The Big Tent Edition
Progressive America, who also appeared in Issue 2, starts us off with an interesting analysis that makes a case for Democrats seeing substantial gains among the Cuban population of Florida. One recent success story is Democrat Luis Garcia, the former fire chief of Miami Beach, who won the state house district 107 seat. Often taken for granted as being strong Republicans, conditions both here in the U.S. and in Cuba itself are leading many to question this old assumption. Read more about it in
The Cuban Vote: Going Democratic in 2008
Meowmissy (aka Queen of Pooties) continues to show that she is the complete activist. In this next piece she reports on visiting a state legislative delegation’s meeting with members of the area’s local governments and the general public who were interested in bringing issues before their representatives. This is nitty-gritty politics where you get to look them right in the eye and say your piece. When MM first posted this over on FLA Politics I commented that the fact that it took five people to represent one county (when only three were needed by population) gave a graphic example of how gerrymandered the state was. You might also want to notice how lovely the photos are in this diary. Like I said, the complete activist! Here is
Getting Involved Locally Is Easy
Your editor finally got around to working on an idea left over from the original TFB diary, analyzing the results of the 2006 state-wide elections in Florida. Just like Monday morning quarter-backing is the joy of football enthusiasts, rehashing elections is the bread and butter of political junkies.
What delayed me in this project was trying a find a way to present Excel data. I ended up using a process described in a comment to OPOL’s monumental diary on how he creates his masterworks. You just make a screen shot and turn it into a jpeg file using Paint. So, I ended up with a lot of photos and this might be slow loading if you’re on dial-up. If anyone knows of a better method for displaying Excel info, please let me know.
This diary generated some worthwhile comments that contribute to and expand on the discussion, so don’t skip them if you read this piece. Also, jiacinto, a former Floridian, always takes an interest in what we’re doing and was moved to write his own diary which goes a little deeper with the analysis. Here’s the original:
What Can We Learn From the Florida State-Wide Elections of 2006?
The Florida Progressive Coalition is a group that we have recently decided to coordinate efforts with. They have a web-site which includes the requisite blog, but what blew my socks off was that they have a wiki of all the Florida State House, State Senate, the other state-wide races, and US House races! That’s 190 total races that can be tracked there. Kind of makes all us OCD folks salivate at the idea of getting to help update it. T Rex is the main man at FPC. And he's not just a policy wonk. He also has a personal blog called T Rex's Guide to Life. In this next diary he takes us on a tour of the FPC site.
The Online Place to Go for Politics in Florida
He’s baaa-a-ack! Yep, here comes kansasr with another letter to the Florida Democratic Party. But, he has assured me that he has calmed down considerably and will only make constructive comments. In a recent email he said he was elected treasurer of his local Democratic club and had to spend the weekend computerizing various slips of paper left in a cardboard box. (I wonder if Republicans have this problem.) So, he is dedicated to the cause. Let’s find out what’s on his mind this time in
Fixing the Florida Democratic Party - Part II
And of course, after bringing back the major bomb thrower from Issue 1 of Turning Florida Blue, it is only right to follow up with this next piece. In spite of the Gate Crashing Open Letters to the Party that we have published, we have actually developed a good working relationship with some of the staff of the FDP.
In response to our work here they have begun posting copies of their bi-weekly e-news briefs on Daily Kos. If you live in Florida and don’t already get these thru your affiliation with the party, then you might want to subscribe to FloridaNeedsDemocrats so that you can read these postings and keep up to date with what’s going on. Here’s what they’re like:
Tuesday E-News Briefs From The Florida Democratic Party, 2/27/07
A commenter on that piece asked for an update on the Christine Jennings situation in FL-13 so the FDP staff responded with
Update on FL-13
One of the big issues for Florida is the cost of property insurance. Rates have skyrocketed after the 2005 hurricane season and people were demanding change. A special session of the legislature was called and newly elected Governor Charlie Crist reversed the policies of this predecessor, Jeb Bush. The legislature ended up passing a popular bi-partisan bill that promised to lower rates. But it did so by having the state accept the risk of catastrophic losses.
All the ins and outs of this issue make for fascinating reading (why are Republicans pushing socialism?). Follow the links given in my comment to this diary if you want the down and dirty details of who really runs Florida. But first, get an overview of what’s going on in Fake Consultant’s
On The Costs Of Climate Change, Or, Florida Bets The State
Just as a quick follow-up, you might want to check out this news article:
New leaders say it's time for Florida to face global warming
Kos prides himself on a site that is reality based. After reading this next diary and doing the research for my elections of 2006 piece I decided to change the intro to Turning Florida Blue. I used to promise that we would help deliver Florida’s 27 presidential electoral votes to the "D" column for the first time in over a decade in 2008.
But, you know what. Unless Al Gore changes his mind, I don’t think we’re going to do it. I know there are still US House seats we can win. And we can continue to make gains in the state legislature. But the presidency? Well, like I said at the beginning, we’re problematically purple.
Of course, as soon as GatorDem reads that he’s going to come by and dope slap me and yell, "Quit being so darn pessimistic, ya stinking newbie!" Anyway, here’s Susan S with Florida’s favorite Democratic candidate of the moment:
Florida State Fair Dem Presidential Straw Poll
BTW, having the county Democratic organization set up a booth at the fair and take a straw poll is a great way to gain visibility and promote the party. I hope everyone in and out of the state takes this idea and runs with it.
This next diary brought back all kinds of memories for me. I grew up in Miami, the birthplace and headquarters of Burger King, which this piece is about. In high school we would jump in our cars at lunch and race to the nearest store, wolf down our Whopper and fries, and then race back just in time to be entering school as the first bell rang.
To that youthful exuberance is added the wonderful experiences of the time the Immokalee Farm Workers organization (also mentioned in this piece) came to Tallahassee to promote their boycott against Taco Bell and stayed at the Quaker meeting house that my wife belongs to. What a wonderful group of people they were. It was a real honor to meet them. The author of this diary is Limelite, another repeat from Issue 2. (Hey, write something about Florida and you can be a contributor also!) Here’s her
Time for the King To Do the Right Thing
The first two issues of TFB ended with a mention of the special election for State House District 3. It was held February 27. While our candidate didn’t win, we can still take pride in the results. Read why in
Liz, The Florida Democratic Party, and Us
We can't close without mentioning the breaking story of the firing of Largo's City Manager after he announced he was to undergo a sex change. Last issue the breaking news was about the damage from the tornados in Central Florida. Maybe someday we'll actually have something good to report. There were several diaries on SteveSusan Stanton's dismissal. We decided to go with this one by isaacgol because it seemed the most action oriented:
TAKE ACTION: City Manager of Largo, FL fired because he's transgendered!
Boy, I thought this issue was done and Susan S has to go and come out with an important diary concerning the Walter Reed Hospital scandal. The efforts of her and other Tampa Bay area bloggers to implicate Congressmen Bill Young in the scandal are something we and the Democratic Party, both national and state versions, need to focus on. It's a real opportunity to get him to retire and create an open seat that Democrats have a chance to win.
And if you missed this earlier diary on how the South fits into the Democratic Party, check out Bob Moser’s "The Way Down South" from the Nation magazine.
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In the past we’ve been asking for Florida residents, but when looking at all we want to do we have come to realize that we could use the research help of others. So, if you live in a blue state but would still like to contribute to the Turning Florida Blue effort coming up to 2008, let us know.
Our foundational document: Turning Florida Blue – Come Join Us!
Plus, how we're going to do it: The Plan
Good Florida news aggregators and resources: Sayfie Review and The Fort Report.
The website of the Florida Democratic Party.
Our state political blog FLA Politics.
Don't forget the DFA Training in Tampa on June 30 and July1.
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A staffer from the Florida Democratic Party posted a comment on my original TFB diary saying the Party wanted to be kept up to date on what bloggers are doing and left this email address: grassroots@fladems.com. Everyone who posts a dkos diary on Florida politics should send them an email with a link and request that the Party post links to the pieces they like on their website.
