Why Does The Florida Democratic Party Appear To Be Working For The Republican Party?

Charlotte County, is in southwest Florida. There's one city, Punta Gorda, which has a population of about 20,000. In 2016 the county went strongly for Trump, 60,196 (62.5%) to 33,421 (34.7%). In 2018, the county went for Ron DeSantis 54,102 (62.3%) to 31,248 (36.0%) and helped elect Rick Scott senator and Greg Steube congressman (FL-17). Charlotte County has 59,317 registered Republicans (44.8%), 36,243 registered Democrats (27.4%) and 36,760 independents and others (27.8%). It's the kind of district the Florida Democratic Party studious ignores, cycle after cycle after cycle.

On Sunday, Florida reported 12,478 new cases of the coronavirus and yesterday added another 10,347, bringing the state total to 360,394, third worst in the country-- and a rapidly increasing 16,780 cases per million Floridians. Charlotte County reported 49 new cases Sunday, bringing the county total to 1,431-- with 81 deaths. There is no mask mandate in Florida or in Charlotte County, primarily because it doesn't fit Republican right-wing ideology. I wonder how many Floridians have to die before DeSantis relents.

The state Rep. is Republican Michael Grant, the House majority whip, who was first elected-- with no opposition-- in 2016. Again in 2018, the Florida Democratic Party declined to run anyone against him. They planned the same bold tactic for 2020, when the Florida Environmental Caucus recruited union and environmental activist David Jones, a retired teamster, whose platform very much hones in on the senior quality of life issues that are perfect for a county with one of the highest concentrations of retirees anywhere in the country..

Speaking with him yesterday about the brouhaha over the Florida Democratic Party's lack of interest in candidates in traditionally Republican areas like Charlotte County-- which is, basically, the district he's running, Jones spoke of the urgency "to turn the Florida House blue to hold Gov. DeSantis accountable for his past and future missteps with the environment, unemployment insurance and COVID-19 among other things. We can keep him in check in much the same manner as we did Pres. Trump when we turned the U.S. House blue. If we wait until 2022 when we can vote DeSantis out, we will face the reality of laws being passed that weaken the Democratic governor during the lame duck session after the next election. This happened in Michigan and Wisconsin. We must get out and vote for all Democratic candidates November 3rd to stop this  insanity!"

David still doesn't have access to the Charlotte County voter rolls even though Nikki Fried, the only statewide Democratic elected official, has offered to pay the Florida Democratic Party's ransom demands. Self-centered establishment Democratic operative Rosy Speers is leading a last ditch effort to prevent the progressive recruits from getting the essential lists by putting up a new barrier, demanding that even with Fried paying, no candidates will get the access until they prove they have called 250 voters.

Jones told me, as have most of the candidates, that the party is making a mistake by preventing the candidates from accessing the voter rolls and doing all Democrats running on the congressional and presidential level a disservice. "We should have had access weeks ago," he told me, sounding frustrated.

The Republicans couldn't have set this up better if Speers was working for them. This is exactly what she would be doing, worried that someone would find her out and fire her. Instead, she's being supported and encouraged by party chair Terrie Rizzo and party executive director Juan Peñalosa. A candidate who requested anonymity, wondered if the party hierarchy even wanted her to win her race. "They just keep putting up roadblocks. Now, it's 'go pick a bale of cotton while we think of some more ways to disadvantage you... This party is a bad joke; they'd rather work to keep their pathetic little fiefdoms than do the hard work to become a genuine statewide political party. To be honest, they better hope I don't win because if I do, I'm coming after their asses as well as DeSantis', Gruter's, Oliva's, Eagle's and Galvano's."

Another hopping mad Democratic candidate-- who paid for access to the VAN for his campaign just to avoid the party nitwits-- and who asked for anonymity, reminded me that "Nikki Fried is the only Democrat elected statewide. Precisely because she enacted a 'lose by less' strategy and bothered to compete in areas that were traditionally written off by small minded Democratic consultants. She came in and saved the day for my fellow candidates and yet somehow the party figured out a way to make her look bad with this nonsense. The whole thing just seems completely insane. Asking candidates to make phone calls, in order to be given the list of who they should be calling in the first place, is totally backwards. You can say many things about the Republican Party but you have to at least respect their ruthless efficiency. There is no way that David Koch or Karl Rove would ever tolerate this bullshit."

Blue America is trying to help the progressives running for the state House and state Senate raise some awareness and campaign contributions. If you'd like to help, please consider clicking on the 2020 Florida thermometer above and contributing what you can.