Wasserman Schultz Thinks She Gets To Decide Which Racial Group You Need To Be In To Run For Congress

Mind your own business

Wassermann Schultz and some of her cronies, Lois Frankel for one, are trying to get Val Demings elected to Congress in the Orlando area, specifically in the very redistricted 10th CD, currently occupied by Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster. The new district is way too blue for Webster-- under the new lines, Obama would have beaten Romney 60.7% to 38.4% instead of losing to Romney 53.3% to 42.5%-- and he's district shopping now, although will most likely wind up in FL-11, since Rich Nugent is retiring and the district is safely red. The changes, obviously are demographic. When Webster was elected it was a 60% white district. The new lines make the district 27.08% black and 22.85% Hispanic. So the line being pushed by Wasserman Schultz and Frankel-- this is a black district-- is a little weird.

Wassermann Schultz has always been big on dividing people up that way. When she was in the state senate she drew her own future district to include every Jewish person she could find in Broward County. Right now it looks like the contenders for Webster's seat are three black women, state Senator and civil rights icon Geraldine Thompson, DCCC/EMILY's List hack Val Demings, and Rep. Corrine, who already represents many of that 27.08% black part of the district in her old district, FL-05, and one white progressive, Bob Poe. It looks like Tampa Bay Times politics editor, Adam Smith, got the message from his pal Wasserman Schultz:

Here's a trend Florida Democratic leaders prefer not to talk about: Wealthy, white Democrats beating out minority Democratic candidates in districts drawn with an eye toward electing minorities.

The latest example is in the Orlando area, where former Florida Democratic Party chairman Bob Poe, a top Democratic fundraiser and white guy, last week jumped into a congressional primary contest that already included two African-American candidates, former Orlando police Chief Val Demings and state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, and Brazilian-American lawyer Fatima Fahmy.  The district now represented by Republican Dan Webster has been redrawn to make it so much more Democratic-leaning that Webster is looking at running elsewhere. The race is likely to be decided in the Democratic primary, where most of the electorate is minority, but Poe has a strong chance at winning.

Actually, with the exception of Demings, all the candidates are good and central Florida Democrats should be thankful they get to pick between a batch of good candidates instead of some sad-sack Blue Dogs. This should be a race about ideas and values and competence, not a race about race. I understand why power-mongers like Wasserman Schultz and Frankel are always making these kinds of ugly moves-- that's what they are-- but it amazes me that the biggest newspaper in the area would run it as though it were fact. 27.08% doesn't make a district a black district, a Latino, a white district or an Asian district. It's just a diverse, multicultural district with a strong Democratic bench and I'm not sure how Smith can say "most of the electorate is minority," with a straight face either... unless he's also counting the LGBT community-- in which case he should be delighted to see Bob Poe running as he'd be the first gay member of Congress from Florida-- or at least the first openly gay member of Congress from Florida. [Update: Pelosi endorsed Demings today, which isn't going to please Corrine, but it kind of reminded me of the time Pelosi backed corrupt conservative Al Wynn in Maryland over Donna Edwards. Donna's now one of the best Members of Congress and Wynn is one of the most corrupt lobbyists on K Street. That Pelosi!]

The X-factor in the FL-10 race-- but why are EMILY's List and Wasserman Schultz trying to dump her?