just writing in Alan Grayson's name. On every ballot that has a DINO on it. Wasserman-Schultz is pretty much losing my "white vote". Right now she is pushing a guy who switched from GOP to Dem in fucking 2011, belongs to that new Democratic Coalition that is swooning with the desire to cooperate with the GOP (I will not be voting for anyone on that membership list, if I see their name on a ballot). The group is rapidly becoming the Florida DINO Corporate Party. And guess what? I can vote for local liberals all I want - but Debbie ain't gonna support them.

Who the fuck though it was a good idea (Wasserman-Shmuckz) to run former Republicans under the Democratic Ticket? Democrats in this state aren't going to vote for someone who trashed the state when they were Rs. The alternative is not any better, but who are they kidding?

Look at your own party dammit! Alan Grayson could be someone to look at as Governor assuming he would take the gig. Fredrica Wilson is another though not sure how the red necks might take to her.

The point is that there are people out there who might make better Governors than the suits we keep electing because of an inept Democratic Chair.

is, under the leadership in place, is causing me serious consternation. I truly hope Bernie becomes our candidate and when he wins, starts housecleaning our Party immediately. Otherwise it will be hold my nose time just to try to keep a racist hateful somebody from rule.

Damn, just no real choice anymore. Only the Party name is the difference.

bot strong liberals that get smacked by Debbie, ignored by Debbie, and who are obstacles to Debbie's senate run.

and Bob Buckhorn is, and will be excellent.

She's already said she isn't running.
As for Buckhorn? I keep hearing his name about 2018's governor race. I can see his potential.

it's really that simple. and it's really shitty that we have to fight this within our own party.

but, i have to say that our FL people are cowed. it's folks at the very top --> Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Jon Tester of the DSCC who are calling the shots. Florida pols are just falling in line, and it's time they stopped. they don't have to do this. they don't have to cave into Wall Street interests to win -- as a matter of fact, that's what is making us lose elections.

we don't even see the first step of "acceptance" on the part of party insiders. they *think* they're winning.

they must be using that new, helicopter mom definition of winner where everyone gets a ribbon!

assuming i'm speaking to a generic Democratic, and not a party insider who'd take this personally...what do you think of that? party insiders have consistently made decisions that have produced no favorable results...when exactly do we plan on changing this?

You keep on mentioning changing behavior. Well, behavior can mean a lot of things. What do you believe needs to change with their behavior?

is to show a change in behavior. i see no won elections. i see no changed strategies or tactics. so, what behavior has changed to prove that they've "learned their lesson?"

For one... I'm not an insider as you may believe. I'm a civilian who wants better government.
For two... Based on what you're telling me, it does seem to me that you're basing the idea that they haven't changed on the idea they haven't won or used different tactics? There is a whole year before elections begin... So it is a bit early to jump to conclusions.
But as to whether they "learned their lesson"? Crist only barely lost... And a lot of it was based on HIS decisions, not the party's. The path to victory is avoiding Crist's mistakes.

Having looked at the various successes and failures of recent Democrats, I believe that the best way to victory is picking candidates who can run good campaigns. Those who succeeded - Obama, Murphy, Graham, Nelson - were able to do that.
Sink and Crist, to the best of my knowledge, were bad campaigners and that likely cost them the victory.
I certainly don't deny that our state party could be better. I do believe that we need better people in charge.

decisions are made for us at the DC level, and it's up to the state level to push back or find workarounds.

with candidate recruitment we've absolutely gotten ourselves in a pickle. we need to be "promoting" Dems out of lower seats into higher seats, and filling lower seats with new faces. This isn't happening, partly, b/c of non-partisan local races. this keeps us from filling county-level seats with Dem candidates so we can't bench-up from there. we can only bench-up from state rep. right now county commission seats are considered a step UP from state rep seats. how backwards is that? except that it's better pay, better hours and better commute.

But based on what I know, we have a limited branch in part due to gerrymandering as well, leaving us with very few competitive races and limited opportunities for advancement. Not to mention the risks of leaving one office to run for another.

her candidate recruitment work. on most issues, she's reliably progressive. but when it comes to DNC stuff she's just a mess.

if they don't want to have primaries, then change the rules to choose candidates by convention...b/c that's what they're doing, anyway.

One of the problems in Florida is that the Democratic Party establishment thinks that their job is done when the have buses stop at every "over-55" condo to load up retired people from New York and haul them to the polls.

They rarely get a phone bank together. The DEC in my county is nothing more than an octogenarian social club. When new, energetic, dedicated progressives join, they run them off as fast as they can. In fact, they manipulated rules to throw a friend of mine out (a long time member-activist) of the party. They didn't like being called out on their bullshit.

The most incompetent, biggest brown-nosers, get promoted to high paying state party jobs.

they may not.

there's no demand for it.

Always transports the folks from the over-55 condos like Century Village (Cemetery Village) and Leisureville (Seizureville).

and i wonder if there's just people that are being missed. i have a friend doing senior organizing here -- i think i'll ask him about this, b/c i've brought it up a number of number of time in the non-profit community as well as with the DEC and what i always hear is, "there's this one little old lady in D-6 who just like to flirt with so-and-so -- she's the only one who take a ride."

but the thing is, public transport in Orlando is practically non-existant, so i can't believe that it's not an issue.

Sincerely hoping that these five thruths will be spread throughout Florida and the entire Democratic Party.

needs to read it and learn from it.

Is "Right-Wing" Babble? Do tell.....

I've seen them backstab good candidates repeatedly, just to run a crony and former Republican as a Dem.

i know i've agreed with Cryptoad more than not.

Unless of course, one is a donor themselves. Then one can be assured they are having quite the impact on our political process, namely, making sure more conservatives and republicans are holding positions of power over us all.

Luckily nobody on our side, or at least, no true liberal or progressive, would ever donate money or time to enriching the coffers of the very people and industries destroying us, to those funding ALEC, to those determined to ignore climate change, to those who wish to continue to look away from the truth right in front of our eyes for personal gain until we are all consumed in a fire built off their own avarice.

but that doesn't seem like a popular idea.

Because running repub-lite has worked out so well for the dem party.

who WON.

He lost by an 18 point margin in 2010, underperforming Sink.

Corporate Democrats rule the establishment -it goes right to the top.

reach is more uniform and more significant in states overall, than i had imagined from the start (which was already pretty bad).

using donor vs voter class was an angle that made sense to address Florida...but i think there's a larger issue that's emerging from discussions of this, that has to do with DC candidate recruitment in general.

Step 1 - Run another warmed over Republican the big donors like.

Step 2 - Not enough Dems vote, because warmed over Republicans aren't worth it.

Step 3 - Lose / blame progressives/ cash checks.

(Repeat indefinitely)?

This is so completely true! It applies all over the damned place!

but here in Kansas, I would have been happy to see life-long Republican Mark Parkinson run against Sam Brownback in 2010.

And living in Kansas, I have to believe that swing voters exist, otherwise how do we EVER elect ANY Democrats?

If Crist was such a bad candidate, then why couldn't he be defeated in a primary?

Don't whine to me about how some liberal Democrat could NOT beat the Democratic Party money machine in a primary. If they can't beat the Democratic machine among Democratic voters, then how are they gonna fare against the Republican money machine among the general public? That does not make any sense to say "my progressive candidate could win the general election but can NOT win a primary".

And Bernie can surge among white Democrats, well, because we white Democrats happen to be more liberal than the average white voter. How does it play in the fall?

progressives across the state called a cease-fire on the progressive primary challenger, Nan Rich. Nobody got behind her b/c they said, "Charlie has all the money and all the FDP support, so we'll give them this one -- it's TOO BIG TO LOSE."

and guess what. they lost it big time.

And that is how progressives give in to the supposed "moderates" every single time. And if you win, you get a Blanche Lincoln (congress-critter from Arkansas) who opposed the president from the right and provided fillibuster cover and then expected (and recieved) support from the white house and from the Clintons.

I am sorry, but if you refuse me on principles I can respect that, but if you cross the aisle to go join the republicans in a fillibuster than I have nothing but contempt for you.

we seize the moment now or never.

Who was supposed to get behind her? Legislators?

I mean, you still presumably have the voters to vote. They could get behind her if they care about progressive issues.

I saw a primary in Kansas, when I happened to be running in a primary myself, where unfortunately the State Party took a side - against a Democratic State Senator. I didn't think that was right for the party to take a side like that in a primary, even though that State Senator was kind of annoying the crap out of me with his rightwing talking points at campaign events where we were together. I also thought his opponent was more electable, since he had narrowly lost a state race for attorney general.

Still, the conservatism of that state senator might have helped in the general election and he certainly would have been better as SOS than Kobach. I actually voted for him in the primary. When he lost the primary, he changed parties, which didn't really do the party any good, although I think his seat is still be held by a D.

Crist lost it big time?

Try not to sound so happy about it - they barely lost it

"Republican Gov. Rick Scott has won a tight reelection race against Democrat Charlie Crist in one of the closest, costliest and most bitter contests in the country.

Scott had received 48 percent of the votes when The Associated Press called the race with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Crist received 47 percent."


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/scott-staves-charlie-crist-florida-governor-election-results-2014-112531.html#ixzz3cUErg9or

And it was "one of the costliest". Would a progressive candidate with less money have fared better? Or would they have lost 52-46? It's all speculation, but if a candidate cannot win a primary, then I don't see how they win in the general.

Although I have to qualify that - because I lost my primary dammit, and while my opponent was pretty cool, she didn't do that much campaigning, gave a lousy speech in Topeka (the Democrats at that picnic yawned, I think I could have done better).

So I think I might have done better, although she did pretty well for a candidate with NO money support, convinced a bunch of poli-sci people that the seat was winnable. I knew I wasn't going to win it. My hope was to build the party in a loss, come close for a no name, no money candidate, and then come back in two years with more name recognition.

A former Senate Minority Leader.

But, what do you expect when the FDP Chair, handpicked by Bill Nelson, is a former ChoicePoint employee and Lobbyist (remember the 2000 voter list purges, and suppression), and whose husband was on the Bush v Gore legal team ON THE BUSH SIDE!

But, if you mention that at a public meeting with her, you get thrown out immediately.

However, in my own case, our party had very few events. I had to sort of worm my way into some, because, at first, nobody knew I was a candidate. But really those events were perhaps more about getting donors than about getting votes, and they were organized by County chairs rather than the state party. But I went to one event in Topeka, and had to notice, even though it is by far the largest city in the district, there were more candidates at the event than there were voters.

The place to get help is with the media, not so much events. But then I learned that newspapers were pretty ineffective. I got my local paper and the Topeka paper to write articles about me, although I sorta thought Topeka trashed me some (but there's no bad publicity, right? - I joked at another event that what I got from the article was "Thomas is angry, and Thomas wants to raise taxes." I said "Great, it makes me sound like a combination of a teabagger and Walter Mondale." Got a nice laugh for that.

I spent about $700 (which for me is a decent chunk of change) running ads in the papers of the five largest cities. Advertised ALL WEEK in the Topeka paper. Did it the week before my primary (so my opponent would not have time to respond). I figured if I was doing ads and my opponent was not, that would insure a win for me. It didn't. One mistake I think was that because I attacked the Republican (during a primary) people did not realize I was a Democrat (and boy many on DU know how they feel). If I had just included the line "Democrat for Congress" that might have helped a lot.

In the end though, I probably would have been better served with $200 worth of the accursed yard signs in Topeka.

Live and learn.

I still can't believe that with all the unhappiness and people literally in the streets, the Dem party of WI could not parlay that into a big win in the recall.

In Michigan and YES, YES, and Triple YES to your Neighbors by way of a Lake. The Same Scenario applies here in the Great Lake State also.

There is no way in HE Double Hockey sticks Rick Snyder 2.0 should have occurred. However, our MDP is ran at the top by two numbneckles who told the Candidate against Tricky Ricky to "Play It Safe" until it was too damn late to change the message with our rank and file Dems in any Urban city across the Mitten (as not too many urban cities exist in the Bunny - Just Saying).

The end result: The Candidate lost by less than 5.0% of the vote and Tricky Ricky is still dancing in Lansing. Disgusting it is, indeed.

shanking my head. Who voted for that creep in MI? In FL? Guess you have to live there to know (I know in WI very few outside of Madison or Milwaukee knew Burke-she was a dem. that's about all we knew....)

with the same results, wasn't it?

What about the general? Was Burke too conservative? Was there a better candidate in the primary?

And what about the Senate race? I am not all that happy about the return of Feingold. I think he was great, but he's had 3 terms, is there nobody else in Wisconsin? I grow weary of the incumbentocracy.

running 'big city' folks for governor-that's why my hopes are pinned on my state senator-Kathleen Vinehout.

I'll take Russ any day.He should have won against Ron "Spending my in-Laws Money" Johnson. You're right though, Isn't there someone else out there? I was not enamored of Burke, but anything was better than Wanker.

We used to make fun of "the underdog for the US Senate".

Republicans did well with Walker from Milwaukee and Thompson from Elroy. Thompson, I guess, never really had a "serious challenger". I met the guy running against him in 1998 at an event in the metropolis of Hub City (of all places, Tammy Baldwin was there too (and damn was she gorgeous (sorry, but I kind of fell in love)). He was NOT considered a "serious candidate" and I think he got clobbered by the apparent "Governor for life".

But then a "serious candidate" usually means serious MONEY, which then makes them "DINO like Kohl".

Probably do need somebody from Wausau or Eau Claire or even Neenah, who can come close in the north and still carry the strongholds of Madtown and Milwaukee.

But where is Feingold from? Dodgeville?

Last edited Mon Jun 8, 2015, 05:44 PM - Edit history (1)

This post is spot on! The state Democratic Party has been totally subverted. I am also sad to say that organized labor has been duped into following the party line. At our state endorsing conference, I was stunned when Nan Rich (a lifelong friend of labor) was thrown under the bus in favor of a Republican just because he had "name recognition". I didn't vote for him in the general election and I know a lot of my members didn't either. Why should we as labor support someone who is only going to stab us in the back (Obama, HRC, Bill Nelson) when the Republicans will do that for free?

there was a total cease-fire on Nan Rich. Everyone backed-off of Nan Rich to give a WIDE berth for Charlie Crist.

I believe that that is their last lost. They don't get another. We sat on our hands and GAVE them exactly what they wanted. Now it's time for them to take some responsibility and clean up their act.

What is with some people? Nan Rich and Bernie Sanders are infinitely better choices than the likes of Crist and HRC.

I'm actually talking about something else altogether

I'm saying that if you want an alternative? You have to prove their worth first - that they're better than the original.
I actually respect Sanders and would consider voting for him too as well.

They think it's 33⅓% Democrats, 33⅓% Republicans and 33⅓% "Independents" (Swing voters). Then they go on about this being a "50/50 Country" and portray elections as being decided by that magical middle that switches between "D" and "R" all the time.

They also buy into the lie that this is a "Center/Right Country" despite polls showing America is very, VERY Liberal.

In actuality, half of the people in this country stays home on election day. Some have NEVER voted or have not voted for so long that they are no longer registered so even if they DO show up they'll be turned away.

The numbers are more like 25% Democrats, 25% Republicans and 50% "Don't give a fuck".

Republicans push that lie. They like to tell Democrats they're not welcome in the country because the population HATES them. They push the idea that the countryside is THEIR territory and the national Democrats believe that crap.

I'm old enough to remember when Liberals led by Willie Nelson were sponsoring Farm Aid to stop agribusiness from making the family farm a thing of the past.

Because a lot of Dixiecrats love to push that lie, because it is the only thing that keeps them from being swatted aside. Yeah Charlie Crist, and yeah Bill Clinton, I am talking to YOU.

North Florida is ~generally~ a more conservative area of the state. More rural; more Deep South in its culture. But it's likewise less densely populated. But it's held up as a reason we "can't" run progressive Dems even nationally, which doesn't track.

now it's RW central b/c we ceded economic issues, and allowed the unions to be broken. there's a common thread here, and it's money. Republicans and Centrist Democrats are feeding from the same trough (hurting workers), and it's pushed voters from OUR side over to the RW side, or into complete apathy.

Then the DLC started bragging that they could raise more money from Wall Street than Republicans as if that should be applauded.

FDR said they didn't have a key to the back door of the White House and today we have the DLC types ringing the opening bell at the NYSE.

i remember SO well.

i was a young whippersnapper in TN the 90s when the DLC and the Blue Dogs took over. my ex's dad was old railroad union from Unicoi County, and he'd tell stories about how it used to be -- not a utopia by any stretch of the imagination, but for mountain folk to swing so wildly from staunch FDR to staunch to Reagan Dem, it was very clear what was happening. the message was that "we couldn't have nice things anymore" b/c of "those people."

i was so blinded by having spent my entire voting life 1984-1992 under Reagan/Bush rule, that i was willing to trade ANY Dem for that.

What i didn't understand, was that we didn't address the message that "we couldn't have nice things b/c of those people" -- which is neoliberalism without saying it. it's toxic. it's crushed our party, and ruined our country. as a "new dem" principle under Clinton it wasn't a saving grace -- we would have won that election regardless, and could have kept that Congress (don't get me started) without trading away our national treasure in what's come to be called the Shock Doctrine.

this idea that "we can't have nice things b/c of those people," this is why we have to march for #blacklivesmatter. it's why our school suck. it's why were fighting wars in countries we can't even name. and we can't even say, with feeling, that our Dems *as a brand* are better. we have a handful of Democrats who have to fight everyday against our own party against neoliberalism. so there's that. but, as an army...or a force to be reckoned with? feh, i wish.

That talking point is directed at the base to silence them because they don't really HAVE a base.

Liberals hate them for being arrogant and WRONG and Conservatives hate them for being slimy con artists and working class people hate them for selling them out to big business and big business hates them because they expect more money than Republicans. Their ONLY base is themselves and like minded types in the media who praise them for their wisdom.

Go after the non-voters! That's the biggest group. Oops, my bad. You would actually have to represent The People for that to work.

FYI, I think most of the undecideds just want the attention.

In October 2004, I saw the greatest Halloween costume. This kid, maybe 15 or so, had all Kerry stuff on the front & all Bush stuff on the back with a pin that read "Undecided Voter."

it's not a secret. it's the way we do our work. in Orange County Florida we have approx 100,000 more registered Dems than Republicans and we only have ONE (quasi) Dem on the county commission b/c we have "non-partisan" local elections where voters aren't allowed to know the affiliation of candidates running for office.

orange county turnout was one of the highest in the state (of big counties) b/c our c3-c4 community focused on *unlikely voters* instead of super-voters. so, they left it to the DECs and other groups who traditionally go after super-voters to get those folks to the polls. there was an amazing 254% increase in *unlikely voters* participating in the primary and general elections from this effort in 2014.

these are people who otherwise would not have showed up b/c NO ONE was chasing them. they got absentee ballots, and will continue to get them for the next 3 cycles. so, the thought is to move people from non-voting to potentially being super-voters by teaching them the ropes and giving them the tools.

kind of a tangent from "undecided voter" but it reminded of these numbers which i've been poring over today

Last Halloween had a LOT of Ebola victims.

I'd love to -- I do PNN on Blog Talk Radio on Sunday Nights here in Florida, and would love the opportunity to speak to your audience!

Look forward to setting something up!

And, word is that Patrick Murphy support is softening esp in SOFL circles. So, expect that money to get a little less abundant, at least from FL donors.

Kick from a CA Dem here.

the thing about "negative partisanship" is really interesting to me. it came up on VOX a few weeks ago, and I've been looking for reason to include it in something. was glad it fit so well in this.

The story of a union teacher and what was done to him by Rahm and the FL party chairman.

Remember Tim Mahoney and his mistress???

Mahoney vs Lutrin....what was done in FL 16th by Rahm and Thurman.

David Lutrin, a school teacher, union activist and staunch supporter of immediate withdrawal from Iraq, decided to run against Foley before Mahoney entered the race. After Mahoney declared his candidacy, Lutrin was contacted by field organizers for the DCCC who asked him to drop out and let Mahoney run unopposed.

Lutrin said that he also met personally with Mahoney. During a three- hour breakfast meeting, Mahoney offered Lutrin a higher-paying job if he agreed to drop out of the primary. "Mahoney tried to get me to run in a different district. He offered me a job at one of his non-profit organizations where he said that I would make more than I was making as a teacher. He said I could campaign full time while working at his non-profit as long as I agreed to drop out of the race," Lutrin said. Lutrin declined the job offer.

According to Lutrin, when he refused to step aside, the DCCC shored up local political support for Mahoney. The local AFL-CIO chapter, of which Lutrin was a member, came out with an early endorsement of Mahoney's campaign. According to Lutrin, the union told him that "they would like to back a fellow union brother, but Mahoney has more money and more political support from the party." Lutrin eventually dropped out of the race when the local teachers' union decided to support Mahoney.

very helpful for conceptualizng the long-term nature of this, as well as where the levers of power are applied.

In 2004, Schneider came within a few points of defeating Katherine Harris. In 2006, Schneider ran again, but Rahm inserted wealthy banker, and former Republican, Christine Jennings into the race. The DCCC sent Barbara Boxer down to hold a fundraiser for Jennings in the middle of the primaries. Jennings raised over $400k and used about all of it on attack ads on Schneider.

The result? Meet Congressman Vern Buchannan (R), rated one of the most corrupt members of Congress.

In 2008, Jennings was running again for a rematch. But Schneider, with a sense of humor, shoved it up their asses, and filed as an Independent in the general.

What does it say for Florida when someone like Buchanan gets elected, reelected.

Progressives have been forced out of race way too long.

please keep me in the loop.

The moderate leadership works very, very hard to make sure nobody rocks their boat too much.

but not when it's become toxic or isn't working for you any longer.

He's a sure thing.

no doubt many folks believed it. some still do, and are having trouble reconciling the loss.

but, it turns out that fundraising isn't the only feature a candidate needs. they also need to be a good Democrat or else people just aren't going to be motivated to vote.

The DNC and centrists lost the 2012 elections and are poised to do the same in 2016 unless Democratic members of the party take care of the business of the people.

there's no sense in continuing to do things the way we've been doing them.

why not fight with the truth?

why not fight?

we have nothing left to lose.

They ran Crist against our Democratic candidate and helped split the vote to ensure Rubio's win.

DU's admins also allowed a 3rd party to campaign here to help elect Marco Rubio to the Senate from Florida.






 

Also Crist was invited as a DNC speaker at the convention before he'd announced for Gov.