For every seat there is a Democrat, thanks to the 140 District Project
Back in 2018. when a blue wave swept the country , it missed Florida. Historically Florida had been moving Republican for a while. In 2018 that slowed a bit under State Democratic Party chair Terrie Rizzo’s leadership but did not stop. Democratic efforts to increase voter turnout were more than matched by Republicans. Various progressive voices, including the Florida State Party Treasurer of the time accused Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo and Executive Director Peñalosa of errors resulting in a reduced non-Cuban Hispanic turnout. This failure of turnout was blamed for the loss of the Senate seat and the Statehouse.
Those in the know doubtless are aware of the questionable performance of the Florida Democratic Party. For those not in the know (which included me) here is some information. This is not meant to be a full list. All of these events occurred while the state Democratic Party leader was (and is) Terrie Rizzo. She took over the state party chair position in December 2017, after accusations of personal misconduct (including racism) caused the previous Florida Democratic Party chair, Stephan Bittel, to resign. After Terrie Rizzo assumed leadership contention swiftly arose over fundraising in July 2018, when, per Miami New Times
In July 2018, some of those activists attempted to force the party to ban donations from private-prison corporations. Their rationale: Boca-Raton based GEO Group, a major party donor, profits from the American deportation-industrial complex.
But the party brass fought to preserve donations from private-prison contractors. Penalosa, the party's executive director, sent internal emails calling the provisions "problematic." Other party members, including a former employee in Bill Clinton's White House, attempted to derail the vote with procedural tricks. The measure ultimately passed — but New Times found last month that the party is still indirectly accepting money from GEO Group.
After the 2018 Election the Florida State Democratic Party Treasurer resigned, saying she felt her and other black leaders in the party felt they were being overlooked
And now, a high-profile black female party leader has resigned, saying black voices are being ignored at the party's top levels. Last week, Democratic Party treasurer Francesca Menes, a Miami-based immigrant-rights activist of Haitian descent, announced online she had resigned from the state-level party and from her position as the Miami-Dade County Democratic Executive Committee’s “state committeewoman.” In a Facebook post, she wrote that she and other prominent black leaders in the party felt their voices were being overlooked <Miami Times>.
Terrie Rizzo and Juan Peñalosa weathered the immediate criticism following the disappointing results in Florida but at least some of the grassroots was not appeased.
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In February 2019 there was strong disagreement between grassroots activists and the Florida State Democratic party leadership, as exampled by the “Unity” resolution which appears to have been passed to close off debate over what approach to use (and who should lead) in the 2020 election cycle. Per the Miami Times
After the losses, critics noted that, among other things, major candidates failed to effectively reach out to Hispanic voters and ignored black and brown voices within the party. But the party's leadership doesn't appear interested in soul-searching. Instead, Florida Democrats this past weekend passed an absolutely strange "unity" resolution that seems like a middle finger to party members who suggest the leadership is doing a poor job.
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Due in large part to grassroots efforts including the 140 District Project (link to diary posted by Bethesda 1971) it appears that there is a Democratic candidate running for all but one open state legislative seat in Florida in the 2020 cycle, even apparently hopeless ones. I think this strategy is a good one to follow in what appears to be shaping up as a “wave election”. The Florida State Democratic party responded by charging each candidate $750 for their local list. Zentrainer documented the situation here. Nikki Fried, the only current statewide Florida Democratic officeholder responded by putting up the money. The Florida State Democratic Party then asserted a 250 call for vote by mail requirement to release the list. While I do not find the requirement unreasonable the fact that it was not disclosed at the time of the $750 demand for lists looks very suspicious to me. Keep in mind there is also an $1,800 filing fee the candidate must pay the state. This adds up very quickly to amount daunting for ordinary people.
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And the Florida Democratic Party is currently immersed in a scandal of accepting and apparently misusing PPP funds. It’s a bit too arcane for me to briefly explain but the link does a pretty good job. While Republican lawmakers also grabbed at the PPP money they did so through their private businesses (at least so far as I know). I would think it obvious that a direct party grab at the money would be exposed and condemned, as indeed happened.
The above series of events makes me believe that the Florida State Democratic Party leadership is playing a selfish game of “King of the Hill”. This is driving the heavy conflict between state party leadership and a substantial portion of the grassroots.
Diaries I have drawn from to assemble this list
Bethesda 1971 Miracle in Florida: 30 Uncontested Districts Are Down to Six. Let's get them all on the ballot!
Vetwife John Lewis would want us to take the Florida Dem Party to task. CALL! Give up the list.
ZenTrainer Can they come up to the big house for a glass of water if they pick enough cotton?
ZenTrainer This is some definition of helping I'm not familiar with
If this diary motivates you to post I pasted below a partial list of Florida candidates from a ZenTrainer comment.
HD3-Adam Christianson — Donate
HD7- Ryan Terrell — Donate
HD11- Joshua Hicks — Donate
HD12- Spyros "Speed" Chialtas — Donate
HD15- Jay McGovern — Donate
HD14- Angie Nixon — Donate
HD16- Ben Marcus — Donate
HD20- Yvonne Hayes Hinson — Donate
HD21- Dr. Kayser Enneking — Donate
HD 26- Patrick Henry — Donate
HD 25- Sarah Zutter — Donate
HD27- Dolores Guzman — Donate
HD29- Tracey Kagan — Donate
HD31- Debra Kaplan — Donate
HD33- Mamie "Dee" Melvin — Donate
HD32- Ryan Morales — Donate
HD39- Chris Cause — Donate
HD41- Jared West — Donate
HD50- Nina Yoakum — Donate
HD51- Joan Majid — Donate
HD52- Lloyd Dabbs — Donate
HD53- Phil Moore — Donate
HD57- Scott Hottenstein — Donate
HD58 Townsend, Jr. — Donate
HD59- Andrew Learned — Donate
HD60-Julie Jenkins — Donate
HD64- Jessica Harrington — Donate
HD75-David Jones — Donate
HD77-Joshua Lopez — Donate
HD78-Shawn WIlliams — Donate
HD83- Edgar "EJ" Bernier — Donate
HD85-Jim Carroll — Donate
HD89-James Bonfiglio — Donate
HD106-Sara McFadden — Donate
HD116- Bob Lynch — Donate
HD118-Ricky Junquera — Donate
HD120-Clint Barras — Donate
If I put on tags wrong, or missed any that moderators feel belong please feel free to add
