The Sheer Incompetence Of The Florida Democratic Party Could Sentence All Of Us To 4 More Years Of Trump

On Friday, the Tampa Bay Times published another stinging indictment of the venal and incompetent Florida Democratic Party in the form of a question from top state Senate candidate Kathy Lewis: I can lift Biden and flip state Senate. Why won’t my party help?.

Kathy (who has been endorsed by Blue America) is running for an open seat to represent parts of 3 counties Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk. The Hillsborough part of the county has already turned blue and Hillary beat Trump there 50.4% to 46.0%. And Polk County is trending blue. Trump won the whole district 115,750 (52.3%) to 97,399 (44.0%). In 2018, running against incumbent Tom Lee, Kathy garnered 46.5% of the vote, significantly better than Hillary did there. But the Democrats decided to take this open swing seat off the table and allow the GOP to win it without a fight. That, in a nut shell is the Florida Democratic Party. Republicans outnumber Democrats among registered voters, but it is independents who will decide this race-- and independents are not happy with Republicans in Florida.

The district is suffering under Republican mishandling of the pandemic. Hillsborough County is the 4th worst-hit on the state with 210 new cases yesterday for a total of 36,784 (more cases than either Ireland or Austria). Polk County is is the 9th worst county in the state (111 new cases yesterday, for a total of 16,803) and Pasco had 40 new cases yesterday and now has a total of 7,989 cases, 16th worst. The 3 counties have over 1,000 deaths. Many people blame Trump, his puppet governor DeSantis and DeSantis' puppet state legislature. Without the Florida Democratic Party, this would be a very good year for smart Democrats like Kathy Lewis, who has a lot of what she didn't have last time she ran: name recognition.

Kathy told the reporter that she feels the state Democratic Party could be doing more to support her. "Her logic is simple: she’s a Black woman running in the Interstate-4 corridor of the country’s largest swing state. She represents a crucial Democratic constituency in a crucial part of the national electoral map. 'If we drive our race, we drive Biden,' Lewis said. 'Not helping us to the fullest extent potentially hurts Biden.' One of the state’s legislative bodies also hangs in the balance. Republicans currently hold a 23-to-17 advantage in the Senate. If Democrats flip three seats, the party could share power with Republicans in the chamber. For the first time in decades, Democrats could help set the legislative agenda in Tallahassee."

After the Florida Democratic Party failed in their efforts to recruit Alex Sink, they wrote the crucial district off entirely, even though Kathy is an extremely attractive candidate. The Florida Republican Party has given Kathy's opponent $9,500. The Florida Democratic Party has give Kathy ZERO. You can contribute to Kathy's race by clicking on the 2020 Florida state thermometer on the right.

"(Burgess) has the full force of the party on his side," Lewis told the Times/Herald. "There’s clearly a complete difference on the Democrat side, for whatever their reasons are."

This year, the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has raised over $7.1 million. The Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has pulled in just a fraction of that: $1.9 million or so.

...Spending heavily in a relative long shot district may not be sound strategy. But all summer, Democrats have said their recruiting efforts across the state will help Joe Biden turn the state blue in November.

"Politics is driven from the bottom up," Terrie Rizzo, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, said in June. "Having a local candidate running talking about local issues, talking about how the issues affect local issues, helps drives turnout."

Democrats are running in 140 of 141 legislative races this cycle, with a 141st candidate fighting in court to get on the ballot.

Rizzo is parroting phrases she's been beaten over the head with. She and her deputy, Juan Peñalosa, have fought the theory she's "espousing" and the recruitment of candidates by the Environmental Caucus and 90 For 90. They didn't hep in recruitment and were largely negative and now they are trying to strangle those candidates in the crib, denying them access not just to party funds but to their district voter files. Both Rizzo and Peñalosa are rumored to be close to being fired, but by then it will be too late for many of the candidates whose campaigns they are sabotaging. If the Florida GOP decided who would run the Florida Democratic Party, they could never find anyone's "good" as Rizzo and Peñalosa.

Lewis said the party should follow its own logic: If Democrats want to help Biden, they should help her.

"I don’t think about winning or losing, I think about telling the story and carving the way in the forest," Lewis said. "I’m trying to over-perform so that Biden can get there."

Fergie Reid, Jr. said his progressive activism organization, 90for90.org, helped recruit dozens of candidates this election cycle in Florida state House and Senate races. To Reid, Senate District 20 is an example of how the party’s recruitment efforts could go to waste if the candidates aren’t supported.

And the activist said in 2020, with systemic racism at the front of many voters’ minds, it’s incumbent on Democrats to invest in Black women.

"They’re not investing in Senate 20 the way they’re investing in Senate 9 and 39," Reid said. "That may or may not have something to do with the candidate being Kathy Lewis. I think it does, and I don’t think it’s a good look for the party."