I think Rep. Mia Jones (D-Jacksonville) who is a candidate for Minority Leader against the favored Darryl Rouson (D-St Petersburg) and the irrelevant Rep. Alan Williams (D-Tallahassee) is a solid choice, and I would like to see her win the post. However, I am very troubled to learn that in the dying days of the 2012 campaign as Democrats were struggling to raise last minute cash in extremely close races that the Florida Democratic Party cut two large checks to Jones campaign in a safe African-American dominated Jacksonville district.
For some strange reason Tallahassee establishment Democrats were patting themselves on the back for winning 44 of 120 House seats in this election while the party carried the state at the Presidential and US Senate level. That’s less than 36% of the seats that was won by the Democrats on a completely new legislative map, where almost as many seats should go Democratic as Republican. The FDP choose to not contest seriously many pick-up opportunities, for some inexplicable reason. Incumbency has advantages no doubt, but those advantages are negated to a certain extent when sitting members must run in new terrain. One such example was HD-63 where 2/3 of the district was new to Rep. Shawn Harrison and Mark Danish won despite the indifference of the Tallahassee based FDP leadership.
Another example was Rep. John Wood whose district shifted north and eastward and could have been upset by Karen Welzel had any effort been placed in the race from Florida’s Democratic leadership. Wood’s defeat combined with that of Chris Dorworth would have crippled the GOP Leadership, but instead Wood hung on thanks to the indifference of the FDP towards the race and the district. Others like Ross Hancock, Karen Welzel, Milissa Holland and Gail Gottlieb also lost close races largely because of the state party’s lack of interest in their candidacies.
Throughout the state Democrats lost 13 House races by less than 5,000 votes and five House races by less than 2,000 votes. The $20,000 that ended up in Mia Jones campaign account certainly could have been better spent. Why exactly this money was given to Jones campaign is a mystery, but could very well make those candidates who fought so hard in an uphill fight without FDP financial or strategic help even more bitter.
Below are the two questionable contributions to Rep. Jones campaign:
2012 G4 10/31/2012 10,000.00 FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY NON F 2012 G4 11/01/2012 10,000.00 FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY NON F
Troubling indeed….
I wrote about this back in November, actually.
Or the over $20,000 to Gwen Margolis a a safe Senate seat (won with 62% of the vote)
$27,000 to Jeff Clemens in a safe senate seat against a write-in (he only won 99.9% of the vote)
And what is $30,386.28 to the Broward DEC for “filing fees” ????
The Chris Smith one is the interesting one:
“Now this one gets me. Either it is a mistake or one of the biggest errors in political history (hopefully it is the former). Senator Chris Smith was given an in-kind contribution by the Florida Democratic Party of $113,950 for “photography”. Hopefully the decimal point on that number was put in the wrong place or it wasn’t really spent on photography. If not….wow!”
If you read the FDP report, the expenditure is $1,139.50…but still, why is the FDP spending ANY money on this race???
And you wonder why we keep losing election after election. This is simply incumbent protection at its worst. We’ll never grow our numbers with these sorts of expenditures on an already tight budget.
Gwen Margolis put her own money into the “safe seat,” which is a Hispanic seat.
Blame Christian Ulvert who funneled money to his clients while the party hierarchy just stood by and watched.
Yeah, I didn’t read the FDP one, just the Chris Smith one. Thanks for the note. That explains why I always thought it was a mistake (as noted)
Abruzzo faced a potential GOP onslaught but withstood it. He got little party help.
Probably bc he didn’t hire Ulvert. Total bs.
Great reporting!!!
Keep it up!!
This is part of the “STENCH” in the FDP offices in Tallahassee that ED Scott will now keep on doing now that his puppet Allison Tant is his new boss instead of Alan Clendenin that would have rightfully cleaned house of the loosing consultants that the FDP keeps on the gravy train!!
This is only the tip of the iceberg!!
Stupid Democrats!!
You never learn!!!
Led astray like sheep by King Debbie Wasserman and her her boy Scott!!
And of course a stolen election too!!
The train wreck is coming!!
Alison Tant will be out in two years!
Watch out!
Agreed but it’s “lose.” I’m begging you. Lose. Loose is when you have a loose tooth, man. You’re killing us. KILLING us.
Abruzzo bought his seat from the beginning. When you are part of the “fair” redistricting process you know there is a problem. Abruzzo had no real race. Margolis issue is a joke too. Clemens another fool who should just be in the House. They gave him money to get Deutch’s and Wexler’s buddy Rader a seat while they pushed Perman out.
Clemens will not go very far. Abruzzo will.
Ask Christian about Abruzzo. Between Ulvert, Abruzzo and Aronberg they are as thick as thieves.
Wait until you see how much money FDP is going to waste of Rep Perry Thurston running against Pam Bondi. That clown couldn’t get elected Judge in Broward, never made it out of Committee of the JNC and has never show up on time for a hearing in his career. Note the name Michael Brewer it is going to come up a lot in this campaign.
Ulvert is going to be thurston’s consultant. What pisses me off is that we run candidates based on consultants. If the candidate wins or loses (most likely), the consultants still get paid. Ulvert and Thurston know that Thurston will lose. But all they are about is being able to keep the gravy train going for one more cycle before Thurston runs for the senate. We, as fl Dems lose overall with these shenanigans.
Ulvert is a cancer spreading across the party. In his orbit are Dan Gelber, Perry Thurston and now party chair Allison Tant.
He is now the boss so to speak, the political director of the party and a proven loser at all levels.
This cancer is inoperable and the Democratic Party is bound to die a slow painful death as long as he’s around.
Against Pam Bondi is prety dumb. Thurston? Really? I am not surprised. Look at the idiots between both parties in Tallahassee. I understand now why people dont vote.
Ulvert is also pushing Mia jones as leader bc she’s promised to keep him on while Rouson will bring in someone new. Again, picking leaders based on who the consultants are. Pretty vicious circle in tallahassee. Bad overall for fl Dems.
No one surrounds themselves with bad consultants better than Perry, ask around Broward. Word around Broward is that his Broward Counsultant refers to him as one of their “boys” in Tallahassee. Seriously, what self respecting African American Man would allow anyone to refer to them as “their boy” anywhere?
Ulvert has gained too much strength in the party and needs to be taken down a peg. The guy is a ruthless operator who would rather keep the Democrats smaller and more controllable filled with clients and those scared of him so they put him on the payroll than to actually grow the party and start winning races.
He needs to be stopped at all costs.
Pingback: Would Mark Pafford be a better option for Democratic House leader? « The Political Hurricane – Florida Political Blog.
Pingback: House Leadership Election in Final Stages: Some Closing Thoughts « The Political Hurricane – Florida Political Blog.