The Political Whore

CL’s Alex Pickett is back in the frozen Midwest he called home for eight years to update us on the Iowa primaries. In his report yesterday, he wrote:

One thing that I have noticed is several younger people plan to caucus for the first time tomorrow. A Des Moines Register poll published this week makes the same point. And so far, Obama and Huckabee are leading in the Iowa polls.

Representative? Probably not. But there’s no denying this cold little state will set the tone for the next several weeks.

Read the full post at Blurbex.

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Just a quick note that state Rep. Kevin Ambler is holding a town hall meeting about possible legislative changes to the Tampa Sports Authority, Environmental Protection Commission and Planning Commission has been set for a week from Monday, according to Hillsborough’s legislative delegation office:

Rep. Rich Glorioso, chair of the Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation, has announced that Rep. Kevin Ambler will hold a town-hall meeting relating to the governance of the Tampa Sports Authority (”TSA”), the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission (“EPC”), and the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission (‘the Planning Commission) on Monday, January 14.

The meeting has, however, been re-set to begin at 5 p.m. in Conference Rooms A and B of the Fred B. Karl County Center, 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, FL., with adjournment expected by 8 p.m.  The tentative format of the meeting will have each of the agencies making a brief presentation about that agency followed by public comment specific to that agency with the Planning Commission leading off at 5 p.m. followed by TSA and concluding with the EPC.  To insure that all members of the public are given an opportunity to speak, public comment is expected to be limited to three minutes per person.

The town hall meeting is open to the public, and anyone with an interest in the future governance of the TSA, the EPC or the Planning Commission should plan to attend and speak or, in the alternative, submit a written statement including name and home address, electronically to hundleyc@hillsboroughcounty.org or through the postal system at Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation, P.O. Box 1110, Tampa, FL  33601.

The possible changes are a mixed bag: Adding other elected officials to the county-dominated EPC board would be good, while shifting the balance of the Tampa Sports Authority to include more county appointments would be bad. As I wrote about in “Suite Deal,” the sports authority plays fast and loose with our money to buy Hi-Def TV’s for the luxury suites and club level at the stadium. Adding more county appointees would likely exacerbate, not solve, such a problem.

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William March at the Tribune breaks the story about how the top leadership of the Hillsborough Democratic Party has resigned after yet another financial mess. Chairman Mike Suarez and Vice Chairman Deborah Cope called it quits after the latest mishandling of funds by the county party organization. Strangely, the person who actually mishandled the money, Treasurer Thomas Squires, rescinded his resignation and is staying put:

Cope and Suarez both said they decided to quit after an incident in which Squires removed $1,200 in cash from a party account, $200 at a time, using an automated teller machine.

Squires voluntarily reported having removed the money to spend on party work at the upcoming state fair, party officials said, but told party officials it was stolen or lost. They said he then replaced it with his own money.

Suarez and Cope both said they didn’t find the reason Squires gave for removing the money to be valid, but neither accused him of diverting the money for personal use.

Suarez had done what appeared to be a pretty good job stabilizing the Hillsborough party after the in-fighting that claimed the previous chairman, Janee Murphy. As CL chronicled in a 2005 cover story, “Can This Donkey Be Saved?,” the Hillsborough Democrats are a particularly self-destructive lot:

Hillsborough Democrats suffer a more fundamental problem. It’s about political party organization, and how badly it’s broken down locally in Hillsborough County. It is a story that is shrouded by personal machinations that have become the obsession of some local party activists.

As the Planet reported last week, dissension within the ranks of the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee escalated to a higher level when the committee’s vice chairman, Bob Keenan, sent a letter to new Florida Democratic State Chairwoman Karen Thurman alleging a series of problems with the Hillsborough DEC Chairwoman, Janee Murphy. The allegations of fiscal mismanagement include a charge that she used a party debit card for personal needs.

Ahhh, nothing changes at the HCDEC. Like Squires, Murphy was to resign and rescind her resignation (before, months later, finally throwing in the towel):

The most recent [Sept. 2005] DEC meeting, held at a Spanish restaurant on Nebraska Avenue near Ybor City, devolved into shouting after a select committee presented its report about allegations of financial misdeeds on Murphy’s part. Murphy, Hillsborough State Committeeman Monroe Mack and Murphy’s supporters say that report cleared her of any wrongdoing. The largely Progressive crowd that doesn’t support Murphy disagrees with that assessment. But the opportunity to question further the committee that investigated the matter was cut short by Murphy herself, who was overcome by emotion as she announced that she had to take care of her family and would be resigning, according to both pro- and anti-Murphy forces present that night. (There were no reporters at the meeting, so all of the printed accounts have been based on memories of those present.)

Murphy then went to the back of the meeting room and accosted Joe Bohren, one of her strongest critics, who lost the race for chairman to her three years ago. By many accounts, she called him “racist,” and one person present recalls her calling him a “racist bastard.” She then warned Bohren to stay away from her family and went outside, where some of her supporters consoled her.

“Her adversaries, she says, were back in the back room and were laughing, and they just got the best of her, and so she resigned,” Mack recalled.

Bohren disputes that account, and is confounded by Murphy’s “stay away from my family” remark. He said he’s not gone near or concerned himself with her family at all.

By the end of the week, Murphy had un-resigned, buttressing her critics’ contention that her “resignation” was a smokescreen designed to circumvent any discussion of the investigation into her conduct. And while some newspaper headlines touted that “Democrats clear county leader,” the actual report doesn’t quite do all that.

The sad thing for the Hillsborough political group is that I can’t think of a single person in Democratic politics who is still deeply involved in the county organization. Most left dissatisfied years ago, forming either chapters of the 537 Club or new Democratic organizations as an alternative to the dysfunctional Hillsborough executive committee.

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Hey, I know, this is late, but folks I was isolated at sea for a week and missed these gems from the Rudy Giuliani campaign:

and then this parody (can you parody a parody?):

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My sympathies to wife Mercy and son Victor Jr. on the passing of this Tampa Democratic political legend. Ernest Hooper at the Times has a nice obit here.

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Look, I have nothing against the Midwest; my wife is a Midwesterner, I love pork and all soy products, and I generally don’t mind my Gators taking on Big 10 teams. (Yesterday was an exception.) I have nothing against Iowa or Iowans; our own staff writer Alex Pickett lived there for a good while.

But let’s dial down the “dramatic narrative” of how important Iowa is as we prepare for the “exciting” and incomprehensible caucuses Thursday evening. First off, temps are expected to be down in the single digits there, so participation could be very low. Second, given the byzantine rules and processes of the caucuses, especially for the Democrats, the results are not representative of Iowa voters, let alone representative of the nation as a whole. Third, the folks who really determine who wins and loses generally are the legions of volunteers and paid staffers who flock to Iowa from every corner of the nation and who, for the most part, aren’t old enough to shave yet, as shown in this Richardson for President caucus training session photograph:

Now, the NYT has a much-needed story about how truly unfair and unrepresentative the caucuses in Iowa are:

Because the caucuses, held in the early evening, do not allow absentee voting, they tend to leave out nearly entire categories of voters: the infirm, soldiers on active duty, medical personnel who cannot leave their patients, parents who do not have baby sitters, restaurant employees on the dinner shift, and many others who work in retail, at gas stations and in other jobs that require evening duty.

As in years past, voters must present themselves in person, at a specified hour, and stay for as long as two. And if these caucuses are anything like prior ones, only a tiny percentage of Iowans will participate. In 2000, the last year in which both parties held caucuses, 59,000 Democrats and 87,000 Republicans voted, in a state with 2.9 million people. In 2004, when the Republicans did not caucus, 124,000 people turned out for the Democratic caucuses.

The rules are so demanding that even Ray Hoffman, chairman of the Iowa Republican Party and a resident of Sioux City, cannot caucus on Thursday night, because he has to be in Des Moines on party business.

So, let’s keep Iowa in perspective and eschew the media hype that is elevating it simply for the sake of a story narrative and ratings/sales. Whoever wins Iowa will have taken a first small step, one that may or may not be repeated in later states or on a national platform.

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