Politics \u201cjunkies\u201d will forever remember the great Tim Russert\u2019s \u201cFlorida Florida Florida\u201d in the 2000 election.\u00a0 Russert predicted the results of the election would come down to who won Florida. \u00a0As we learned, the ballot in Palm Beach County was manipulated in such a way as to intentionally confuse voters who intended to vote for Al Gore to accidentally vote for Pat Buchanan.\u00a0 Buchanan\u2019s vote tally soared in a very unlikely electorate while Gore\u2019s votes were inexplicably low in the same electorate.\u00a0 \u00a0Thousands of Gore votes unintentionally went to Buchanan and George W. Bush won Florida by an even smaller margin, thus the direct impact.\u00a0 It was not \u201cHanging chads,\u201d it was the scheme to divert votes from Gore to Buchanan to help Bush win.<\/p>\n
The country is still watching Florida as the state has a pivotal role in the 2018 midterms.\u00a0 Pundits refer to Florida as an important swing vote, especially in Presidential elections.\u00a0 Bush won Florida, Obama won Florida, and Trump won Florida.\u00a0 A large state with many media markets, Florida is an expensive state in which to compete, especially in close, contentious elections for state and federal elections.\u00a0 Florida is a diverse state in many ways \u2013 politically, economically, demographically, socially, and culturally.\u00a0 As a populous state, the electoral prize is often worth the fight.<\/p>\n
Although President Obama won Florida and Senator Bill Nelson has served as one of Florida\u2019s U.S. Senators, Florida has been a reliably Republican state for about 20 years.\u00a0 Republicans have dominated both houses of the Florida Legislature and almost exclusively held all statewide elected offices, especially Governor.\u00a0 Previously, Florida was led by strong, widely respected Democratic leaders including Bob Graham and Lawton Chiles, both of whom served as Governor and Senator.\u00a0 Democrats have not been able to win Florida statewide elections since.\u00a0 There is some debate whether this is caused by the state becoming more conservative or because the Democratic candidates who won the primaries were not competitive enough. \u00a0The theory is they were too liberal to gain support in large parts of the state and may not have been strong campaigners.<\/p>\n
The result of solid Republican control, Florida became one of the worst Gerrymandered states in the nation.\u00a0 This helped Republicans maintain control of the legislature and many Congressional seats, giving them a base and unfair advantage.\u00a0 Republican leadership has gutted education with Florida ranking near the bottom of the 50 states, an absolute shame.\u00a0 Republicans have also eliminated environmental funding, directly resulting in contaminated water, problems with flooding, and other critical challenges.\u00a0 In 2018 Florida Democrats are energized by prospects of a \u201cblue wave\u201d in the midterms and a bona fide opportunity to win statewide elections. \u00a0Democrats have done well in recent special elections, closing the gap in the state Senate and poised for big gains in the state House. \u00a0Democrats have an excellent opportunity to pick up a few Congressional seats as well. \u00a0It all starts with nominating the right candidates.<\/p>\n
Florida Democrats nominated Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum for Governor to lead their effort to wrest control from Republicans.\u00a0 He ran in the primary as the most progressive candidate, beating more establishment and moderate candidates.\u00a0 He had the support of Bernie Sanders, donors George Soros and Tom Steyer, and strong minority voter turnout. \u00a0Gillum is running against Ron DeSantis, a former Congressman and handpicked Trumpist who lacks the experience, substance, and character to be Governor. \u00a0At this point, Gillum leads in the polls by an average of 6 points, while DeSantis flounders to create a platform and message. \u00a0DeSantis has thus far run a campaign vague on issues and priorities, although he has tried to strike a Democratic tone on issues such as education and the environment, knowing these are priorities of Florida voters.\u00a0 Gillum should maintain his traditional Democratic values and emphasize a more moderate approach to governance to win over a Florida electorate that has for 20 years supported Conservative Republican candidates for all statewide offices.\u00a0 He supports strengthening public education, environmental protection, an economy with good jobs, access to health care, etc.\u00a0 This is a winning formula.<\/p>\n
Senator Nelson is fighting to keep his seat against outgoing Governor Rick Scott, also a hand-picked Trumpist.\u00a0 Polls have been back and forth.\u00a0 Nelson appears to have a slight lead, but he is considered extremely vulnerable and will rely heavily on favorable turnout.\u00a0 Nelson, a military veteran and former astronaut, has proven himself to be a dedicated public servant with a strong record on the environment, health care, education, Social Security, Medicare, etc. \u00a0It is distressing to see an honorable man like Nelson in a close race against Scott, one of the most corrupt politicians to ever hold office.<\/p>\n
Scott was responsible for the largest Medicare fraud in the nation\u2019s history, resulting in a 1.7 billion dollar fine.\u00a0 He has steered hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts towards business in which he has an interest.\u00a0 Scott hides his vast fortune (reported at over 200 million dollars) in Cayman Island tax havens.\u00a0 Scott is personally responsible for Florida\u2019s environmental crises.\u00a0 He supported chemical dumping, cut funding to prevent red tide and blue algae, and supports drilling in the Everglades and off the Florida coast.\u00a0 He opposes climate change to the extent he foolishly banned even the use of the term in all state business and documents.\u00a0 Climate change is impacting Florida in a significant way.\u00a0 He is a disaster on public education.<\/p>\n
Florida Democrats have fielded a strong slate of candidates for the state legislature, state offices, the House, and of course the proven Bill Nelson.\u00a0 These races must be about the future of Florida more than about President Trump. \u00a02018 is the best election cycle in many years for Democrats and it is imperative for the Florida Democratic Party to finally show it can win.\u00a0 It is even more important for the people of Florida to eliminate the extreme corruption of Republican rule and restore much overdo public education and environmental funding before it is too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Politics \u201cjunkies\u201d will forever remember the great Tim Russert\u2019s \u201cFlorida Florida Florida\u201d in the 2000 election.\u00a0 Russert predicted the results of the election would come down to who won Florida. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,109,125,184,257],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-2018-midterm-election","tag-florida","tag-governor-rick-scott","tag-mayor-andrew-gillum","tag-senator-bill-nelson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}