(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The toll road from irrelevance for the Florida Democratic Party has one lane and several booths [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-09 I haven’t deeply followed the leadership changes in the Florida Democratic Party because I lost my heart for it. That happened in early 2020 when the state party asked all of its county executive committees to pass resolutions discouraging precinct captains from endorsing presidential candidates. I shouldn’t have to explain the hypocrisy of that considering that state leadership had for 20 years greased whatever skids it chose on behalf of a favored candidate, although I guess I just did. However, I have a good sense for what this new leadership has to do. It has little to do with the things I keep hearing. We aren’t going to get the registration advantage back. We screwed up on restoring the vote to ex-felons. For three census cycles now, we’ve acquiesced redistricting to the enemy, and in waging such a miserable campaign against DeSantis, Moody and Rubio, we have allowed a wave of fascism to emanate into the nuts and bots of government in every area that could be construed as a culture-war front. The FDP’s only mission for the next two years needs to be see to it that every state or federal legislative race has a credible candidate. That likely means working closely with the county committees, but it doesn’t mean using approaches that have failed in the past. We need to start by identifying the Democrats with the highest standings in each respective community and seeing to it that they have the resources to wage aggressive campaigns against the Republicans. That means to back off fundraising for the party itself. In no way should the FDP compete with the campaigns for political financing. The exception would be to finance firm opposition research. I didn’t need to just be hearing that DeSantis won his bronze star for justifying torture. I didn’t need to just hear about the terminology he used for slavery and the confederacy as a high school American History teacher. If there is one central campaign, the state party could better wage than local campaigns, it involves making voters see they are voting for the nine insurrectionists in Florida’s congressional delegation, that its attorney general spent tax money attempting to overturn Michigan’s 2020 presidential election and has scrubbed the Internet of her own Jan. 6 fundraising involvement. State leadership needs to butt out of a lot of the choosing. To quote the movie Erin Brockovich, you suck at it. Find people in the districts that demonstrate good judgment and listen to them. That might mean county party leadership, but it needs to be stressed to them to not use any assumptions that have been used in the past. They haven’t worked. We need to start with replacing Rick Scott. He has always been vulnerable, and it is to the FDP’s shame that he has won three statewide elections by razor-thin margins. This time out, a) no mistakes, and b) again, a good candidate. Don’t simply go with a moderate. I’m a moderate, and I have no passion for “safe” choices. That doesn’t preclude Val Demings making another run, but if she does, I would want her to know this: Congresswoman, I felt betrayed when your first campaign add attempted to appeal to Republicans with your posturing “that’s crazy” closeup dismissing the “defund the police” movement. If you thought that would innoculate you from that issue, that was naive. This is a Republican party that found a way to campaign against John Kerry’s war record. You got painted a dangerous leftist anyway. In the meantime, you trivialized a response to a real crisis that frankly means more to your base than you do. I’m an aging white guy and those of us who remain Democrats do so specifically because we have racism, including the enabling of authoritarian minded police officers killing unarmed black men over possible traffic offenses. I supported your candidacy from the first because you proved as an impeachment manager that you could bring an intelligent argument to the floor. I can’t be alone in losing my enthusiasm for your candidacy with that first ad. If you run again, don’t think you can protect yourself from the shitheads. They will go after you anyway, and you will need the entire army of Democrats and NPAs to fight for you. Beyond the Senate, I would point to 2006 and the laughter Howard Dean generated when he put forward his 50-state strategy. The next January, we swore in two Dem-organized houses of Congress and were set to win the presidency in 1008. Despite declining registration, our party has accomplished civic leaders in every district. We also have opponents who are to a person vulnerable. That doesn’t mean safe seats don’t still exist, but even the safest R has a flaw in the fabric that could unravel by 11/24. The biggest failure of the 2017-2020 leadership was to not pay proper and effective attention to the Florida house and senate races. That has to end, and the right needs to continue for every cycle up to 2030 if we are to have any hope of untangling the FL-GOP’s sodomy of the two Fair Districts constitutional amendments passed by the voters in 2010. Same thing as with the congressional seats. Find good people. Encourage party donors to donate to their campaigns, and break the paradigm of how they have campaigned against their opponents the last 30 years. One last thing. The national party has been telling the Florida party to amend its delegate structure for conducting state party business The proportions violate DNC rules and the six counties who run Florida Dem politics have been unwilling to give up their power. Well, thank you, assholes. That power is now officially gone. Give it up and allow a truly representative Florida party build it up again. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/9/2152005/-The-toll-road-from-irrelevance-for-the-Florida-Democratic-Party-has-one-lane-and-several-booths Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/