Message To The Florida Democratic Party: You Can't Win If You Don't Play, Bozos

 

So what happened with the $780,000 in PPP money the FDP grabbed? 

Maybe you saw the comparison between the competent Texas Democratic Party and the incompetent Florida Democratic Party that we ran yesterday. Dr. Fergie Reid, who ran the 90For90 effort to recruit state legislative candidates in every district had some thoughts he expressed to me that I asked him to jot down.

"You can’t win," he reminded me (again), "if you don’t play."

That sounds like a trite, obvious, throw away phrase; but, in politics, it’s very controversial. Between late March 2020, and the Florida state legislative filing deadline on June 12, Janelle Christensen and I made this argument to many Florida Democratic officials and prospective candidates. It’s a logical argument. However, in some political circles, the "smart" play is to NOT run a candidate in any district that is perceived to be "unwinnable."

"It’s a waste of money, we can’t afford it."

"We’ll be able to run more candidates in more districts when we start winning more."

"Running Democrats here in this part of Florida, just makes Republicans mad."

"We can’t find a good enough candidate."

"We like the Republican incumbent; he’s very friendly; we know him personally."

"You just don’t understand the way it works around here." [Yes, the fatal embrace of toxic dysfunction, a ruling principle of the FDP.]

"Why is someone from Los Angeles, so interested in Florida?"

"You are a toxic influence, and an 'outside agitator.'"

"You are a net negative to the candidate you’re trying to help; you should stop helping her, and let us handle her."

"What’s the use in running a candidate if you can’t finance them adequately to win?"

So many excuses NOT to run a Democratic candidate, from people whose job it is to run Democratic candidates! Oy Vey!!

Fergie, Janelle Christensen, Margie Stein and a whole lot of very helpful folks, ended up getting it done; a Democratic candidate running in each and every one of the 141 state legislative races on the Florida ballot in 2020; they recruited 36 of these 141, and facilitated ballot access for at least that many. That’s fully one quarter of the state legislative contests... absolutely amazing !

They asked the Florida state party for help, either in recruiting or financing ballot access; they declined, but said "good luck." They were introduced to their assigned overseer of "down-ballot” races, who had a separate budget specifically for “down-ballot" projects. We asked for help from this group; they declined, but said, "good luck."

"Janelle and Margie," Fergie told me, "made sure each candidate had basic care and nurturing; in many instances, including candidates that we did not recruit, but who needed, asked for, or would otherwise benefit from a little love and attention. Janelle and Margie did what the party would not do... talk to the candidates. 'Are you alright? Do you need anything that we can get for you? Call us if you need us.' That is basic human kindness and appreciation in action. Janelle and Margie did that. Bob Lynch helped more than a few of these candidates with early financial support and advice; Matt Rogers of Politidope provided much appreciated political experience and help to many; scores of grassroots activists gave their time and sweat to make these heroic candidates understand how appreciated their personal sacrifice truly was." Reid continued:

Some of the state party officials understood the importance of this effort and joined in with gusto. Others resisted; and continue to resist. With an opportunity to achieve parity in the Florida state Senate totally within his grasp, the Dem Caucus Chair, Senator Gary Farmer, still hasn’t endorsed Kathy Lewis in FL SD 20, a crucial seat that could give Gary Farmer shared power with his Republican counterpart, Wilton Simpson. The Dem Senate Caucus hasn’t yet called the 9 Democratic Senate candidates who are running in the perceived, "unwinnable" districts. (Do these candidates have "cooties?" Do phones not connect into their Republican districts? Do good form and manners cease to exist at the doorway to the Senate Caucus offices?) Yet, the candidates persist. They carry on. Because, if they don’t play, they can’t win. They probably define winning differently than the old guard party apparatchiks. By running and persisting, they’re winning marginal votes for Joe Biden in their districts; they’re winning hearts and minds of disaffected and previously disrespected voters who have been neglected cycle after cycle; they’re winning the argument within these disregarded communities about the environment, the economy, civil rights, voting rights, and COVID; they’re in the game, sweating, putting in the work.

That’s cool. That’s heroic. That’s high level citizenship.

Are they all going to win? Absolutely not. Some-- and remember, these are all districts the state party decided to not compete in-- are getting tantalizingly close and actually may win. And all of them are turning out votes for the Biden/Harris ticket which is perhaps even more important than Gary Farmer's and his cronies' careers of systemic corruption.





No one ever said all these candidates are going to win. Some of them are running in beet red districts where Democrats haven't run in years. Of course, that's part of the reason they may be so beet red. Rachel Brown is running for the state Senate in Lee County, which the FDP always seems too eager to write-off as "unwinnable." If she wins, the Senate flips from red to blue. But Gary Farmer was dating a Republican running in that district and he literally demanded Rachel drop out. (His GOP girlfriend lost her primary-- in a massive landslide-- and, thank goodness, Rachel didn't drop out. Today she's busy helping turn out Democratic and independent voters for Biden-Harris and she's educating voters about what Democrats stand for. "Always trying is the key," she told me this afternoon. "The second we give up any state, we lose momentum. For those who don't like the party, change it. For those who like the party and think sacrificing battle grounds with no fight... bad strategy. Even if you think you will lose, continuing to talk about medicaid expansion, Rights of Nature, a Green New Deal, will all add to the momentum that our party is lacking and shoot us into the right direction. The only thing we are doing by not having progressives run is creating intellectual deserts."

Before he became a candidate in a swing district state legislative seat in Miami-Dade where the Florida Democratic Party didn't want to run anyone (which would upset GOP powerhouse Daniel Perez), Bob Lynch had a career in Structured Products Trading on Wall Street. That included mortgages, auto, student loans, and also SBA loans. He has an intimate knowledge of loan documentation. "I can tell you with 100% certainty," he said, "that there has never been a single loan that walked into a bank and applied for itself. The Florida Democratic Party created a shell company in order to apply for this loan because political organizations were ineligible for obtaining a PPP loan. The stated purpose of this loan was to save 100 jobs, despite the fact that this entity had no payroll."

In short, Terri Rizzo, the party chair, and Juan Peñalosa, the party executive director, were committing fraud. Lynch:

Why is it that when the Florida Democratic Party was shamed into returning the loan, no jobs were cut? In fact, they hired more people... including third party consultants and contractors with multi million dollar budgets that were never accounted for.

Campaigns like Ricky Junquera’s in HD-118 were funded by this money. Subsequent donors contributions were essentially used to backfill this fraud. That’s a big deal.

When I called for Juan Peñalosa to be fired, I was attacked by the party and accused of being a racist. None of this money went to black or brown women.

Leading Florida Dem “strategists” told me that I should not kick the hornets nest and that because of Juan Peñalosa, Latino strategists such as Rosy Gonzales Spears, Luisana Pérez and many others finally had a place at the table.

All of this was a cash grab. It came down to the people who blew the election for Andrew Gillum and Bill Nelson. Now they’re going to blow it again because that’s what these people do for a living.

Nobody cares about actually winning. It’s just about who can get the biggest piece of the wallet share. The Florida Dems spent over $14mm this cycle and $2mm of that went to an independent contractor to focus on only 19 races.

Following the money is extremely straight forward. Why can’t anyone tell me how any of this adds up?

On Wednesday morning, if you wake up and see that Rachel Brown won her Florida state Senate race in "red" Lee County, it means more than just the state Senate flipping blue; it will mean a whole new day dawning in Florida politics. "I think if I don't like something I should fix it," Rachel told me a few minutes ago. "There were many things the Florida Democratic party could have done to help us, requiring no money. In the future, the party should have an orientation in June, telling candidates about the 0.03 cents texting that they told us about two weeks to election day at the point where we were too busy to give them our money and they were too busy to give us the service, about robocalls, about 'data tickets,' about the hundreds of volunteer callers from around the U.S., they had the whole time, who wanted to help flip Florida. They should have one person whose job it is to call through those lists and assign them to campaigns."

She continued, explaining that she didn't want to just sit and complain about how the FDP does its business. "I know how frustrating that attitude must be to party leadership. I'm going to make sure future candidates know about these things and actually help get them started. I'm happy about the positive improvements in the party I've seen locally. For example Lee County Democrats made slate cards for the first time and distributed them to all the Democrats in the county. That's work. We all had many sleepless nights, making ads, printing, cutting and stapling flyers... and days of lit drops and phone calls and texts, and interruptions from media, emails and, of course, questionnaires that never amounted to anything. Anselm [Weber, candidates for the state House in the same area] and I had a volunteer who did 20 hours of phone calling a week. We had a couple join us, calling, making graphics, social media posts, running errands, and lit drops. I found comrades in the Haitian Creole and Spanish-speaking communities who did translations for me. I had a 15 year old volunteer who couldn't vote because of her age but wanted to help and learn from us. Local donors in the vegan community, friends sharing posts and helping make events. We had someone donate huge signs for us to paint, and then put them up for us! There's a man in Bonita Springs, just going house to house registering Democrats to vote and making sure they do... There's so much being done here. I plan on keeping up that positivity and making comrades in Lee County."

Janelle Christensen from the state environmental caucus reiterated tome today that "Running for office, especially when you know the odds are not in your favor, takes incredible dedication to the democratic system. I see the biggest barriers as the antiquated system that the State of Florida has set up for candidates to register to run, the barriers put up to keep people from qualifying and the challenges in finance reporting. Margie and I tried (and at times failed) to help candidates navigate the system designed to keep out the average person. Despite those barriers each candidate has made connections in their communities, educated about climate change, and ensured that entrenched Republicans did not get to set the narrative without challenge. I am happy Margie and I could help candidates in any way we could. I hope we can do it again." She asked me to acknowledge the incredible difference the Blue Wave Coalition has made in some critical areas... they helped register voters and get out the vote in deep red Lee (DEC Chair Gabe Spukes) and Collier (DEC Chair Annisa Karim) Counties and the DEC Chair of Sarasota County, Joanne DeVries has been an amazing advocate and support system also. Some of the best voter turnout is happening in red districts." This is a spreadsheet Janelle updates several times a day.

Will The Anti-Red Tsunami Sweep The Democrats Back Into Control Of State Legislatures-- Yes, But Why Not Florida?

 

Florida Man x 3

Reporting for National Journal, Mary Frances McGowan and Leah Askarinam wrote about the state of the crucial-- but largely ignored-- down-ballot battles over control of state legislatures. In a tsunami-- even though it's primarily a rejection of Trump-- Republicans on all levels are staring into the wide open maw of defeat. In 2010, two years after Obama's big win, due almost entirely to Democratic Party complacency and incompetence on every level, 21 state legislative chambers flipped from blue to red. The Republicans used these wins to further gerrymander state after state into GOP bastions, particularly North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, Ohio and Texas. (Democrats did basically the same thing in Illinois and Maryland.)

"Ten years later," wrote McGowan and Askarinam, "Democrats control 39 legislative chambers out of 98 total (excluding Nebraska, which is unicameral). Republicans are on defense, and Democratic groups are stressing the importance of having a seat at the table during redistricting, not to mention the importance of policy goals like expanding Medicaid and increasing voter access." They warn that it's no easy task. Republicans drew the boundaries of the districts being fought over and the Republican State Leadership Committee has had "a gargantuan financial war chest" to work with. Blue America is trying to boost the chances of progressive candidates across the country and you can contribute to any or all of them by clicking on the ActBlue thermometer on the right. National Journal delineates the 10 most likely chambers to flip a week from Tuesday.

The 67 seat Minnesota Senate, which currently has 35 Republicans and 32 Dems, is probably the surest bet, with 10 Republican-held districts that Governor Tim Walz carried in 2018. The Dems need to flip just 2 of them and are likely to flip at least 5.

In Arizona, both Houses are controlled by the GOP and both look flippable in a state that is trending blue and where Biden is way ahead and where Democrat Mark Kelly looks sure to beat GOP incumbent Martha McSally in a US Senate landslide. Governor Ducey is loathed because of his disastrous pandemic response and state legislators are going to get walloped because of him (and Trump). "More so than in other state legislatures," wrote McGowan and Askarinam, "the results from the two chambers are likely to reflect one another. Arizona is divided into 30 legislative districts, each of which is represented by one state senator and two state House members. Republicans hold a 17-13 majority in the state Senate and a 31-29 majority in the House. Democrats should be able to win both but, like Minnesota , this isn't going to have any impact on the redrawing of district lines. (Arizona has an independent commission doing that job.)

Texas though, is a real battle-royale where the ability of the GOP to gerrymander is very much at stake. This one is CRUCIAL. Please contribute to Lorenzo Sanchez, Eric Holguin and Erin Zwiener here. Right now there are 83 Republicans and 67 Democrats in the state House and the Democrats are heavily targeting the 9 Republican-held seats that Beto O’Rourke carried in his 2018 Senate race, focusing on blue-trending suburban areas near Houston and Dallas, where Trump has become an albatross around the neck of every Republican. If the Democrats flip this chamber, the repercussions nationally will be humongous because GOP plans to gerrymander newly blue congressional districts will have to be scrapped.

The Iowa House has a 53-47 Republican majority. The Democrats need 4 seats to take back control. The legislature doesn’t draw the legislative boundaries but it gets to approve or disapprove them. Democrats control 3 of the 4 congressional districts and the 4th is an open seat where J.D. Scholten is running the most energetic campaign in the state. It looks like Biden is going to win the state, as will Theresa Greenfield, who is leading GOP Senator Joni Ernst by 1.8 points on average.

The Michigan House looks ready to flip back to the Democrats as well. Right now the GOP holds 58 seats to the Democrats' 52 but Gov. Gretchen Whitmer carried Oakland County by 17 points in 2018 and the Democrats are fighting hard to pick up seats there and in other suburban districts.

I would call it a much longer shot, but Democrats feel they can take back both the House and Senate in North Carolina, in great part because a federal court declared the old map unconstitutional, the Democrats had a very successful recruiting season and because both Governor Roy Cooper and Biden are surging right now. The Dems need 5 state Senate seats (and 2 are sure things). "The path to netting the other three," wrote McGowan and Askkarinam, "is scattered across the state, with promising races taking place in Raleigh, Winston-Salem, and the Piedmont region. Democrats point to Senate District 24 in Alamance County, where Democratic veteran J.D. Wooten is running against Republican Amy Galey, as a bellwether. Trump carried that district by 12 points in 2016; if Wooten makes it across the finish line, the chamber is likely to follow. In the state House, Democrats need to flip six seats to take a majority. The landscape is a bit rockier than in the Senate, due to a handful of vulnerable incumbents whom the party needs to protect. However, the party has identified nine Republicans they see as vulnerable."

Pennsylvania should be easier, where the state House has 110 Republicans and 93 Dems but with plenty of suburban targets around Philly and Harrisburg for the Democrats to win in, along with Biden. The Democrats are also likely to flip 3 state Senate seats, but they need a 4th (in Lancaster) and if they win it it will mean the anti-red tsunami is bigger than most people expect.

The toughest of the 10 chambers is the Georgia state House, where Democrats need to pick up 16 seats. They'll win seats but probably more like 7 or 8 than 16.

That leaves a chamber that should be a relatively do-able pick up unmentioned: the Florida state Senate, which the top Senate Democrat, Gary Farmer, seems absolutely determined to lose. The state Senate consists of 23 Republicans and 17 Democrats, so the Dems need 3 for a tie and 4 for a majority. It's almost as if they made a deal with the Republicans to go after 2, which will leave the Senate with a 21-19 GOP majority. Early on, the Democrats tried recruiting failed gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink to run for the open SD-20 seat (parts of Hillsborough, Polk and Pasco counties). She declined but the candidate who nearly won the seat against Tom Lee, the retiring incumbent, in 2018 is in it to win it. The state party has not been welcoming, at least in part because Lewis is black and they try to prevent minority candidates from running in "white" districts. (Yes, it's the worst Democratic state party in the country-- or maybe tied for worst with Ohio's.) Right now, it looks like Lewis is going to beat far right nut-job Daniel Burgess, despite Farmer and the state party. That'll make it a tied chamber; one more seat and they have a win.

Dr. Fergie Reid of 90For90, who helped recruit so many of the Florida candidates told me this morning that "Some Democrats are on offense in Florida; many of these Democrats are playing a beautiful style of 'team electoral politics.' 2020 Florida Democrats are contesting 83 of the 84 GOP held State Legislative Districts; 11 out of 11 in the State Senate and 72 out of 73 in the State House. In the 14 GOP held congressional districts, Democrats are contesting 12. Two Republicans were given walkovers,' on the candidate filing deadline date in April, Mario Diaz-Balart in the prime swing district in the state-- CD 25-- and Neal Dunn in CD 2. Recent polling shows serious Biden strength, and serious Trump weakness in Florida. Republicans are fearful of an impending 'shellacking' and rightfully so. Their great fear is losing control. If they lose either the state House or state Senate, Florida Dems will have a say in the next decade’s electoral maps. Kathy Lewis for SD 20 is the 'rate limiting step' to this Democratic 'power possibility' in Florida. Moreover, the state Senate candidates in todo are the key drivers for a potential Biden overperformance throughout the state: Karen Butler for SD 1, Stacey Peters for SD 5, Heather Hunter for SD 7, Scott Fretwell for SD 17, Kathy Lewis for SD 20, Tony Eldon for SD 21, Katherine Norman for SD 23, Corinna Robinson for SD 25 and Rachel Brown for SD 27; the other Florida Senate candidates are already receiving max support. Help the neglected candidates for maximum effect. Sprint to the finish line. Leave no doubt.

Who's missing from this photo-- Matt Gaetz, Ted Yoho, Joe Gruters, Daniel Perez, Bill Galvano, Dane Eagle, Ashley Moody?

The most unpopular governor in America, Ron DeSantis, is not on the ballot. If voters want to make him pay for his pro-COVID/anti-Florida agenda, the can only take it out on his cronies in the legislature. And they should. DeSantis has killed 16,110 Floridians and the state's case total is 760,389-- 35,404 cases per million Floridians, far worse than any big state in the country. On Kathy Lewis' website, is a message about the pandemic: "In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida has seen unprecedented numbers of citizens lose their livelihoods and having to navigate an unemployment system that was seemingly designed to deter users from accessing much needed unemployment assistance. Florida’s response to COVID-19 has been disorganized and lacking in measures focused on saving lives. Kathy believes we need a robust and thorough plan developed with the expert advice of scientists and public health professionals to deal with the current pandemic and to prepare Florida for future pandemics with our citizens’ health and safety as our priority."

Bob Lynch is running for the Florida state House held by a top GOP leader-- who is protected by the Florida Democratic Party-- Daniel Perez. Bob explained that "The reason Florida is not on the list is because Florida Democrats made the calculated decision to not be on the list. This was largely led by Gary Farmer, who has a cushy gig in the minority, and he doesn’t want to rock the boat. Cutting deals with Republicans is his job. Representing Florida is not."

"There is," he continued, "a solid chance we flip Georgia, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, and even freakin’ South Caroline Blue.  You’d think that Florida Dems would take advantage of this historic opportunity to go on a full court press to flip the Florida State Senate and House going into a redistricting year. Instead, Gary Farmer and his cronies decided to spend all of their time and money on Senate District 9 and 39 because that’s where their consultants and vendors can get paid the most and send the kickbacks all up the chain. They have not only completely ignored a historic slate of Senate candidates featuring @Butler4FLSen, @KathyLewisforFL, @Rachel_D_Brown, @NormanFlSenate, @CorinnaRobinson, @HeatherForSD7, @fretwellforfl, and @tonyforflorida, they have openly worked against some of them. Any one of these candidates could change the balance of power in Florida for a decade. Yet Gary and Juan Peñalosa have done everything in their power to abandon and torpedo these candidates. At a certain point, you have to ask yourself why?"

One very prominent candidate who is likely to be serving in the legislature next year and asked me not to divulge his name told me that "The Democrats are bringing a water gun to a bazooka fight with the Florida state legislature. Rather than help Democratic candidates win crucial races across the state, they're leaving them high and dry while actively working against candidates challenging Republican authority. It's genuinely disgusting how little party leadership actually wants to take back the state for the Democrats, especially considering Florida is a swing state with redistricting right around the corner. Republicans will fundraise and promote all of their candidates and shower them with buckets of cash to win. While the Democrats will be like 'OMG thanks for running XD' while doing absolutely nothing to help them win. It's embarrassing. One would think with the GOP's agenda sprinting towards fascism, the Dems might want to help out in critical races. But no, they'd rather be in the minority and collect a check. Holy shit what a petulant opposition party!"

Matt Rogers of Politidope-- and a legislative candidate himself in Virginia-- told me that for the last year, he's "been laser-focused on flipping Florida's 29 Electoral College votes for whomever the Democratic nominee ended up being. During that time, I've heard blood-boiling discussion of inspiring Democratic candidates being recruited OUT of races, party leaders wishing black candidates were 'more attractive' and Party 'leaders' themselves going on Twitter can saying they don't want to 'waste' resources on the brave candidates I've been so fortunate to work alongside with. Nevertheless, we persist. We've got only a few days left to raise money (until October 29th at 11:59 PM) for them. Let's do everything we can to help them and, in effect, help flip Florida's 29 Electoral College votes against the fascist in the White House.

Why Is The Florida Democratic Party Working So Hard To Lose?

 

Remember when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was bragging that his do-nothing response to the pandemic was just what the doctor ordered and how Florida would never be like New York or Italy. Today Florida has had 734,491 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (34,198 cases per million Floridians). New York has had 509,460 cases (26,189 cases per million New Yorkers) and Italy has had 354,950 cases (just 5,873 cases per million Italians). On Sunday Florida, still in the first wave, had 1,870 new cases. New York appears to be in the early phases of Wave II and reported 1,145 new cases. Like Trump, DeSantis has made every single wrong decision about the pandemic since it began, Because of DeSantis and Trump 15,365 Floridians are dead and the state currently has 284,231 active cases, more than any state other than California, which has nearly twice as many people.

DeSantis, the most hated governor in America, isn't on the ballot 3 weeks from today. He's lucky; but his party is on the ballot and voters know who the puppets in the state legislature are. The Florida state Senate consists of 23 Republicans and 17 Democrats. Four seats and the Democrats flip the Senate-- not an easy task... but not an impossible task either. Too bad the Florida Democratic Party doesn't seem interested in doing so.

"The party," former Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson told me yesterday, referring to the state Democratic Party, "should have come together and advocated a pro-survival, pro-health platform including free widespread testing, contact tracing, free state-provided PPE for everyone dealing with the public and all seniors, 'public nuisance' or 'disturbing the peace' enforcement against rule-breakers, free COVID treatment for everyone without insurance, frequent state inspection of nursing homes and senior communities for staff compliance, serious quarantining, selective restrictions tied to local outbreaks, virtual school open to all, and everything else that has been proven to work in places that have beaten the virus. Instead, crickets. Just crickets and funerals."

One of the least-covered scandals of this election cycle is how the head of the Florida Senate Dems, Gary Farmer, attempted to persuade-- rudely-- Rachel Brown into dropping out of an open state Senate race in Lee County to smooth the path for Farmer's Republican girlfriend, Heather Fitzenhagen. Luckily, Brown was not easily intimidated. Farmer's Republican girlfriend lost her primary to a neo-fascist Republican, Ray Rodrigues, and Brown is all that stands between him and another GOP extremist in the state legislature. Farmer is completely dismissive of Brown's campaign and has cut her off from state party funds.

Similarly, Farmer is protecting Trump Florida campaign Chair, Sen. Joe Gruters-- who is also chairman of the Florida Republican Party-- and has done everything he can do to sabotage the campaign of Democrat Katherine Norman, one of the best Democratic candidates fielded by the party this cycle.

Another case of Farmer working as hard as a Republican to make sure the Senate does not flip has been getting some national coverage. Joan Walsh's recent exposé in The Nation, Do Florida Democrats Want to Win the State Senate This Year? tells the story of Kathy Lewis, a distinguished African-American candidate who came close to beating the Republican incumbent last time she ran in a swing district that takes in parts of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties. The Republican incumbent is retiring and the Democratic Party recognized a prime opportunity to flip a seat. They worked hard to recruit, not Kathy but failed gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink. When Sink declined, the party took the district off the map, despite Kathy's candidacy. Many observers say Farmer doesn't like black candidates running in white districts.

Last week, the Tampa Bay Times endorsed Kathy and demonstrated the short-sightedness of the state party. "Kathy Lewis," reads the editorial, "brings a compelling life story and a rich mix of professional and civic experience to this race. Her drive and clear view of the problems Floridians face would bring a fresh jolt of reality to the Senate." Gary Farmer should read the whole endorsement:

Lewis, 59, is an author, speaker and businesswoman who advocates on behalf of families with children with special needs. She was motivated to run for this Senate seat in 2018 after an ordeal with obtaining services for her daughter-- an experience that Lewis said shows the holes and indifference in the social safety net that punishes hard-hit families.

Lewis said her fight for disability rights grew beyond an interest in expanding Medicaid. And she says the coronavirus pandemic exposed the need to deal with social services across the board. She would invest more in education and public health, improve the unemployment benefits process and devise a strategy to address impacts to the budget. She also rightly wants Tallahassee to be more disciplined about preempting local control. Her agenda and infectious energy could bring average residents into the decision-making process and help restore public faith in government.

Republican Danny Burgess, 34, is an attorney and former state House member who served as executive director of the state Department of Veterans' Affairs from 2019 to 2020. Aside from supporting more reliable access to Florida’s jobless benefits system, Burgess doesn’t offer many exciting ideas or stray from the Republican playbook. He supports the costly plan for new transportation corridors, which is unfocused at best.


Lewis would bring a rich life experience to the upper chamber and a history of perseverance. She emerged from an inner-city household in Baltimore to become a financial analyst in both the public and private sectors and a civic leader in school and children’s groups. She has a command of what’s happening on the ground and what should happen at the 30,000-foot level. The Times Editorial Board recommends Kathy Lewis.

Over the weekend, Daily Kos diarist, SemDem, noted that "For the past two decades, there’s one thing the Florida Democrats have gotten really good at: losing." And, as he points out, there are far more registered Democrats in the state than registered Republicans. As of August, 2020:

• Democrats- 5,203,795
• Republicans- 5,020,199
• No Party Affiliation- 3,653,046

The Florida Democratic Party is fairly good at winning seats in overwhelmingly Democratic districts of Miami-Dade, Duval, Broward, Pinellas, Alachua, Orange, Osceola, Leon, Hillsborough, and Palm Beach counties, but would rather not contest races in districts were they need to work hard making a case to non-affiliated voters. They are lazy and incompetent as a party-- which is why it is so refreshing to have candidates up and down the ballot who are not affiliated with the party apparatus, whether state Senate candidates like Kathy Lewis, Rachel Brown and Katherine Norman, state House candidates like Joshua Hicks, Bob Lynch and Anselm Weber or U.S. congressional candidates like Adam Christensen and Cindy Banyai. (By the way, the 2020 ActBlue Florida thermometer on the right will allow you to contribute to any or all of these candidates. Please consider clicking on it.)

Yesterday Rachel Brown-- who isn't in one of those overwhelmingly blue districts-- told me that she only needs $7,000 to get her entire district's voters to click on her website from Facebook Ads. "A $100 donation," she said, "is the equivalent of a volunteer phone banker who calls for 4 hours a day for 7 days a week for 1 week. There are 132,809 registered Democrats in Lee County. I need 121,000 votes to win. This district is definitely flippable. We need help getting the word out. Please sign up for a phone bank or make a donation today. Even if I lose, the information that I put in my ads is necessary for the people to know. I give stats about livable wage, healthcare, climate, affordable housing, COVID-19 in all my ads. If people donate, the money goes to information/education based ads and conversational texting, and blast texts/robo calls reminding left leaning irregular voters to get out to vote."

One of the promising-- future of the Democratic Party-- state legislative candidates, Anselm Weber, is being actively ignored by the Florida party, despite an energetic and compelling campaign in Lee County that will be turning out votes in the presidential, congressional and state Senate races. Yesterday, Weber told me that "In the face of an openly fascist GOP administration, the gatekeepers in the Democratic Party still cede immense ground to the Republicans while actively helping them in key areas. Florida is a swing state with majority Democratic voters. It is deeply negligent in the face of a DeSantis administration that is openly trying to criminalize peaceful protests, refuses to expand Medicaid, and continues to destroy our environment, that the Democrats are not spending as much as they can to help flip the Florida State Legislature. Even if the Democrats win the Presidency and both chambers of Congress, the door is wide open for Republicans to continue their authoritarian and austerity driven agenda in Florida or any other state. The Democrats should take a page from the Republicans and fight for state and local elections as much as they fight for the Presidency."

Another candidate candidate didn't want to go on record but told me that "the party should and can do way more to help down ballot candidates and it's a shame they don't. Whoever is the chair in 2022 needs to commit to truly supporting down ballot candidates-- as many great candidates won't run again because they aren't treated well."

SemDem went on to point out that Farmer is only targeting 2 Senate seats (SD-9 and SD-39), guaranteeing that the state Senate will not flip. A vigorous grassroots movement has a bone to pick with Farmer and the state Party and has helped make sure a Democrat is running in every district. Like most people, SemDem has identified Kathy Lewis as the Democrat who has the best chance to bring the party the crucial 3rd seat that would force the GOP to share power with the Democrats. He points out that her swing district "transverses the I-4 corridor, which is critical for Biden’s Florida campaign... Supporting this race is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, not only has most of the Democratic senate caucus not endorsed her, she told me that two major donors who had pledged money were told not to donate to her campaign. What is going on?

Florida Senator Gary Farmer, who is set to be Democratic Minority Leader in 2021, oversees the Democratic Senate Victory funding. He has ensured that Senate Districts 9 and 39 are flush with money. District 9 challenger Patricia Sigman has been receiving funds from the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign since March. More importantly, she and District 39 challenger Jose Fernandez received endorsements early on that helped big donors open their checkbooks. Sigman and Fernandez have raised half a million each.

Kathy Lewis never received such treatment. Mr. Farmer has tweeted against spending money on “long shots” that take away from races that he feels can be won. To be fair, he must spend a lot to win both Districts 9 and 39, and this year he must also spend money in District 3 (Tallahassee) and District 37 (South Florida) to ward off surprisingly strong challengers—even though they are in blue areas. The Democratic incumbents for SD-3 and SD-37 have over $300K each.

However, District 20 is far from a long shot. In fact, an internal poll, commissioned by a large donor in September, showed the race to be very competitive. The poll data showed that Lewis’ Republican opponent, Dan Burgess, had an edge until questions were posed from the GOP agenda, such as cutting Medicare, fracking and not fixing former governor, current Sen. Rick Scott and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ unemployment system-- which became an utter disaster in this state after COVID. The poll swung to Lewis by a 24-point margin! With appropriate funding, and Lewis’ plan to digitally micro-target constituents, the district could be in great shape for a flip.

Nonetheless, she not only received the cold shoulder on funding, she also has only managed to get the endorsements of five state senators as of this writing: Annette Taddeo, Lori Burman, Victor Torres, Audrey Gibson, and Bobby Powell. Endorsements are needed to bring in big donor funding. The other 12 Democratic state senators have not endorsed her, and in some cases, stated they wouldn’t. Fergie Reid, Jr. of 90for90.org revealed that Democratic state Sen. Darryl Rousen told him he had a friendly working relationship with Burgess, the Republican candidate, and thought Kathy Lewis wasn’t a strong enough candidate to beat him. I reached out to state Sen. Rousen and left messages, but they were not returned as of this writing.

If the Florida state Senate doesn't flip, it will be Gary Farmer's fault. If Florida fails to deliver its 29 electoral votes to Joe Biden this cycle it will be Gary Farmer's fault. If Florida remains a Republican hellhole it will be Gary Farmer's fault. Debbie Wasserman Schultz ran the Florida Democratic Party into a ditch; Gary Farmer is keeping it there. Whose payroll is Farmer on?

And it isn't just the venality for characters like Wasserman Schultz and Farmer that have turned Florida into such a challenge for Democrats. The party's incompetence is legendary. Adam Christensen, one of the state's rising stars, told me, regretfully that the state is far behind where it should be technologically-- at least in the rural parts of the state the party has been ignoring for years. Recently, his campaign spent $3,500 buying data from the party. "We decided to run tests on this  data to see just how effective it would be. We found that 80% of it was wrong. This included disconnected phone numbers, wrong cell numbers, incorrect addresses or emails ect… Data wins races, and right now Florida Democrats are running blind in the most critical areas-- that is if they are able to pay for this data at all. In my opinion if the Democratic Party of Florida gave out their software to everyone running and taught them how to do constant updates then they would have a phenomenal crowd-sourced operation and would win far more races than they do currently. It’s time to move into the 21st century, and we can’t afford to keep making the same mistakes."

Kristina Shelton: "We Need All Democrats To Get Comfortable Being Courageous"

 

When we think about gerrymandering, it's often in the context of trying the almost impossible task of flipping red districts blue. But in isolating Democrat-heavy communities, we are creating oases from which progressivism can spring. Wisconsin's 90th Assembly District in central Green Bay is the perfect example.

To create this district, Walker-era Republicans drew lines to include the meat packing plants, most of the city's rental housing, and majority minority neighborhoods. Generally, you can tell which district you're in based on the size of the houses. The 90th is blue collar and blue voting.

With relative electoral security, Wisconsin's Democratic Assembly incumbents should be positioned to demonstrate the true potential of the party: leading with creativity and courage as they work to make people's lives easier. But instead, the 90th's current-- and soon-to-be former-- Representative for the 90th used his position to try to coerce an employee of the State Capitol into sex. He was only eight months into his first term.

Enter Kristina Shelton, a woman elected to the Green Bay School Board whose personal politics align with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Kristina enthusiastically supports the Green New Deal, strong union rights, and Black lives matter. Her campaign is built from the premise that to beat the divisive, low expectations politics of the Republicans, Democrats have to be part of a social movement to rein in corporate power and lift up the most vulnerable in our community-- whether that is women victimized by sexual harassment or undocumented workers exploited by their bosses.

The process to get her the nomination was less of a primary and more of a culture war. Those backing the sexual harasser incumbent labeled her "radical," "underqualified" and "untested." But in August, she won the primary by 58 points. That's not a misprint: She won 79% of the vote, beating an incumbent who got only 21% of the vote. Green Bay declared that they want someone who is a little bit radical, and more importantly, a representative who will include them in the work-- and fun-- of making the change we need.

These safe blue districts can also serve as the laboratory for campaign innovation. When others around the region were struggling to pull together socially distanced fish fry fundraisers, Shelton was experimenting with live video, Spotify playlists, feminist artwork, and an ambitious texting program. She was running for state Assembly as though she were running for the White House.

"For me, the turning point was this poster we made," said Kristina. "I was up one night thinking of all the things I've been called in my life. I think a lot of women can relate to that. Words like unqualified, over-qualified, sexy, unattractive. My cousin, an artist in Pittsburgh, made those words into a beautiful image on a poster, and we sold the artwork as a fundraiser.

"We try things, we see what works, and we share whatever we learn so that the movement gets stronger. Win, lose or draw, we need all Democrats to get comfortable being courageous. And we shouldn't be afraid of enjoying ourselves while we're doing it."

If she secures election in November, Kristina will be a strong voice in the Assembly's Democratic Caucus. "I plan to legislate the same way I've campaigned: by bringing my community with me."

Why We Should Get Behind Debbie Boothe-Schmidt In Oregon-- A Guest Post By Mark Gamba

 

Most of the West Coast is still suffering one of the worst, if not THE worst fire season in recorded history. Contrary to the lies coming from the White House, the reason they are so bad is that humans have altered the climate, so things are hotter and drier than they have been for millennia. Add to that tinder box, unusually strong winds (also caused by climate change) and you have the perfect recipe for catastrophic fires. Portland Oregon, generally known as having pretty good air for a large city, had the worst air quality in the world, several days running. The Air Quality Index was off the charts. We were in unknown territory for the health effects on humans and every other breathing creature we share this region with.

If this were the first year with bad fires due to climate change, maybe you could forgive the Republican state legislators for their obstinance when it comes to passing some kind of climate bill. But it isn’t, and I don’t expect any change in that attitude in the foreseeable future. This matters, because even though the Democrats had super majorities in both houses and an exceedingly “fair minded” and thoughtful cap trade bill that looks to help the rural areas more (per capita) than it did the urban areas, the Republican members of both houses ran away from their jobs to deny a vote on the floor due to a lack of quorum.

So, if Oregon is going to pass any kind of worthwhile climate bill, let alone universal health care or any other truly progressive changes we will need a majority so big that the Democrats alone form a quorum. It just so happens that one of the seats that got us that supermajority is up for grabs because the Representative, Tiffiny Mitchell has decided to move out of the state.

Into this fray steps Debbie Boothe-Schmidt, a strong candidate who has deep roots in district 32. She raised her two girls as a single mom working two jobs to make ends meet. As former president of her union she has advocated for our working Oregonians and she also served as board chair on her local transportation board to improve public transportation in her district. She is now a small business owner and is running for state Representative to expand affordable housing and healthcare, funding for our schools and, of course, to fight against climate change.

This seat is one of the most competitive in the state with Debbie’s opponent being bankrolled by Timber Unity, Koch Industries, Chevron, Shell and many other large corporations. In the last two years, Timber Unity (responsible for the walkout against cap and trade) has become very strong on the North Coast. They staged a recall against Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell because of her vote for Cap and Trade and have also pledged to put $1 million behind Debbie’s opponent.

  If we want to pass any type of climate legislation in the state legislature, we are going to need to hold onto this seat to keep the house majority as well as hopefully flip a few more seats to expand the majority. This is a critical race.

The clock is ticking, we have 9 years to dramatically shift the way we function on this planet or we will doom our kids to a hellscape beyond the imaginings of worst post-apocalyptic movies.

Every city, every state and every nation should be addressing this issue like our lives were on the line. We can’t afford to let critical races like this be bought by the fossil fuel industry and their friends in the wall street timber companies.

Florida, Florida, Florida!

 

Florida, the ultimate swing state, has played a decisive role in too many presidential elections. Every single vote counts in any statewide election there. In 2018, Republican Ron DeSantis beat Democrat Andrew Gillum 49.6% to 49.2% in the gubernatorial race and Rick Scott beat Bill Nelson (basically a walking corpse) 50.1% to 49.9% in the Senate election. Two years earlier, Trump had beaten Hillary 49.0% to 47.8%.

This cycle there's only one statewide election: U.S. president. Republicans in Florida feel lucky that Ron DeSantis isn't on the ballot. He's more hated by his constituents than any other governor in America. Recently, his job approval rating dropped from an already horrible 40% to an astounding 29%! Perhaps that's because no other big state governor has mishandled the pandemic as badly as DeSantis. Yesterday, Florida reported 2,787 new cases, bring the state's total to 714,591-- 33,271 cases per million Floridians. That's far worse than Texas or California, the only two states with numbers of cases anywhere near Florida's.

And luckily for the GOP, neither Marco Rubio nor Rick Scott is up for reelection either. Floridians rate them both badly. Yesterday, a NY Times/Siena poll of likely Florida voters showed the bottom falling out for Trump among independent voters, a cohort where Biden leads statewide 45-33%. And the debate accelerated his decline. The Times wrote that the revulsion against Trump’s performance "extended well into his reliable base. One-third of the president’s supporters said they disapproved of his performance, including 11 percent who did so strongly. A modest but potentially significant 8 percent of people who backed him in the survey said the debate made them less likely" to vote for him... In Miami-Dade County Biden leads, 61-30 and Biden even led among Cuban-American voters who were registered as Republicans by nearly a two-to-one margin! And 60% of Floridians say they find Trump neither honest nor trustworthy. Only 36% of likely voters say he is. And 69% of independents say he's dishonest and untrustworthy.

That's the state of the race in Florida, the most likely state to try to steal the election for Trump regardless of what the voters want... and the state opening up everything with no restrictions despite a horrific and raging pandemic. In fact, Fauci just singled out Florida (DeSantis) for making huge pandemic mistakes.

One of the more dangerous aspects of the coronavirus is that a downtrend in new infections can give off the impression that life can finally revert back to normal. And so, in a scenario that we’ve seen play out numerous times over the past few months, cities that are quick to open things back up after a decline in new coronavirus cases typically see a huge surge in new infections weeks down the line.

The most recent example of this dynamic playing out can be seen in Florida. While Florida was previously a huge hotspot for coronavirus cases, the state in recent weeks saw its coronavirus numbers go way down after people started taking social distancing and mask-wearing more seriously. As a result, some schools in Miami are planning to open back up two weeks earlier than initially planned. What’s more, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently announced a plan to lift COVID-19 restrictions on bars and restaurants. And while bars and restaurants in most states are currently operating at 25-50% capacity, bars and restaurants in Florida will be allowed to operate at 100% capacity.

Needless to say, Dr. Anthony Fauci is beyond frustrated with the direction Florida is headed.

During an appearance on Good Morning America this week, Fauci explained:

That is very concerning to me. We have always said this is something we really need to be careful about. Because when you’re dealing with community spread, and you have the kind of congregate setting where people get together, particularly without masks, you’re really asking for trouble.

Right now we're suddenly down to the final days of this election cycle. In Florida, the state candidate fundraising deadline is 5 days prior to election day, giving state candidates there about 3 weeks to raise the money they need to run successful campaigns. I asked Fergie Reid, the principal at 90 for 90, one of the organizations that went against Florida Democratic Party wishes and recruited Democratic candidates in the districts the Democrats had decided to cede to the GOP uncontested, how the campaign is looking a month out.

He reminded me that the Florida Democratic Environmental Caucus worked with 90 for 90 to recruit 36 candidates for legislative districts the Florida Democrats were, for one reason or another (including grotesque corruption) leaving unchallenged in the state Legislature. They successfully filled each and every ballot line without a Democratic contestant. "For the first time in anyone’s living memory," he told me, "Florida Democrats are contesting Republican incumbents throughout the state. The Biden/Harris campaign has not yet fully understood the awesome value of this important fact; but, they may be catching onto that value now. These 36 candidates are running in the most Republican districts and areas of the state: the western panhandle, 'the Villages', the 'First Coast', the Everglades, the Southwestern coastline-- from Sarasota to Naples, etc. These campaigns will help Joe Biden flip Florida's 29 electoral college votes."

Reid seems confident that if the Biden/Harris campaign and their strategists finally understand this fact-- and how these down-ballot candidates, whether they win or lose-- can turn out voters, Biden will take the state of Florida. And some of these candidates, who once looked like long shots, now look like winners, particularly Kathy Lewis, whose victory will, in all likelihood, flip the state Senate.

"Bloomberg," continued Reid, "has committed to a very substantial expenditure in Florida on Biden’s behalf. A pittance of this sum could-- and should-- be allocated to utilize the 36 candidates and their campaigns to benefit Joe Biden. Blanket endorsements, social media, robo-calls, text messaging, etc., are 'low cost-high yield' measures that should be financed immediately by the Biden support structure. Not to do so is political malpractice. Many of these 36 candidates are still waiting to hear from Florida’s Biden campaign ground operatives."

Blue America has been working with the Environmental Caucus and 90 For 90 to identify progressive candidates among the recruits and there are candidates running for Congress, the state House and the state Senate. The 2020 thermometer on the right is strictly for Florida candidates who could make a pivotal difference in re-jiggling the state power structure. The state Senate is on the verge of flipping-- and Kathy Lewis, Rachel Brown and Katherine Norman could do exactly that, giving the Democrats a seat at the table when it's time next year to redraw the district maps.

In terms of the presidential race, there has been talk that the decision could be made in the House. Each state gets one vote based on a canvas among the members of the state delegation. Right now Florida has 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats. A victory by either Adam Christensen or Cindy Banyai could literally make the difference between 4 more years of Trump or a Biden/Harris administration. In fact, let me leave you with the brand new first Adam Christensen ad... while you consider contributing to this slate of candidates.

There Are Kick-Ass Progressives Everywhere-- And That Includes Montana

 

Aaron Sklar called me up and told me about some extraordinary progressive Montana Democrats a few days ago. I called our old friend, Missoula-area state Rep. Tom Winter to get another opinion and some contact info. Tom was super-enthusiastic and told me that Mary Ann Dunwell is great but in a very tough Trump district and that she needs some help. I called her up. Her answer machine message was so positive and uplifting that it's still reverberating. This photo of her is in front of Helena’s new Equity Fountain that has replaced an old racist Confederate fountain that she worked to dismantle several years ago.

When we talked on the phone, she was as uplifting as her answer machine message! Mary Ann is Bernie-and-Elizabeth-loving three term incumbent in red district (HD-84 in Helena), the kind where the Democratic establishment says only DINOs can win and where they try preventing progressives from even trying. She's running for her fourth term and I asked her how she manages to win there. Her policy priorities include access to health and mental health care, non-discrimination and gender equality, equal pay, living wages and worker rights, social, economic and environmental justice and climate action, public lands, and making sure corporations pay their fair share in taxes for needed public revenues. That's an agenda that should work perfectly anywhere, right? It seems to have worked in Helena. I have a suspicion it's at least in part because of the messenger. She's a dynamo-- in the best sense of the word.

She helped pass Montana’s historic Medicaid Expansion in 2015 and then helped extend it in 2019. She co-sponsored successful legislation to prosecute child sex abusers and sponsored bills for health, mental health and suicide prevention, living wages, affordable housing, fair taxation and public revenue, and climate action. I asked her to share a guest post that would help understand someone with her progressive values can win over voters who are also voting for Trump. It's more like a personal letter than a blog post-- but it certainly gets the point across effectively, doesn't it? Please consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the 2020 Blue America legislative thermometer on the right. Even small contribution goes a very long way in Montana state House races. And, by the way, in 2016, Bernie won Lewis and Clark County (where HD-84 is) in the primary and then Trump went on to beat Hillary in the general, 16,665 (49.3%) to 14,331 (42.4%). Mary Ann's conservative Trumpist opponent, Charlie Hull, would like to undo Medicaid expansion and healthcare for 1 in 10 Montanans. He’d deny a woman’s right to health choices and reproductive rights and he’d put guns in schools and undo background checks.


A Progressive Montana
Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell

Hi friends, thanks so much for investing your time to check out this post. I’m Mary Ann Dunwell, a progressive state legislator for public benefit and a Green New Deal agenda, swimming upstream in a swing district and rugged individualist, gun-toting anti-mask red state that Trump won by 20%. How do I win, let alone survive? I work. I connect. I serve all Montanans, regardless of party-- all the while moving the needle and changing hearts and minds.

Just this week, I talked with a Republican who almost hung up at first, but soon we were talking about stopping Big Pharma’s price gouging and helping her 2-year old granddaughter who needed life-saving medication for seizures. I made a couple of phone calls and by the end of the day, the medication had been approved. Another conversation was with a school bus diesel mechanic who supports Trump. His fiancé works night shift cleaning a hospital building. I told him about my living wage bills and protections for Montana’s outdoors so he can hunt in a clean and healthful environment. He told me I have his vote.

It was a tight race every time I ran. In 2014, I unseated a two-term powerful Appropriations Committee Republican by 23 votes. In 2016, I won against the same Republican by 124 votes when Trump and Republicans were sweeping the state.

I decided to get into politics in order to pass Medicaid Expansion, which I was instrumental in passing, then extending two sessions later in my position in House Human Services. Medicaid expansion provides one in 10 Montanans with healthcare. While Medicaid expansion helps, it’s really just the beginning of a big health care fix that we sorely need. Pharmaceutical prices must come down, community mental health services must increase, surprise medical bills must stop, and fee for service must become outcome based. Heck, we need Medicare for all. As a country and a people, I encourage us to drop our pursuit of health care for profit. Replace profit with public good. Health care is a human right.

Coronavirus magnifies the deep inequities, disparities, and weaknesses that still exist in our state. Many workers deemed essential are among the lowest paid. Some workers have no paid sick leave, let alone paid family leave. Folks living paycheck to paycheck have no cushion for emergencies and now face dire circumstances. Folks who are housing unstable can’t pay rents or mortgages. And folks who do manage to keep a roof over their heads can’t afford the high cost of health care and medicine. Together, we can bridge those inequities and strengthen our system’s weaknesses. That’s why I’m running to continue serving as state representative for Montana’s House District 84 Helena/East Helena, the Capital City area of our Big Sky state.

Now more than ever, Montanans need strong, courageous leadership that stands up to special interests and serves the needs of all Montanans, especially those who struggle with their health or mental health, or face financial hardship, including paying the high price of medicines. One pharmaceutical company has dropped the monthly cost of insulin to $35 during the pandemic. I want to keep that price low. This is just one example of pandemic policies that I encourage us to continue. My service in the legislature has been about bridging inequities and improving people’s lives. I genuinely care about those I serve. I’ve worked hard with courage, dedication and conviction, and look forward to continuing that hard work if voters have me back for my fourth term. Just like about everything in our lives right now, voting looks different during COVID-19. One thing is certain-- voting is your fundamental right in our democracy. It’s an honor to be a candidate for re-election. It’s an honor that you’re considering supporting my re-election. And I’m grateful. Be safe, strong and healthy. We’re all in this together. We’ll all rise together.

Thank you for your support. Warmly, Mary Ann.

Can Cookie Baking Grandmas In Rural Wisconsin Stop The Deadly Republican Political Machine In Madison? Meet Kriss Marion

 

-by Kriss Marion, candidate
Wisconsin Assembly district 51

As a wife, mom of four and a grandmother, I am fiercely committed to the well-being of my family, my neighbors, and Southwest Wisconsin. I run an award-winning bed and breakfast on our small farm in Blanchardville, and have long been involved in our village chamber of commerce and regional tourism promotion, including the Soil Sisters Tour. I have years of experience tackling tough issues, tight budgets and political disagreements as a Lafayette County Supervisor. I have a deep knowledge of the issues facing our region because of my service as a Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commissioner, and board member of Southwest Workforce Development, SWCAP, and the Community Leadership Alliance of Southwestern Wisconsin. I co-founded the Pecatonica Pride Watershed Association and Wisconsin Farmers Union South Central Chapter.

I’m running for state Assembly because I am so incredibly proud to live, work, and play in southwest Wisconsin and I want to protect our way of life for years to come. I’m tired of watching our legislators stay on the sidelines to fight with each other and the Governor, and refuse to show up to work while the rest of us wrestle with a world pandemic and a recession. I am ready to bring a civil, respectful, and tireless work ethic to Madison. I am ready to roll up my sleeves and show up.

I first learned that our Wisconsin state government was broken back in 2015, when some fellow farm women and I decided to approach our local legislators with a “Cookie Bill” proposal to make it legal to sell non-hazardous baked goods face to face. We had recently learned that it was illegal in Wisconsin to sell baked goods to your neighbors, even though a lot of people were doing it. Because we recognized that farm profits were in a tailspin, as they still are today, we wanted a legitimate way for farm families to add to their bottom line, without investing in an expensive certified kitchen. We wanted bigger and more successful farm markets in our small towns. And we know we needed more businesses in rural communities. Wisconsin was one of only two states in the nation that had such a ban.

We had great luck with our legislators, and with the legislature, and over the course of two years gathered the co-sponsors and the yes votes for an easy passage though the State Senate. Several dozen of us gathered at the Capitol for the Assembly vote, ready with cookies for our allies, and aprons for photo ops. We learned 15 minutes into the session that the bill was dead because the Speaker of the House didn’t like it and had simply omitted it from the agenda. He owned popcorn factories that required inspections, and he didn’t think it was fair for home bakers to go without expensive licensing. He hadn’t reach out to us with concerns, or tried to work with us. But that was it for our two years of work.

As we started through the process again in the next legislative session, this time getting a Republican to author the proposal, thinking we’d have more luck with the Republican Speaker. But after a year of work in committee, we knew that the Speaker continued to be opposed. With his limitless power, and no scruples about blocking a popular bill that had sailed through the committee process in two sessions, we accepted the offer of a non-profit law firm to take our case to court.

Two years later, we won and the Wisconsin ban on baked goods sales was overturned. Today, Wisconsin farmers markets are full of home bakers! But we still have no actual law on the books, and without legislative guidance, the Department of Ag, Trade and Consumer Protection is able to apply rules whimsically and, without reason, harass bakers here and there throughout the state.

While it’s by no means my only issue, Food Freedom is a big issue for me today. Now more than ever, farmers need more opportunities to make money, and when elected I’ll work to craft not just a Cookie Bill, but a whole package of legislation that makes it easier for farmers to sell goods directly to consumers.

But here are the other critical issues facing my state:

COVID: First and foremost, we’ve got to get COVID under control. Though we’ve been blessed as rural communities to not have the number of positives that urban areas have, we will continue to struggle to run our schools and businesses safely until we contain the spread. Science, technology, good leadership, and public cooperation are essential if we want to end this tragic disruption to our lives. COVID isn’t the new normal, but it’s here to stay for as long as we don’t address it wisely.

HEALTHCARE: In my conversations with voters, the top concern in most families right now is the uncertainty and expense of healthcare. Many people who have lost jobs because of COVID have also lost insurance coverage. The skyrocketing costs of health insurance and prescription drugs MUST be addressed. That’s why I’ve pledged to not take a dime of campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies or health insurance lobbies. My opponent has taken thousands of dollars from these industries, and he has, predictably, voted NO to cap insulin prices. He has also refused to accept federal Medicaid dollars that would extend Badgercare benefits to thousands more Wisconsin families who are just one medical emergency away from financial ruin. I want to make the best policy choices for my constituents, rather than for corporate donors. We must also address the lack of access to mental health care.

FAMILY AGRICULTURE: Rural places are the soul of our state and the engine of our economy. The future of our families, schools, and small towns in SW Wisconsin is tied to the fortunes of our farmers. Western Wisconsin led the nation in farm bankruptcies before COVID and 2020 will likely see accelerated farm exits. The collapse of global supply chains during the beginning of the pandemic showed just how vulnerable commodity markets are, and we need to address that with policy. We absolutely MUST resolve as a state to keep small and medium-scale farmers on the land, and give them the means to be profitable, or we will lose Wisconsin as we know it. My team has developed a 10-point “Rural Routes to Wisconsin’s Post-Pandemic Recovery” which supports diversification, short supply chain development and local processing. We need to make clean energy generation a part of farm balance sheets, increase profits by reducing burdensome regulation on direct farm sales, and expand farm-to-institution infrastructure. I sued the state of Wisconsin and won so that home bakers could sell goods to neighbors, but that was just the beginning of a Food Freedom renaissance that could revitalize our rural economy.

EDUCATION: Now more than ever, we understand the important role public education plays in the life of every American, and certainly in the well-being of every American family. High quality early education, especially birth-to-three, is foundational to future academic and life success-- and we fail to address the childcare crisis at our peril. Excellent K-12 education, once a hallmark of the great state of Wisconsin, should be a privilege guaranteed to every child, regardless of zipcode. COLLEGE AND TRADE SCHOOLS. A state which fails to fairly pay its teachers and adequately fund the instruction of its children, its young adults, and its returning students, is a state suffering from a lack of hope and a tragic failure of imagination. I am proud to be endorsed by our Education Governor, Tony Evers, and I share his optimism about our future. We can rise up stronger, Wisconsin, together.

CLEAN WATER: Many people were skeptical during my last campaign when I campaigned on the issue of water contamination. In fact, one of the main reasons I ran against Howard Marklein for state Senate in 2018 is because he refused to take my concerns seriously. But then the SWIGG (Southwest Wisconsin Groundwater and Geology) study showed conclusively in 2019 that at certain times of the year,  42% of randomly tested wells in Iowa, Grant and Lafayette Counties were too contaminated to drink. As a result, the Governor declared 2019 the Year of Clean Drinking Water and Rep. Robin Vos initiated the year-long Speaker’s Task Force on Drinking Water. Unfortunately, that Task Force, led by my opponent, failed to pass any water protections, and the legislature blocked all of the Governor’s proposals. But groundwater testing in SW Wisconsin is ongoing and we learn more every day about how vulnerable our karst bedrock is to surface contamination and septic leakage.  I believe with new faces, the legislature will eventually produce water protection policy, based on science and not special interest lobbies.  We must make sure that our communities provide the clean water and quality of life that will attract and retain workers, farmers, families and businesses.

I know there are many good people, including my beloved father, who believe that the private sector can and will take care of the environment. That has been Jared Kushner’s response to COVID as head of the PPE procurement effort: “Free markets will solve this,” Kushner told business leaders looking for direction on how to get involved. “That is not the role of government.” We now know that approach has been tragically disastrous when it comes to COVID, and the same is true of our response to environmental protections. I’m a small government democrat, and in many sectors I have fought against government overreach - including suing the state over an unconstitutional ban on selling baked goods! But protection of the commons - the resources that we all rely on for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - is one of the highest, most sacred jobs of government. We are at a critical moment in world history and we absolutely must insist that our state government, and our federal government, collaborate with the governments of all nations to address environmental protections. I have led on this at the community level, as a Wisconsin Farmers Union chapter president, and at the local level as a Lafayette County Supervisor. I will continue to lead forcefully on environmental protections as a state legislature. Our world can’t wait.

Wisconsin On The Verge-- Time For A Choice

 

Last week the U.S. new cases numbers were back over 50,000-- even though cases were down in California and Texas, the two biggest states both population-wise and COVID-wise. All week the spiking has been in the Midwest. Friday, for example, Illinois was #4 with 2,805 new cases, Wisconsin was #5 with 2,504 new cases, Missouri #8 with 1,765 new cases, and climbing numbers in Kansas, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa.

When you look at cases per million residents, the U.S. has a ghastly 21,928, far worse than European country. Five Midwestern states have worse outcomes-- Nebraska, Illinois, South Dakota, North Dakota and Iowa. Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas are just a week or so away from overtaking the national average. And Wisconsin, with 19,518 cases per million residents, may... or may not. The state is definitely spiking, but at least part of the population is fighting back and attempting to prevent a full-blown catastrophe of Floridian proportions. Yesterday, Wisconsin reported 2,817 new cases (4th worst in the nation), bringing the state total to 113,645.

Yesterday, The Atlantic, published a chilling essay by Robinson Meyer, Wisconsin is on the Brink of A Major Outbreak. "In every state that has so far seen a large spike of COVID-19 cases," he wrote, there has been a moment when the early signs of an uptick are detectable-- but a monstrous outbreak is not yet assured." He then asked, "Can a state realize what’s happening, and stop a surge in time? Wisconsin is about to find out."

In the past week, Wisconsin has crashed through its own coronavirus records, reporting more cases and more COVID-19 hospitalizations than it has at any time since the pandemic began... It now ranks among the top states in new cases per capita, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it is reporting more new cases, in absolute terms, than all states but California, Texas, and Florida.

Wisconsin’s outlook was deteriorating into the weekend. Yesterday, it reported more than 2,620 new cases of COVID-19, an all-time high. More than 540 people are hospitalized with the virus statewide.

The outbreak started about a month ago. It seemed, at first, like a product of students returning to college campuses. The University of Wisconsin at Madison brought back tens of thousands of students to campus in August. Within a week of classes starting, more than 1,000 of them tested positive, and the university shut down all in-person instruction. Other states in the Midwest saw similar spikes after colleges and universities restarted for the fall.

[NOTE: This is also when bikers were returning from the super-spreader rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, which also hit Wisconsin hard.]

But those states are not seeing what Wisconsin is now. Cases are popping up in too many places, and among too many different age groups, to be blamed on college kids. In fact, every age group except 18-to-24-year-olds has seen cases rise this week, according to official data. “There’s a surge happening in cases across the state, for the most part,” Ajay Sethi, an epidemiology professor at the University of Wisconsin, told me.

Any coronavirus outbreak is bad news, but a surge in Wisconsin, at this moment, would be particularly awful. The problem is one of both political geography and poor timing. Wisconsin could determine the outcome of the presidential election: The state went for President Donald Trump in 2016 by only 22,748 votes, and both Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden have campaigned there this month. The election is little more than a month away, and if the threat of infection scares Wisconsinites away from polling places, the outbreak could play a role in who wins the state.

...The Badger State is seeing an explosive rise in cases: On September 1, it reported an average of about 750 new coronavirus cases a day; now it reports more than 2,000 a day. Wisconsin has reported nearly as many new cases per capita this week as Texas and Georgia did at the peak of their outbreaks this summer, according to the CDC.

At the same time, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Wisconsin has more than doubled since the month began. “The surges are in Green Bay, in northeastern Wisconsin, and there’s a little evidence of an uptick in Milwaukee,” Sethi said. “A lot of these counties are where older individuals live, on average.”

But the state is not doomed to becoming the next Arizona, and it has already had some success halting the spread of the virus. After the University of Wisconsin at Madison shut down in-person classes earlier this month, case counts plummeted across the state. (The school is now loosening those restrictions.) Nationwide, many colleges and universities have successfully kept the virus in check through frequent testing and mask requirements.

But those tools aren’t as easy to deploy in a fractious state. This week, Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, announced that the rising case counts forced him to extend a statewide mask mandate through November. Mask mandates are supported by public-health officials in the Trump administration and the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Yet the state’s top Republican legislators immediately attacked the move. “Moot, illegal, invalid, and almost assuredly headed for litigation,” Scott Fitzgerald, the state’s Senate majority leader, said in a statement. If the mask mandate is overturned in the state legislature, as Fitzgerald has repeatedly threatened, then Wisconsin’s odds of a deadly surge will worsen.

Leaders in Wisconsin should recognize that they hold the entire region’s fate in their hands, because their reckless action could set off a much larger blaze. The Midwest now reports more COVID-19 cases per capita than any other region. It is the only part of the country to have escaped a large-scale outbreak so far, but a major spike could prove especially devastating, because the residents of many midwestern states skew older.

The next few months will prove decisive in the Midwest. Infections didn’t really start going in the Southwest until the summer arrived, when the searing daytime heat drove people indoors, where the coronavirus seems to spread most easily. In the Midwest, indoor season arrives in late autumn. It is nearly 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Green Bay today. The weather in December probably won’t be as favorable.

From the very beginning of this pandemic, the Republican legislature has been on COVID-19's side, not on Wisconsin's side. It's time to throw these bums out on their asses. The problem, of course, is that Wisconsin is one of the most gerrymandered states in America-- by the same legislators who now deserve to be defeated and see their political careers ended. Blue America is working to help a some of the progressive candidates running to flip the Assembly. I asked them how they look at the role of government in this pandemic, now just in terms of how badly the legislature has handled it, but what they expect going forward.

Francesca Hong, who will be representing part of Madison in the Assembly next year, noted this morning that "There were over 14,803 new COVID19 cases in Wisconsin this week. That number is higher than the total number of cases reported in the month of June. Over 1,200 Wisconsin lives lost yet Speaker Vos and Sen Fitzgerald are too busy suppressing democracy and our right to vote safely to notice. These leaders do not fucking care if Wisconsinites die, especially since those who are dying are disproportionately people of color.Protecting white supremacy/patriarical capitalism is their only priority. They have no plan to combat this virus nor do they hold themselves accountable even though they hold all the legislative power. We must vote the Wisconsin GOP legislators out. All of them. Our lives depend on it."

Jacob Malinowski is running for a Republican-held Assembly seat to represent his neighbors in the western suburbs of Milwaukee, right where Milwaukee county meets Waukesha and Kenosha counties. "I don't blame anyone for the pandemic," he told me last night, "but I directly blame the inaction of the Wisconsin State Assembly GOP for how bad it has gotten in Wisconsin. Because they refuse to show up for work, families across the state are struggling with COVID-19. We desperately need new leadership who actually listen to experts-- not our do-nothing, money-driven politicians."

The Assembly district Emily Voight, a Calumet County Supervisor, is trying to flip is straight north from Jacob's, just south of Green Bay. "The state legislators have refused to act, using the pandemic as a reason to not meet or enact any legislation; yet they are expecting local governments to continue functioning in person and passing the buck on to us. If schools and local governments can convene in person or virtually, why can’t our state representatives?"