The Tallahassee Democrat has a story today discussing the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) elect for the state of Florida and her transition plans. She and Senator Bill Nelson were both able to win a statewide office in a state which also elected a Republican governor and which has a legislature that is two-thirds Republican.
As an ex-astronaut, Sen. Nelson is pretty much sui generis. We all know that convincing a popular celebrity to run for office under your party name can be effective (e.g. The Governator). But, Ms. Sink's win was based on more fundamental principles and one we need to study, especially in Florida, to see what we can learn.
More below.
From Wikipedia:
Sink is a former president of the Florida Banking Division of Nationsbank, (now Bank of America). She was appointed by former Governor Lawton Chiles to the Commission on Government Accountability to the People, and also served on Governor Chiles’ Commission on Education.
Sink was vice chair of Florida TaxWatch, a group whose mission is to advocate fiscal responsibility in state government. Sink's civic involvements have included service with the Florida Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the Beth El Farm Workers Ministry, as well as serving and as Chairman of the Board of the United Way of Hillsborough County.
She is the wife of Bill McBride, the 2002 Democratic nominee for governor of Florida. She and McBride have two children, William (Bert) McBride and Cheryle (Lexie) McBride.
T Rex has an earlier diary on Sink:
Sink has embraced the cutting edge of technology in her campaign, with a well-designed web site, an official blog which she actually posts to and this Friday's interview with the biggest coalition of bloggers in Florida.
Sink had a DFA Link and an Our Campaigns Page. An old St. Pete Times article also adds this:
Sink has been a leader on the economic development board Enterprise Florida, the nonprofit fiscal research group TaxWatch, the Florida Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and the Beth El Farm Workers Ministry in Wimauma. She led efforts to create the Redlands Christian Migrant Association Day Care Center, and serves on the board of a charter school targeting migrant children.
As far as how she won, the Tallahassee Democrat article referenced earlier has this:
This emphasis on accountability in contracting was a key to her campaign's success, said Karen Thurman, Florida Democratic Party chairwoman.
"She is such a wrapped package," Thurman said. "What we have is a woman who ran a great race who'll now have the opportunity to use her experience to being everyone's voice to the Cabinet. She reached out, and she was clear what job she wanted to get done."
Thurman credits Sink's clear message as well as her professional ties to Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa, cities where she served as a banking executive, with the win.
"She has people who love and respect her in each of those important cities," she said. "She has left her stamp on every community where she has served, including women's rights and as a child advocate.
Thurman's citing of the importance of the big cities in the victory is probably more conventional wisdom than anything. While these Democratic strongholds are important, another St. Pete Times article has this to say:
Charlie Crist kept the Governor’s Mansion in Republican hands with a populist message that transcended partisanship. The only governor who won with a smaller percentage of the vote than Crist’s 52.2 percent in the last 90 years was Lawton Chiles in 1994. But while Jim Davis called for change the loudest, he could not beat Crist on their common home turf in the Tampa Bay area or along the I-4 corridor. Davis tried to win the old-fashioned way for Democrats: Pile up a huge vote advantage in South Florida and hope it holds up. It didn’t, even though Davis won Broward County by more than 110,000 votes.
Alex Sink demonstrated how Democrats have to win statewide races. In the race for chief financial officer, she won more votes than Davis did and came within 40,000 votes of matching Crist’s total. She won more in North and Central Florida by getting voters to cross party lines and sounding more mainstream than Republican Tom Lee, whose voice for ethics and campaign reform will be missed in Tallahassee.
This is where further analysis is needed. The counties mentioned here need to be identified and grassroots efforts there need to be created or bolstered.
The article adds these further insights:
But most intriguing is what happened in the Florida House. Democrats lost control of the chamber a decade ago and have been losing seats ever since. But on Tuesday they gained seven seats, ousting two Republican incumbents and winning five open seats — including two in Pinellas.
<snip>
With a little luck and a little more money, Florida Democrats could have boosted their gain to 10 House seats. They won more than 49 percent of the vote in districts along the North Suncoast, Palm Beach County and Sarasota County.
They recruited better candidates, such as former University of South Florida St. Petersburg dean Bill Heller and Miami Beach City Commissioner Luis Garcia (imagine that — a Democrat will represent a district that includes Little Havana). Those candidates more closely mirrored the politics of their districts instead of some party litmus test.
Democrats also more carefully targeted their money, sending some $250,000 late for voter turnout efforts to the seven districts they picked up. That meant some quality Democratic candidates, such as Carl Zimmermann in North Pinellas, didn’t get any help from Tallahassee that could have turned a narrow defeat into victory. But Democrats have lost before by giving too many candidates just enough money to lose with dignity.
All of this has to be kept in perspective. Republicans still control the Governor’s Mansion and two of three Cabinet seats. They kept their 26-14 margin in the Senate, and they still control the state House by 78-42. But now Republicans in the House don’t have enough votes to waive the rules and do whatever they want without consulting Democrats, and Sink will have a significant presence on the Cabinet.
There's a lot here to go with. GatorDem and I have been discussing how to connect Florida Kossacks into a group based on dmsilev's diary entitled Community and Collaboration. GatorDem started a blogsite where you can go for more information and we are collecting an email list of people interested in turning Florida blue. If that's you, please let us know by contacting GatorDem at verizon dot net.