FL Democrats are set to elect, essentially, a Republican as State Party Chair…
And we haven't much time at all.
Let me start by saying this is not the REAL Strategy… This is just a tribute…
Since Mid December, we have been driving an Inside-Outside Strategy with Bernie Sanders in the Senate and US, the people, building support for him on the outside, taking our protests to the streets when necessary.
But I can’t take one step further without mentioning what we all have been watching in shock and horror as the right-wing followers were duped into becoming Domestic Terrorists and Seditioners, regardless of their intention the consequences will be fierce.
It is important to distinguish between what we do and what we saw at the capital. Protesting is a critical part of America. Making our Politicians ‘uncomfortable’ is a critical part of America.
But what we saw was not ‘uncomfortable’ that was terrorizing.
And it proves, once again, that what we say online has real-world ramifications. As any online activist will tell you, we have all been faced with folks saying that what you do online does not count… and the right-wing has proven if nothing else, that the statement is not true if it culminates in real-world action.
Don’t mistake that as simping for them, it’s just what we witnessed.
That action doesn’t have to be violent, and shouldn't.
It can just as easily be about mutual aid…
You will do more damage to the enemy by feeding a friend and making them an ally than you ever will by throwing a brick at their windows.
Now it's really important to distinguish all this…
Because what I am about to explain to you is going to make you VERY angry.
Florida
Why is it always Florida?
On Sat, the 9th, Florida’s State Central Committee is going to gather on a Zoom call and they are primed to repeat all of the mistakes that just lost them their ‘Purple State’ status when they vote for State Party Chair for the next four years.
You are probably asking yourself, “why does any of that matter?”
Since the 2000 debacle, Florida has been considered the most important state in electoral politics, whoever wins Florida wins the Whitehouse. So tons and tons of money has gone through the state, and much of it has been wasted.
As you all know, when a state has ‘Purple’ status that means it can flip either to Republicans or Democrats and that means a ton of money comes into the state from both sides… It is a giant money vacuum.
And though most Berniecrats and leftists will balk at this idea, these funds make up a large part of the state’s economy, of course, they have Disney and other huge entities, but politics is a multi-100 Million dollar industry…
Democrats spent $100 Million there just to lose the state narrowly.
This is incredibly important to each state’s leadership, each in a slightly different way.
When Iowa was in contention during the ’20 primary, it was only because of pressure from the State Central Committee, who elects the Chair, that he might be risking the State’s ‘First in the Nation’ status which represents a large portion of their economy that forced him to step down.
Florida is about to run into the same problem except it already did it.
Florida isn’t about to lose its ‘Purple’ status, it lost it this year.
It is a Red state.
After close loss after close loss, it is undeniable that Florida has lost this critical status and must redeem itself to continue getting support from the rest of the country, or the money is simply better spent in other places like GA.
Especially when we have 34 Senators to challenge for reelection in 2022… 22 Republican and 12 Democrat. That’s 33% of the Senate up for grabs.
But why is it always so close? Once or twice, okay… but every time? You have to be very good to be this bad.
In ’16, I was the only campaign staff for Rocky De La Fuente’s burnout of a Senate campaign in Florida… he was running for Senate to build name recognition to run for President and he had his wallet open.
Him running in every state for Senate? That was a joke I made when he finally admitted he was running for Senate in Florida only for name notoriety…
Didn't expect him to take it so literally.
So, for a few weeks, shortly after being the California lead for the Bernie Grassroots family and while still doing the Bernie Delegate Strategy, I was in charge of finding folks for Rocky to give money to so he could build support.
This gave me an insider perspective that few will ever experience but the most striking things I learned were… they’ll run Progs against Incumbents just for fundraising AND the quote “Fundraising is good when Dems are losing.”
If it makes your blood boil, it should, it still pisses me off.
I could tell something was up but I still couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Then the Chair’s race in ’17 had some dirty tactics pulled to install Florida rich guy, Stephen Bittel because a few folks thought it was the best path forward, the party was broke and he had money…so that was the lure.
Later that year, Bittle would be removed because of workplace impropriety
But what had actually happened is that a few weeks earlier I had gotten a call from someone in the leadership who was furious, they had just learned Florida is holding $700k in debt over redistricting from when it was broke in the early 2000s… they are currently only paying off the interest.
Basically, they had learned, the Florida State Party has only existed for two reasons, as a pass-through for large contributions and to pay off the interest from that debt. Just like a student loan, the principle is not coming down.
And of course, the Billionaire did not want to pay the debt, he wanted to refinance because rates were really good at the time.
Yeah, not so much.
They had him out in a week like it was an episode of House of Cards.
He was always a rich creep, he was elevated because they thought he would pay off the debt or keep paying the interest… and if he didn’t then *boom*.
And they did.
Shortly after that, Terri Rizzo was brought it because she could “bring the lawyer money back to the party”… that may not be a precise quote but we spoke many times in Florida and the DNC meetings after she was elected.
But really it was because she wouldn’t rock the boat.
So, moving on to ’18 when I was the North Florida Pod Director’s Personal Consultant. I was working for a candidate in CD 4 trying to move the bar in a red district, which we did but not as much as I’d have liked, and I was in the North Florida Pod office every day. I stayed at her house while she was at her boyfriend's… but every day for weeks I sat with her or around her through every call and meeting, especially the ones at night… all night.
And I can tell you from first-hand experience the dysfunction is entirely intentional.
First off, not only did they conference call everyone to death… A pain I’m sure many of you have experienced, but they also bottlenecked all of our field plans through the party offices and had them printed in Orlando. They planned to have the field come the day of GOTV and we’d just run with fresh packets… except we had someone in Orlando working them and they brought up our packets early so we got to run a sample.
Have you ever seen a canvasser cry? I have because this field made them cry.
Missing houses, addresses not in turf, folks who were long gone… less than a third of the address were good knocks and some of them were hard Republicans, the last folks Democrats want to talk to on election day.
This felt like intentional sabotage, I made the team rewrite all the field and we won Jacksonville for the first time in 20 or so years…
Unfortunately, there are simply not enough voters in Jacksonville to offset the damage done in Miami and Tampa, and we narrowly lost the state. I was looking for the other RFD’s and region leaders but this was around the time that smear letter was being delivered to OR, I admit I got distracted.
But why does this happen?
Well, it comes down to the State Party Chair who hires the Executive Director who then goes on to hire the Coordinated Campaign Manager. Maybe that’s not precisely correct, but it’s the general idea.
Now, this happened when supposed Democrats were running things and my understanding is that the Coordinated Campaign Manager in ’20 was an actual Republican as if there were no Democrats to hire…
What good is spending $100 Million if we are just going to let the Republicans decide how we spend it?
Can’t we spend that money more effectively?
If you want to talk about the parties being corrupt and them working together to screw all of US then this is a fair example… I believe deeply that the Party must be transformed because of EXACTLY these reasons.
We are pissing away the money to fix Flint, feed hungry children, or just about anything that you can dream of… to Republicans who control these parties in secret. When you leave the party and look away… this is what happens.
Not all State Parties are like this, but it used to be a lot more before Berniecrats started pushing back.
And even if you turn your back on the problem, it is still a problem.
That $100 Million will be wasted again if everyone does nothing, but it will be more next time…
So, right now, Saturday the 9th at 12 pm est, the Florida State Party is primed to do it all over again.
As of last night, the Party Chair’s race is down to three people.
- Manny Diaz, former lawyer for Elian Gonzalaz and former Mayor of Miami as an Independent but in Miami his record of union-busting reads like a Republican. He’s endorsed by Billionaires Bloomberg and Jorge Perez.
- Ione Townsend, County Chair of Hillsborough, works closely with Labor Unions and is one of the higher fundraising counties in the state.
- Cynthia Chestnut, a living legend in Florida Politics, the current chair of Alachua County. She is the reason black history is taught at all in Florida.
I think it’s pretty clear at this point who we are here to talk about.
On Thursday night the smaller candidates dropped out of the race and endorsed Cynthia… but this is how the Establishment plays the shell game.
First, they will endorse Cynthia to keep Ione, a Hillary delegate from 2016 but endorsed by the Statewide Berniecrat group, from gathering more steam, then on the second ballot, they will all fall in line behind Manny when Cynthia is knocked off.
Now, I could be wrong, because I was just told that Andrew Gillum is making calls for Cynthia but the whip count I have seen shows a split vote with Cynthia pulling the smallest number which means she would be out on the first round.
So, all the folks who just endorsed her may have just actually endorsed Manny but for tricky multiple ballot purposes, it appears as they have endorsed the legend that Mrs. Chestnut represents.
The rule on inner-party elections is that the establishment will ALWAYS coalesce on the second ballot to keep things from changing.
I’m sure the issue here is becoming quite apparent…
If they make that move then they will elect Diaz on the second ballot.
They will at least try to elect Diaz because they think that will grant them access to his money and friends with money… but when he finds out about the debt he is going to do the same thing Bittel tried to do and have it refinanced… and then we repeat the cycle over and over again.
The problem with these rich guys and why they make perfect marks for the folks holding the Party, essentially, hostage… is that they all have lived a life without impropriety, they have the money so everyone nods and smiles at their bad behavior, and they don’t even know what they’re doing can get them in trouble, they should… but they don’t.
Then we will back here in 9 months, just like in 2017, electing another Chair to wait another 3 years for the party to try to do something again… and in that time they will have lost two Senates and the Governor’s race, again.
Except when he predictably leaves the party in shame we have another rich donor who doesn’t want to contribute anymore… Like them or not, I’d rather their money go to the Democratic party and be wasted indirectly than being used directly against us by the Republicans.
And even if it does work out and he does pay it or does refinance or it's not even a thing and I’ve made it all up… then he is still going to hire the wrong Executive Director, and consequently, the wrong Coordinated Campaign Manager. Prioritize the wrong vendors, and generally not lead the party in a manner that helps Democrats win.
The opposition file on Manny for all the Union busting and general corruption is 118 pages, it’s a book.
Several negative articles have already hit the press, there is a lot to say.
I’ve heard rumors that Nikki Fried and Anna Eskamani are considering challenging these statewide seats, no confirmation if or on which seats…
If they’re serious about taking that on then having a coordinated campaign manager who will actually make sure they win is critical and that means they need to make sure that the State Party Chair doing the hiring can …
A) Win elections as Democrats
B) Handle the debt outright
C) And not hire past Coordinated Campaign Managers or ED’s
The only way to get Florida clear of this and back on its feet is to pay off the debt outright… I’m sure there are greater financial issues but $700k by political terms is just not that much…
Biden blew through $100M just to lose the state.
Mark Hanisee, Ione’s Executive Director, is confident that by working with Unions the state can raise the money to pay off the debt swiftly so that it doesn’t inhibit statewide races that are coming up in one and a half years.
But no one even knows about the problem to pay it off because that’s the most profitable version of it and they took out Bittel so quickly that everyone in Florida who does know is afraid to speak out about it.
Whatever it is, it holds Florida’s Democratic Politics in paralysis.
I hope that if Ione is knocked out in the first round that, everyone backs Chestnut over Manny… but being as Ione has the stronger election record more recently and the stronger fundraising apparatus she seems like the better choice.
But there is a little bit of a problem, someone has been running around telling an unkind story incorrectly in a manner that I am very uncomfortable with.
Someone I considered a dear friend is slandering Ione because of the remarks of a candidate who was upset that she wasn’t given more money.
My understanding is that she was the third or fourth choice for an empty race in a deep red district, it was never going to be a win. She approached Ione for more money, as the county can fundraise a considerable amount, and Ione didn’t want to put more investment into the race because other races needed it as a tipping point to win and it wouldn't move the numbers significantly.
Naturally and somewhat reasonably she was upset by this, but someone from Wed Hodges’ campaign, a dear friend of mine, has been spinning the story in a particularly horrible way.
Because the candidate is black, he is making it a racist issue.
I told him to stop a few days ago as it was damaging our relationship then I started to talk to folks all over the state to hear horror story after horror story that made me question if I wanted to associate with him anymore.
And now all I keep hearing is that if Manny Diaz is elected it will be because of his smear getting in everyone’s head.
I cannot stress enough the poor form in this maneuver, you just don’t do this.
For me this is quite personal as I was smeared relentlessly for many years, I’m sure that even right now someone else is preparing another slander campaign against me, that seems to be the way of things.
But even from a close friend, someone I called a brother, I find this behavior to be unacceptable and it is potentially locking the entire country into a dangerous future over what appears to be petty differences.
But I hope that right now, we can pull the mask of this BS and show the movement what we are really fighting.
There is a narrow window, where if enough folks get this article out and push for something different, MAYBE it will affect the election… it is worth trying.
And we can always try to hold them accountable on the backend.
But right now, someone has to at least try to make a positive change.
If all this makes you mad, good.
This is what happens when you ignore the problems of the Party and think that you can “suffocate” it by not being involved when the consultants would prefer nothing more than if it were literally just them controlling the massive budget with no accountability, they have rackets set up like this all over…
When you take over, it’s yours… all of it.
And in this case, that includes the debt.
I hope that Florida elects Ione as the next chair and with the help of Mark she can work with labor unions to bring back what made Florida strong.
Because they are going to have to Make Florida Blue Again…
And I know Florida can’t do it with the Billionaires and I know Florida can’t do it with the old establishment even if she is a legend that we should praise regardless… we have very recent history to support the theory that it will create the same repetitive cycle and the whole country loses.
Plus, it’s an extra ‘middle finger’ to the current staff of the FDP when you propose a ‘union-buster’ for State Party Chair right after the staff voted to Unionize with the Electrician’s Union… we need to preserve that growth.
They have endorsed Ione as well…
And this isn’t just a ‘Florida thing’, it affects all of US.
But it will have the greatest effect on the local industry and people who depend on that political money for survival.
In a time of recovery, that won’t help.
If you really care about ‘sticking it the establishment’ then don’t let them get away with it… show up, have your voice heard. All you is need more folks.
The inner-party elections will continue constantly in every state,
Will you be ready?
Because like it or not, they decide our future.
And right now we are letting them play games with our lives.
If you would like to catch up on the Progressive Pandemic Response Plan you can check out my last article here → https://bit.ly/3bndLFe
It’s part of a larger strategy called “A Future Worth Fighting For” and includes a multistep process to help Americans have hope again that our country can be the leader in the world it was once again.
You can follow Don at Twitter @ https://twitter.com/TheWordofDon
