hearts, hundreds of thousands of middle class families will go unrepresented in the 2014 county mayoral campaign because of one person: yes, that same Val Demings. And don’t be fooled, her failures and legally questionable actions extend beyond the county mayor’s race and will not be forgotten anytime soon.

When Val dropped out of the race this past May, she abruptly abandoned the dream so effortlessly laid out for her by years of incumbent Republican scandals, controversies, and sunshine law violations surrounding current, and now almost assuredly future, Republican Orange County mayor Teresa Jacobs.

Let’s think for a minute about what that means for the heart of the I-4 corridor, arguably the epicenter of a swinging pendulum whose quick deviances in any given direction have statewide and national consequences-- the epicenter that for the past couple years has been swinging more left as progressives have come together, built an infrastructure and steadily made gains.

First of all, Teresa Jacobs is a lock-step Republican who would like nothing more than to see another 4 years of tyranny under Governor Rick Scott, who you may remember from such roles as former, corrupt CEO who committed the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history, or current Republican extremist governor who rejects billions in federal funding for public transit, cuts $1.3 billion from public schools, and leaves millions of middle class families in the medicaid gap uninsured, underpaid, and well, underwhelmed. When Val Demings abandoned the county mayor’s race she not only chose the inconvenient timing of doing so after the petition qualifying deadline ended (leaving no room for a replacement challenger to Jacobs), but also immediately greenlighted a half a million dollars to Republican Mayor Teresa Jacobs’ pro-Rick Scott campaign in the heart of the I-4 corridor. That’s one giant pendulum thrust to the right, folks.

Now that the Teresa Jacobs reelection campaign coffers have been so wonderfully freed up by the lack of an opponent, she has an unencumbered $500,000 campaign chest to use for the reelection of Rick Scott (you might also remember him from such roles as cutting 3% from every teacher, firefighter and public employees’ take home pay, and signing the statewide preemption of Earned Sick Time for working middle class Floridians before jetting off to France). Some say if tilt your ear toward the wind you can almost hear the hundreds of thousands of dollars shoveled like coal into the fires of Rick Scott’s reelection machine.

Orlando has one of most vibrant progressive movements in the state and in one fell swoop “Quitter” Val Demings turned that pendulum into a right-wing wrecking ball that turned years of Democratic gains to crumbles. Republicans are the 3rd registered party in the county behind Democrats (#1) and NPA/Other (#2), Democrats outperformed Republicans in absentee votes in 2012, an advantage once exclusively held by the GOP,  and Democrats in central Florida held the line in 2012 for a statewide win for Obama., 274,227 (59%) to 189,057 (40%). Bill Nelson did even better in Orange County that day, beating Connie Mack 282,638 (63%) to 153,669 (35%).

That has all been in vain as Val Demings handed over a huge win to the Republican party by flippantly dropping out of the race with no regard to the consequences for middle class Floridians and the progressive movement activists have fought so hard to build in the I-4 corridor. Cue the Teresa Jacobs/Rick Scott campaign ad about "protecting seniors" and "funding public education." It’s amazing what an extra half a million dollars can do for a governor’s race these days.

For the better part of this year, progressives laid in wait with baited breath for when the leader Val Demings would rise out of the smolder with a clear vision, a path to victory, fire in her belly and the taste of Republican defeat in her mouth. Little did we know, that "coming soon" campaign platform would never come. Point blank, Val Demings ran a weak, aimless campaign because she had no clear message, no clear vision, and no fight. Vanity and the cult of personality replaced campaign rhetoric on the trail as Florida Democrats sat in stiff chairs at stiff events wondering when the self promotional elevator speech would end and the real campaigning would begin.

One glaring reason for the lack of a strong platform and commitment in Val’s campaign was that from day one she was over-consulted by out-of touch, out of state operators and Beltway insiders-- who don't know the first thing about Orange County.

Those Beltway (and Weston) insiders are now trying to tell Central Florida that Val should be their next congresswoman despite the fact that their choice abruptly abandoned the race, the people, the Democratic party and maybe the most politically damaging of all, her donors. Val Demings raised over $240,000 from local Democrats and then made it disappear. Perhaps it is lining the pockets of those very insiders, perhaps it has all been spent, or maybe the campaign cash has been stuffed under a mattress as a rainy day fund for the next race. The fact of the matter is that Val Demings hasn’t given any real explanation or clear answer on how much money remains in her campaign account, besides a text to an Orlando Sentinel reporter that she is, “not sure what the final number looks like yet,” and "I am still paying bills and conducting research to make sure the funds go where there is a significant and immediate need." What we have heard however, from several institutional donors, is that some of the money has been returned, while other requests from donors have been ignored. Cherry-picking who to return campaign donations to is legally questionable at best, and Demings is currently operating outside of the transparency of public records and possibly finance laws. Let’s not forget her hypocrisy in refusing to address where and how much campaign money she still has and what she intends to do with it, when she herself tried to attack Teresa Jacobs for returning questionable donations from her own campaign.

Val Demings has an unknown amount of money hidden somewhere and now she’s campaign shopping again; on your dime, central Florida donors. The question, or rather the implied, “this is a very, very bad, potentially illegal idea” is whether or not she is trying to move those campaign funds over to a Congressional race in the light of the recent court ruling that invalidates Congressional Districts 5 and 10.

Demings has long pined for a Congressional seat, running and losing in 2012 against incumbent Dan Webster. She toyed with the idea early on in 2014 as she made national self promotional tours to an audience arguably larger than one for a local county mayor’s race. What has been circulating very recently, as recently as the congressional map ruling, is that her former (and possibly current) finance director is holed away somewhere making calls to certain donors, keeping certain piles of cash in escrow. What central Florida voters and donors, and I’m sure an ethics board, would like to know is who is funding this shadowy semblance of a congressional campaign in the making? Donors should be wary about someone who might get hit with an ethics violation for a supposed "staffer" illegally shoring up for a congressional campaign using money not intended for one.

There has also been notable speculation that Demings is holding out to be Charlie Crist’s Lieutenant Governor pick. Is it the LG position that Val wants or a Congressional seat, and can middle class families afford to wait until she makes a decision? For all we know she's sitting back waiting for the best offer, much like she laid in limbo during her mayoral campaign waiting for a better deal while Central Florida progressives were led down a dark hole. [Update: yesterday, Charlie Crist, no fool, put the kibosh on the Demings speculation and decided on progressive Annette Taddeo as his running mate. Smart move-- but that makes it even more likely that Demings will give a half-assed try to win the FL-10 congressional seat again and waste everyone's time and money.] One thing we have all learned, is that Val Demings has a price and will leave progressives and Florida’s middle class in the dust for the shiniest penny dangled in front of her-- most likely the one in which she can stare at her own reflection. She is not committed to the job at hand, much like she wasn’t committed to the county mayor’s race. Val Demings just wants to see Val Demings elected, with no real commitment to doing the job for the people who need a voice in Orange County... err, State of Florida... err, Congress. (See what I mean?)

Progressives are devastated and angry at Demings for abandoning her post as the progressive guardian of the crown jewel that is central Florida. The heart of the I-4 corridor has been ripped out, there are a lot of tears in Orange County that will come back to haunt her no matter which race she enters. Demings is the Queen of Hearts who doesn’t care if central Florida, and the future of the Democratic Party, disappears down a rabbit hole.