Posted by Tom Bortnyk on Aug. 10, 2009, at 6:44 am
By Tom Bortnyk PoHo correspondent
There is no doubt that Sarah Palin has every intention in the world of running for higher office. You could see it in her twinkling eye as she made the announcement that she was stepping down as governor of Alaska.
Will she host her own talk show? Will she get a book deal? Speculation has run rampant, but the consensus among the political news commentators seems to be that she is gearing up for a run for president in 2012.
Oddly enough, this news is exciting for many Republicans. To quite a large sect of the conservative base, Palin is a rock star. She is the answer to their prayers, and the savior of the Party.
Such an analysis is misguided, at best. More accurately, it could be described as delusional.
Posted by Tom Bortnyk on Jul. 29, 2009, at 7:36 am
By Tom Bortnyk PoHo correspondent
The notorious Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara spent his entire life fighting the evils of capitalism and murdered anyone who did not agree with his socialist agenda. Yet here we are today, in 21st century America, where any hipster can walk into a Target super-store and buy a Che T-shirt and a “Yes We Can” poster. Apparently the college students wearing the shirts missed the chapter on irony in English 101; they must have been attending a “hope & change” rally. Politics, it seems, has become just as much of a battle of commercialism as PC vs. Mac or Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi.
There is no doubt that this is a distinctly 21st century phenomenon. Mass media and explosion of the internet into every household has only fueled America’s consumer culture, to the point where even our political candidates must be marketed and sold. If Billy Mays were still around, and the Sham-Wow guy didn’t beat up a hooker, odds are good we’d see them recruited for campaign ads in 2012.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 17, 2009, at 12:50 pm
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has a web-only ad out hitting Sarah Palin and Charlie Crist, among other Republicans, for “quitting” on their jobs.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 9, 2009, at 9:25 am
Why do I do this to myself? I get a call from perfectly nice people at the Greater Pinellas Democratic Club asking me to speak at one of their meetings (tonight at 6:30, to be precise) and I agree and then I am asked what topic, and I choose to speak on “Fixing Tampa Bay Politics.”
I should have opted for “Getting the Palestinians and Jews Together for Middle East Peace” instead. Tampa Bay politics are hopelessly damaged, so where do I even start?
You’ll have to attend to hear. And no, one of my suggestions will NOT be a plea for kumbaya-like bipartisanship or the like.
The social hour starts at 6 pm (let’s hope for the Club’s sake and listeners’ sakes that they’ve stocked a lot of vodka for me) and the meeting lasts until about 8 pm. It is at Banquet Masters in Pinellas Park, 8100 Park Boulevard. For reservations, call 727-360-3971.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 30, 2009, at 12:39 pm
His candidacy has been called “quixotic” as he flies into the face of a Republican challenger who likely will be Charlie Crist, but Kendrick Meek is strongly confident in his ability to force Floridians to examine the real record of their favorite, white-haired governor.
Meek is a rising star in the Democratic Party, finding himself with a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee after just four terms in office. Helps to have a progressive voting record and agenda. It probably also doesn’t hurt when your mom served on the House Appropriations Committee with (now Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, as Congresswoman Carrie Meek did.
He’s largely untested (he won his seat in Congress unopposed after his mother retired so close to the qualifying deadline that nobody could mount a real challenge to her son) but he’s shown great energy and won a good deal of the hearts and minds in the Florida Democratic Party, so much so that a few major challengers have stepped aside rather than force an expensive primary race with him.
Meek was in Tampa today and stopped by the Creative Loafing offices. We talked about how to pay for health care reform, whether the stimulus is working, his role in forcing smaller class sizes in public schools and his famous 2000 showdown with then-Gov. Jeb Bush over the dismantling of affirmative action in the state, which resulted in a 26-hour sit-in at the lobby of the Governor’s Office after Bush refused to meet with him and another lawmaker.
You may not have even known it was happening, but “Rapprochement With Cuba: Good For Tampa Bay, Good For Florida, Good For America,” a conference sponsored by the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation and held Saturday at the Italian Club in Ybor City, was, by its very existence, a milestone in repairing the tattered relationship between Tampa and Cuba.
About 150 guests, panelists, professors and local politicians filled the grand, neo-classical Italian Club, once the social, cultural and political epicenter of Tampa’s Italian community. Whether the speeches, panel discussions, and networking sessions will really accomplish much toward ending the 50-year-old U.S. embargo, no one is really sure. However, to get a sense of where the Cuba barometer is pointing, you could start with the venue itself.
In 1955, a young, verbose Fidel Castro arrived in Ybor City. This was no accident, no anomaly. In fact, it made perfect sense. Castro, in a bid to gain popular support for his uprising against CIA-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, he followed — literally — in the footsteps of an earlier young, charismatic Cuban revolutionary, Jose Marti. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 25, 2009, at 2:23 pm
Ready to run and Democratic? Two local consultants, Larry Biddle (a veteran of online fundraising and social networking in the Howard Dean presidential year) and Mitch Kates (who has won some big upsets in Tampa Bay, including Kevin Beckner’s and Mary Mulhern’s wins in Hillsborough) are offering a seminar on how to prepare to run and win.
The announcement of their $65-a-head workshop, however, set off the buzzing-gnat comment-ers over at Buzz blog, who launched into a wild attack against Biddle, his party, his mortgage and house and his age (which they overstated by 14 years). When somebody came to Biddle’s defense, the crowd turn on Kates as an alternative. Nothing like a digital mugging.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 23, 2009, at 3:01 pm
It sure doesn’t seem like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee knows that Bartow Congressman Adam Putnam won’t be around to take the heat in 2010.
The DCCC announced a new robocall, e-mail and text message camnpaign aimed at hurting 12 Republicans who were prominent in voting against the Obama stimulus plan.
Here’s an example of the automated calls that will be running:
Hello, I’m calling on behalf of House Democrats with an important message about the economy.
Did you know Congressman Thad McCotter voted against President Obama’s economic recovery plan, endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? McCotter’s empty rhetoric can’t hide that he voted to raise the AMT tax on 22 million middle class Americans and against the largest tax cut in history.
Call McCotter at 734-632-0314 to ask why he voted to raise taxes on middle class families.
Check out Recovery For America to learn more.
On the list of the dirty dozen is Putnam, who has already announced he is leaving his congressional office to run for the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture.
Now, of course the DCCC knows that Putnam is going bye-bye; it is already trying to field good candidates to run for that seat. But still, running the robocalls in either an attempt to sway his votes over the next year and a half or as punishment for his future political ambitions seems to waste precious campaign dollars.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 19, 2009, at 5:51 pm
The Republican Party’s anti-Obama stimulus gambit appears not to be paying off. A poll by AP/GfK shows the public widely is siding with Obama and Democrats in Congress on the economic recovery plan — and panning the GOP.
Obama’s approval rating on the economy is 68 percent. The Democrats in Congress get a 49 percent approval, while Congressional Republicans score only 33 percent approval.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 9, 2009, at 1:49 pm
The two hottest searches on Google today are for Americans for Prosperity and No Stimulus Petition, which links you to the anti-Obama stimulus package movement and an online petition. Evidence enough that Barack Obama faces an uphill battle for the hearts and minds, as his White House has allowed the anti-stimulus package forces to define the legislation and the terms of battle. Classic framing theory, and surprising to see just how rookie the Obama Administration handled it.
One reason is likely that he won’t/can’t stand up publicly to the self-destructive House Democrats. Sure, less than 1 percent of the House bill was really pork. But it was pork that was indefensible, and at a total tab of more than 800 billion, it was pork that individually ran into the tens of millions of dollars.
Out in Real America, that kind of cash is still big money and can’t be p’shawed away so easily. For the past week, my email inbox has been stuffed with pointed, funny and (mostly) successful anti-stimulus propaganda: The Libertarian Party, “America’s third largest party tonight urged Senate Republicans and Democrats to scrap plans their joint plans for a $780 billion package of wealth transfers and expanded government spending;” the National Black Republicans, “The fierce urgency of pork;” and the new House Republican plan website that “details the smarter, simpler stimulus plan proposed by House Republicans that will create twice the jobs at half the price “
(Take a look at this cool WaPo graphic on where the money would be spent if you need help visualizing where it is all going.)
So as Obama preps for his Fort Myers dog-and-pony on Tuesday and a prime-time news conference tonight to try to take back the high ground in his first major legislative battle, here are 10 Talking Points for what he must say and commit to do:
First, any prognostication made this far in advance has to be taken with a grain of salt. So, keep that in mind as you read what I am about to say: Kendrick Meek will lose his bid for the U.S. Senate.
Now, there will be quite a few people up in arms about this. I’m sorry. Maybe this will make them work harder to prove me wrong. One of those things where knowing the future could change the future… but I digress.
There are quite a few reasons why I think he will lose, and none are related to the color of his skin. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 26, 2009, at 9:32 am
I have nothing against the children of the working poor. And I actually wouldn’t mind if tobacco taxes were raised on my beloved cigars. But I do mind raising taxes on smokes — both ciggies and stogies — to pay for something not directly related to the social costs of those vices, such as lung cancer research, related health care or smoking prevention programs.
That is what is ready to happen in Congress. With a solidly Dem government, Nancy Pelosi et al. are using the opportunity to take up again the SCHIP bill, which President Bush vetoed last year. Here’s TBO.com on the legislation:
The bill uses tobacco taxes, including an extra 61 cents a pack on cigarettes, to expand an existing program providing health insurance for children of the working poor. It’s one of the most divisive issues Congress has considered recently.
The Democratic majority passed it in 2008 but couldn’t muster the votes to override former President George W. Bush’s veto.
This year, President Barack Obama says he’ll sign the bill. The House passed it Jan. 14, and it’s expected to come up for a Senate vote this week.
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is expected to announce today that she’s not running for the U.S. Senate, opening the field to a crop of lesser-known contenders.
Sink, the only statewide officeholder on the Democratic shortlist, was seen as the party’s strongest contender for the seat to be vacated by Mel Martinez in 2010. She was being recruited by the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and Emily’s List, a national fundraising group that backs female candidates.
Sink’s decision means she is likely to pursue her real ambition, which is to run for governor — most likely in 2014 when term limits will force Charlie Crist to step down.
That leaves the field wide open for folks such as Sen. Dan Gelber and even such rumorees as Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, former Congressman Jim Davis, Ron Klein, Allen Boyd, Alex Penelas and just about anyone else with the time and energy to get their name out there statewide.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 13, 2009, at 1:07 pm
The first big name is officially in the U.S. Senate race to replacing the retiring Mel Martinez. South Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek made it official today, whacking away at the Republicans in Washington right out of the chute in a speech at his home in North Miami:
In the last eight years, we have seen incompetence and bad decision-making by too many in Washington. We have sacrificed our children and grandchildren’s future by saddling them with unprecedented deficits. We borrow money from foreign countries in order to give tax breaks to the wealthiest people. And now we have corporate bailouts with some CEOs abusing tax-payer dollars, continuing with their multi-million dollar salaries, bonuses, corporate jets – and yet they refuse to be accountable to how OUR tax dollars are being used to bail them out.
Today, I call on those corporate leaders to not take one dime in salary or bonus until their business is back on solid ground and they have paid the government back every dollar.
OK, good luck with that request, Kendrick.
His full remarks (as prepared) follows the jump, courtesy of his campaign (which has hired former Barack Obama deputy national campaign manager Steve Hildebrand as the top honcho):
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Dec. 5, 2008, at 4:32 pm
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio’s future political ambitions have been the subject of speculation for years now, but this is the most graphic example of where some think she may be headed, from FLA Politics’ “ideal candidate slate” for 2010::
Pam Iorio (born April 27, 1959 in Waterville , Maine ) is the 57th and current (as of 2008) mayor of Tampa , Florida . She moved with her family to Temple Terrace as an infant and also attended school in Temple Terrace . She is the second female mayor of Tampa.Her first term dealt largely with renovating the downtown area, as well as creating economic confidence for poorer citizens of the city. Iorio is also a big supporter of the arts, and she wishes to make Tampa a major arts center in the South. Iorio has also been credited with a sharp drop in drug trafficking in the city limits. In her second term, Iorio will continue to be a supporter for a light rail mass transit system for the city.
In 1985, at the age of 26, she became the youngest person ever elected to the Hillsborough County Commission. For a decade before her successful run for mayor, she served as Supervisor of Elections for Hillsborough County . During the 2000 presidential election recount, she was the president of the State Association of County Elections Supervisors.
How realistic is that scenario? Consider that the South Florida-centric FLA Politics blog lists Congressman Kendrick Meek as the Dems’ best choice to run for the US Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Oct. 22, 2008, at 3:00 pm
I got a call this afternoon from an old buddy from my consulting days, Neil Brickfield, a Republican party vice chairman who is running for County Commission in Pinellas. He won a very tough primary race and now faces an unknown Democrat who couldn’t even manage to get the liberal St. Petersburg TImes‘ editorial recommendation. Brickfield has raised nearly $90,000 to his opponent Paul Matton’s $10,000.
So you would think that in a GOP-dominated county like Pinellas, Brickfield wouldn’t have a worry.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 15, 2008, at 7:20 am
The St. Pete Democratic Club has taken another step toward partisanizing the already secretly partisan School Board races by inviting only Democratic candidates to an upcoming meeting. This e-mail came across the PoHowire this morning from the Club:
The St. Petersburg Democratic Club announced today that they will host all candidates for the Pinellas County School Board, who are registered Democrats, at their monthly meeting on Wednesday August 6th. at the Piccadilly Cafeteria, 1900 34th. St. North in St. Petersburg at 6:30 p.m. In addition, the Club will be saluting the Pinellas County Delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Pinellas County Democratic Executive Committee Chair Toni Molinaro will also be on hand to present a State Democratic Party Charter to the Club.
“Although the candidates for the School Board are listed on the ballot as non-partisan we have found that in recent years the party opposite (G.O.P.) have invested a great deal of time and money in getting their candidates elected in an attempt to inject their right-wing values into the school system,” according to the club president, Jim Donelon. “For too long we Democrats have allowed our candidates to play second fiddle to other races on the ballot,” Donelon asserted, “but the time has come to place greater emphasis on these very important positions.”
“Every child,regardless of race, gender or economic status deserves the best quality education we can deliver and the candidates who are Democrats are committed to doing so,” he stated.
The secretary of the club, Karen Hodgen, conceived of the idea for the “EDUCATION NIGHT” and has also invited current School Board members Linda Lerner and Mary Brown to participate.
The club is the fastest growing Democratic Club on the west coast of Florida and includes among its membership former and present members of the St. Petersburg City Council, former and present leaders of the Pinellas Democratic Executive Committee and a broad cross section of Democrats from throughout Pinellas County.
Membership in the Club is not required to attend although membership applications will be available.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 4, 2008, at 3:28 pm
I got by both Iowa Caucus watching parties last night, and here is my report, which will be in our print edition next week:
Sheila Cherizard (shown below) kept her eyes on the flat-panel television in north Tampa’s Hip Hop Soda Shop as Barack Obama gave one of the best speeches of his life, affirming the nation’s hunger for change as demonstrated by his victory in the Iowa caucuses.
Less than nine hours later, the 34-year-old medical school graduate on sabbatical from her hospital residency caught an 8:15 a.m. Southwest Airlines flight to Manchester, N.H., her first stop on a journey that ended in the Obama campaign field office in the capital city of Concord, where she volunteered for her candidate for the short five days before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
The temperature in Concord by late morning was 7 degrees Fahrenheit.
So much for knocking on doors for votes. “The weather might be too harsh for any of that,†the daughter of Haitian immigrants conceded.
With Florida off-limits to Democratic candidates who pledged to stand by the national party’s decision to strip the state of its convention delegates as punishment for moving the state’s presidential primary to Jan. 29, Tampa Bay campaign volunteers find themselves needing to go north if they want to get into the action.
“If he can’t come here,†Cherizard said, “we’ll go to Barack.â€
Last night was a joy for Tampa Bay Democrats, regardless of who their candidates were. Bitterly shut out of the White House for two terms of George W. Bush and feeling their oats since the 2006 midterm elections gave them control of Congress, local Democrats watched Iowans turn out in near-record numbers for the caucuses, excited about their top three candidates: Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Nov. 5, 2007, at 5:04 pm
No need to study political science or follow coverage of the Democratic presidential campaign. This opening skit from SNL pretty much sums up all the candidates perfectly, especially the wonderful line from the Al Gore-costumed Bill Richardson “Me dressed as a vice president. Weird.”:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Sep. 27, 2007, at 2:41 pm
As the various campaigns gear up for a reporting deadline, the funniest pitch for money comes from the Democratic Congressional Caucus Committee (DCCC). In a solicitation e-mailed to supporters today, the DCCC issued a mock message from Karl Rove, writing that “on behalf of Dick Cheney, I order you not to contribute to the DCCC by clicking here: Contribute to the Democratic Majority Matching Fund Drive.”
I especially love the “hacking” into the DCCC bit and the crayoned-through logo. Given Rove’s sneakiness and this administration’s overuse of domestic spying, it is not too far from reality:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Sep. 2, 2007, at 11:09 pm
It looks like I won’t be switching parties after all.
The push to disenfranchise Florida in the presidential primaries reached the tipping point on Saturday when the last of the big 3 candidates — John Edwards, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — joined the other opponents in signing a pledge not to campaign in The Nation’s Wang. Edwards’ campaign was especially hurtful in its comments that it is important to have South Carolina et al.’s primaries first because “that is where the issues matter most.” Is the $400 Haircut saying that we Floridians are not issue-oriented, that we’re expensive, superficial, overwhelmingly large in numbers, and we can’t run an election to save our souls anyway? Well, aren’t we? To quote The Dude: “Well … yeah.”
Good local coverage on this today. I feel bad for Adam, though, because he already had a Perspective piece in the can and printed that said there was no way the candidates could ignore Florida. I would have written the same thing if my deadlines were different than they are, and few (if any) political writers in the state were saying anything other than that.
Face it, the move by the DNC and now these candidates is suicidal, so who would have guessed it. But thanks to weak leadership, the Democratic Party finds itself with a Hobson’s Choice between pissing off the big states it needs to win the general election and pissing off the smaller states that have traditionally chosen who the nominee will be. Even Donna Brazile (finally weighing in with a statement that I agree with) called the nomination process “a deeply flawed system in desperate need of reform” — but that statement is wrapped around an impassioned op-ed piece that defends the DNC decision to strip Florida naked.
Finally, from Frank Sanchez, a regional fundraising chairman for Obama and the campaign’s Tampa Bay spiritual leader, comes this e-mail, sent today to members of the Tampa Bay O-Train volunteers:
Dear O-Train members and Barack Obama supporters,
By the time you read this, you will likely already know that, for the time being, Barack Obama is going to abide by the DNC ruling and not campaign actively in any of the states that have been found to be in violation of moving up their primary elections earlier than February 5th. This includes Florida. The Obama campaign also urged states in danger of violating DNC rules to adjust their plans to comply with the DNC’s calendar, so that every state contributes delegates to the nominating process. As of last weekend’s ruling, there is still a 30 day window to try to work out a solution to lift the penalty and allow Florida delegates to be seated at the National Democratic Convention. While Barack will not be doing active political campaigning, he will make his commitment to be in Tampa Bay later this month. Therefore, we will still have Senator Obama in the Tampa Bay area on September 30th for the planned fundraising events.
I know this situation is extremely frustrating and disappointing to many people. Here is the reality: Barack is between a rock and hard place. No candidate from either party has ever won the nomination without winning at least two of the early states. If Barack ignored the DNC he risks alienating early states. If he made Florida happy and campaigned here, he likely would lose the early states and almost be guaranteed to lose the nomination. I don’t like what is happening with the DNC, but I also want Barack to win the nomination and then the general election. I’m supporting him to be President of the United Sates not just to be a candidate in the Florida Primary. Am I pleased with this situation? NO! Still, I’m keeping my eye on the prize: putting Barack Obama in the White House. That is the O-Train’s mission. As supporters in Florida, there are still plenty of things that we can do get him elected. We are not limited by the Florida border. Our O-Train team can support the campaign efforts in the early states of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
In the coming weeks, we will be discussing the activities that we, as strong supporters of Barack Obama, can continue to do, so that he wins the nomination and ultimately wins the White House in November 2008. I, along with our Chair, Co-Chairs and Executive Committee, look forward to seeing everyone at the next O-Train Meeting, where we will be able to answer any of your questions regarding this.
Thank you for your continued support on behalf of Senator Barack Obama. It is an honor to work with each and every one of you.
Frank Sanchez
Obama For America Finance Chair Tampa Bay
National Finance Committee
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 23, 2007, at 11:19 am
After years of suffering through (and I’m being charitable here) misguided leadership, the Pinellas County Democrats may finally have their shit together. Witness Pinellas DEC Chairwoman Toni Molinaro’s well-aimed missile late yesterday that demanded local Republicans return contributions given by former GOP candidate Angelo Cappelli, who is facing charges in a banking scheme.
Molinaro wrote:
The $2,240 given to the Pinellas Republican Party by disgraced former candidate Angello Cappelli should be donated to charity, said local Democratic Party chair Toni Molinaro. She asks the Republicans, and its chairman Tony DiMatteo, to return the money.
Cappelli, a former wealth and investment adviser, is charged with first-degree grand theft and perjury.
Police say the one-time bank trust officer and failed State House District 52 candidate admitted stealing more than $100,000 from a client, keeping money intended for charity to pay off his own credit card bills and homeowner’s insurance.
Public records show that Cappelli gave the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee $1,000 on Jan. 26, 2006, $240 on Aug. 26, 2006 and an additional $1,000 on Feb. 2 of this year. Those contributions are reported on the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections website.
The St. Petersburg client from whom Cappelli is accused stealing died in February. The client’s will intended the money go to a local charity.
“The Republican Party should give the $2,240.00 it received from Cappelli to the Pinellas County Community Foundation since that is the charity that Cappelli tried to steal more than $100,000 from,” said Molinaro. “If we are going to rid our community of political corruption, the place to start is to return ill gotten gains.”
Unfortunately for the citizens of Pinellas County, we have a series of scandals with which to deal,” said Molinaro. “Pinellas Democrats intend to make political corruption one of the issues in the 2008 elections.” The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s office and a Grand Jury are looking into a questionable county land purchase involving Republican Property Appraiser Jim Smith and whether he received favorable treatment at the direction of Republican County Commission chairman Ronnie Duncan.
Leaving aside the issue of Cappelli being innocent until proven guilty (he’s reportedly confessed), Molinaro is not only morally right on target but strategically firing on all cylinders. The Pinellas GOP (like the national GOP) has a cleanliness problem that it needs to deal with. Ongoing arrests and scandals such as the Rep. Bob Allen solicitation for prostitution bust are only keeping that public perception alive.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 9, 2007, at 9:18 am
My “Next President” series continues this week with a look at New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the only Latino among the major contenders in either party:
Bill Richardson certainly must have felt at home in the Disney World conference center in June. It was the annual National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials gathering, known informally as “the nation’s Latino presidential convention.” Speaking to the 2,000 members present, he called them mi gente, mi familia — my people, my family.
Richardson is the highest-profile Latino running for the presidency. His father was a California banker, his mother Mexican; he grew up in Mexico City after being born in Pasadena. Richardson’s resume is as impressive as it is long: Clinton Cabinet member and energy secretary; U.N. Ambassador; congressman and the Democratic governor of a red state, New Mexico.
At the NALEO event, Richardson’s campaign handed out an impressive five-page list of Latino supporters, prominent national names that included former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros and the former Ambassador to Spain, Ed Romero. Dozens of other Latino mayors, council members, state legislators and former governors from Texas, Georgia, New Hampshire, California, Nevada and Arizona comprised the rest of the roster of endorsers.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 7, 2007, at 4:35 pm
For Democrats in Tampa, where an ultraconservative GOP machine ran them out of power a decade ago, there is hope indeed. A recent Democracy for America training session in Ybor City drew more than 100 grassroots activists, the largest DFA has ever had. The local Democratic Party, the victim of infighting for years, has settled down so much that it reinstated its Jefferson-Jackson Dinner two weekends back, drawing more than 260 people and raising thousands of dollars for their coffers.
The strongest signal to date that the Dems are serious about challenging the Republican power structure here may just have occurred during lunchtime today.
More than 40 progressive businesspeople gathered at Mise en Place near downtown and heard how Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern went from a part-time art critic for CL to an incumbent killer in under five years.
“We won by being smart and organized,” Mulhern said of her spring victory over incumbent Shawn Harrison. “We just worked.” And she appealed to the crowd of 30- and 40-something attorneys, business owners and other professionals by talking about things they can do to help Democrats win: contribute their marketing expertise to local campaigns or give money early.
“Before the primary, give money to local people. They really need it,” Mulhern said. “If you give $100 to Barack Obama, who’s going to really notice. But if you give $100 to Lee Nelson [running against Republican Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson], how many pieces of mail will that send out?”
Mulhern also said she looks to an unusual source for political inspiration: her recent reading of the final Harry Potter book. She commended its message of good triumphing after years of setbacks and defeats in a world filled with some really bad characters.
“There is evil out there,” Mulhern said. “There are death eaters. There are dementors.”
There are even Republican county commissioners who want to gut wetlands rules and discriminate against gays and lesbians. But she didn’t mention them. By name.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 2, 2007, at 12:18 pm
I spent Saturday at Walt Disney World with seven leading Democratic presidential candidates as they made a play for the hearts and minds of Latino public officials gathered there. Here’s my report, which will run in print in our CL issue being published Wednesday:
LAKE BUENA VISTA — They call this “the nation’s Latino political convention.†But if U.S. demographics continue their current trends, in two decades both parties’ presidential conventions could look at lot like the 24th annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
The gathering drew more than 1,000 NALEO members to Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Hotel, where members listened to the seven leading Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday. They heard from just one Republican — dark horse Duncan Hunter, on Friday. The major GOP candidates cited scheduling conflicts; more likely, they feared fallout from the recent immigration reform battle and the fact that the nonpartisan organization’s membership is strongly Democratic.
The conference was significant beyond the presidential forum. Hispanics make up the largest minority group in this country, and are its fastest-growing bloc, too. Latinos make up more than 20 percent of the voting public in Florida.
“Whoever will be the next president will need to work with this constituency to move our country forward,†NALEO President John Bueno said.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 1, 2007, at 3:20 pm
Frank Sanchez, an adviser and local fundraising chairman for the Barack Obama campaign, tells PoHo that Obama is reporting $32.5 million in campaign contributions for the quarter ending June 30 (that was Saturday). That’s a record for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Of that money, an impressive $31 million is in primary dollars. (A quick primer in federal campaign rules; you can give up to $2,300 each for the primary and general elections, both on one check if you like. Some candidates use those double contributions to pump up their fundraising reports in the primary, even though they can’t legally spend the money unless they win the nomination.)
Sanchez estimated that $260,000 of that total came out of Tampa Bay, mostly from two fund raisers held in April, including a 2,000-person event in Ybor City.
More than 154,000 new donors gave to the Obama campaign between April and the end of June.
No word yet on Hillary Clinton’s quarter. The buzz (damn, hate using that word) at the Tampa Democrats For America training academy and in Orlando at the NALEO conference was it would be in the $25 million-$30 million range.
John Edwards just cracked the $9 million mark for the quarter, according to fundraising appeals from his campaign on Saturday.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 17, 2007, at 11:51 am
Mitch Kates, the Democratic consultant with two big Tampa Bay victories under his belt in 2006-2007 (as well as one not-so-successful journey into Sarasota politics), has started a new consulting firm. It’s called Think Big.
His news release says:
“Since arriving in Florida to work on the Charlie Justice campaign, it didn’t take long to figure out that there was a lot of potential for change and political victories in Florida. There is a great pool of candidates with a very strong volunteer base to organize efficient and effective winning campaigns,†claimed Mitch Kates .
“The I-4 corridor is arguably the most important region in the entire state of Florida from a local level all the way to the White House. Politically, this is THE battlegrounds of all battlegrounds. If I can make even a little bit of difference- I’m all in!†stated Kates.
caucuses.
:
The gathering drew more than 1,000 NALEO members to Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Hotel, where members listened to the seven leading Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday. They heard from just one Republican — dark horse Duncan Hunter, on Friday. The major GOP candidates cited scheduling conflicts; more likely, they feared fallout from the recent immigration reform battle and the fact that the nonpartisan organization’s membership is strongly Democratic.
Mitch Kates, the Democratic consultant with 
