If There Was No Florida Democratic Party, It Would Be Easier For Democrats To Win

Last night I got an extraordinary e-mail from Alan Grayson. I don't think he sent it to anyone but me and I decided not to send it to anyone else, not even Adam Christensen, whose new video is directly above. This was Grayson's e-mail; you can read it at the same time Adam Christensen does:

I endorse Adam Christensen for Congress. I’ll tell you why, but first, a question. How many URLs are there? The answer is that, even if you limit yourself only to 10 characters or less (like www.absolutely.com), there are 141 trillion URLs. Lots and lots of choices. Adam’s campaign URL is ForTheManyNotJustMe.com/. Now, Adam could have chosen LobsterDinnerWithLobbyists.com-- remarkably, that URL is available. Or Adam could have chosen HowElseCouldIPossiblyMake174KPerYear.com-- also, somehow, available. But instead, Adam chose a URL that conveys why he is running for Congress: for the many, not just him. And, as it turns out, that is the most important thing in a candidate, because if you don’t start out with that in your heart, you’re sure not going to pick it up on the way. Good luck in FL-03, Adam. There’s only one right reason to run for Congress, and you’ve found it.

Moments after Alan sent me the endorsement, this e-mail arrived from Adam, who I had asked for a comment for this post. "We are on our own here. The Florida Democratic Party wrote off this part of the state a long time ago," he wrote. "In fact they haven’t done polling in the last 2 ½ years. What is crazy is that they have completely written off competitive and winnable districts along the way because they are 10-15 years behind when it comes to data analysis. They know less about the people living in Florida than Macy’s does. For instance in our race, there are 40-50,000 Hispanic and Latino voters that have never been asked to vote for either party. There are 40,000 independent and conservative women voters in the rural districts that are winnable. There are former felons that now have the right to vote. Florida will be won in the margins. The only way to flip Florida is to run up the score in places you know you can win and cut the margins in places you can’t. $150,000 is enough to make a +9 district in Florida competitive. $300,000 is enough to win. The Return On Investment for any donor is far better spent giving directly to the candidates-- not the party. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work for the economy and it doesn’t work in politics. Giving to the Florida Party so they can hand it to consultants is not a winning strategy. Fighting for every acre of land and putting candidates in every race-- IS."

Steve Bousquet's headline, Florida Democrats Go All Out For Historically Republican Legislative Seats is slightly, and I'm sure unintentionally, misleading. It gives you the idea that the Florida Democratic Party is trying to win Republican-held state legislative seats. That's a stretch. The Florida Democratic Party is worse than worthless. If they were just worthless they wouldn't be doing anything. Worse than worthless means they are actively sabotaging Democratic candidates, going so far as telling people various Republicans are their friends (or, in the case of state Sen. Gary Farmer, worse).

This should be an especially bad year for Florida Republicans. Trashing science and the advice of public health officials Trump and his puppet governor Ron DeSantis (R) and their puppet legislators in their puppet state House and puppet state Senate failed-- dismally-- to protect Fllorida from the pandemic... and more so than almost any other state. Yesterday, DeSantis infected 3,656 more Floridians with COVID-19, bringing the state total to 643,867. California and Texas have more cases-- but they also have a lot more people. When it comes to measuring how many cases there are per million people, only one state (Louisiana) beats Florida's 29,978 cases per million residents. It gets worse; Florida has-- by far-- the most active cases in the U.S., 535,536 compared to California's 372,054 and Texas' 88,420. Trump, DeSantis and their puppets in Tallahassee have killed 11,815 Floridians so far, including 60 more yesterday. There are 10 hot-spot counties right now, where new daily cases are out of control-- and those counties are I'm every part of the state. Yesterday's dozen worst counties for new cases:

• Miami-Dade +549
• Leon +327
• Hillsborough +281
• Broward +232
• Palm Beach +143
• Orange +139
• Duval +139
• Polk +127
• Gadsden +108
• Pinellas +96
• Alachua +89
• Volusia +87

Other counties with out-sized total case-loads include Lee, Osceola, Escambia, Collier and Manatee. Voters are ready to dump Trump and Republicans up and down the ballot. DeSantis is lucky to not be on the ballot, but many of his closest collaborators in Tallahassee are.

But the state Democratic Party in nowhere to be found in most races, telling candidates in winnable districts that they can't or won't help.

It was the Florida Environmental Caucus and 90 For 90 that have recruited the candidates, not the Florida Democratic Party, which has bullied and threatened candidates in attempts to get them, to drop out-- even if that means giving a Trump-Republican a free ride!

So far the Environmental Caucus/90 For 90 coalition has helped defeat one of the Florida Democratic Party's favorite GOP-backed anti-Semite, anti-gay crackpots, Kim Daniels, who lost her primary race to progressive champion Angie Nixon.

Fergie Reid runs 90 For 90 and Bousquet interviewed him last week. "Reid," he wrote, "says 90-for-90’s goal is to flood the zone with candidates and create enthusiasm. Many of them don’t have to win, he says; just be competitive and force Republicans to devote extra resources. From his vantage point, Reid says Florida Democrats are not trying hard enough. 'Democrats lose Florida by microscopic margins,' says Reid. '10,000 for Nelson, 30,000 for Gillum, 60,000 each for Sink and Crist. A hundred and some-odd thousand for Hillary Clinton against Trump. That’s nothing in Florida.'"

I spoke with Reid yesterday. He was adamant that there should be Democrats running in every House seat and in all the state Senate seats that are being contested this cycle. "The current Florida Senate," he noted, has 17 Dems and 23 Republicans. Dems need to flip 3 seats to share power in the Senate as the decennial gerrymander session approaches. If they have a 'seat at the gerrymandering table,' Dems have a chance to draw reasonably fair districts throughout the state. If Dems remain in the Senate minority, the Republicans will draw incredibly unfair districts, limiting the number of Dems that can be elected to the Florida congressional delegation, and the Florida state legislature.

"There is one Senate Special Election this year," he emphasized, "replacing a GOP senator who resigned to pursue 'greener pastures.' That Senator won re-election in 2018, barely. He received an unexpectedly strong Democratic challenge from a first time candidate named Kathy Lewis. She got 46.5% of the district’s vote total, despite being outspent 12 to 1. Kathy Lewis is the Dem candidate again this year. She has name recognition and is well respected for her years of Florida Disability Rights Advocacy. The Democratic Senate Caucus believes that they can realistically flip 2 seats, Senate Districts 9 and 39, both in the eastern part of the State. Kathy’s district is Senate District 20, in the city of Tampa, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk counties. Kathy Lewis could flip the coveted 3rd seat for Senate Dems; but so far, they’re behaving as though they don’t want to flip this seat. WH !!!??? Kathy Lewis is Black, and she’s running in a White district. The party refers to these types of districts as “non-Minority Access” districts. The party doesn’t like Black candidates running in White districts. Oye Vey !! Is this 2020; or 1963 ?? If Kathy gets the necessary financial support from National small dollar donors, she’ll over-perform again, just as she did in 2018. Hit the thermometer below; send a serious message to the Florida Democratic Party and the Florida Democratic Senate Caucus. The Florida donation limit is $1,000."

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Joe Gruters-- fighting for his political life as environmental activist and working class champion Katherine Norman becomes better and better known to voters in Sarasota and Charlotte counties. Gruters, delusional says the Florida Republican Party is "going on the offensive... I think 2020 is going to be a phenomenal year for Republicans. We are very optimistic about our chances, and I am very happy to run, myself, on the coattails of the president of the United States." Trump's toxicity in Florida is likely to help defeat puppet incumbents like Gruters. I asked Katherine how her race is proceeding, even without any help from her own party. She was focused on the voters and on Gruters, not on the state party. As she told me recently, "more and more voters in traditionally red districts are reaching for competent leadership across the aisle. Republicans in Sarasota and Charlotte counties are revolting against Gruters, some leaning towards voting blue for the first time in their lives. As the mismanagement of Florida's coronavirus pandemic continues, we can expect to see increasingly positive polling for Biden in this state... I am deeply saddened for our six million Florida seniors who are locked in their homes, unable to hug or see their grandchildren, unable to fulfill the travel dreams of their retirement because of the complete mismanagement of coronavirus by Florida Republican leaders. Senator Gruters said that he expects the virus to get worse before it gets better. We should not have to accept this nonsense answer from our elected officials. Our citizens deserve leaders that respond to science and that have the basic decency to protect the most vulnerable in our population."