INEXCUSABLE.
Only Democrats in Florida truly appreciate the utter insanity of being a Democrat here.
How is it that such a diverse state, where Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans, and where the Democratic presidential candidate won the last two elections, consistently sends right-wingers to represent us in Congress?
Because of stupid like this:
I was feeling pretty good after reading an article from The Hill, which identified the Top 10 best pickups for Democrats in Congress if Trump is at the top of the GOP ticket (which is now very likely).
The article named one for Florida: my own FL-CD 7.
My district has been under the thumb of a 72-year-old, crusty GOP incumbent named John Mica for many years. He was once a moderate—a long, long time ago. Yet every year, he morphs more into a rabid teabagger who defends Rush Limbaugh, calls Donald Trump a man he “respects,” and, not surprisingly, is not sitting too popular with our area’s growing number of Latinos, after he actually said this:
My state, in fact, has seen the impact of these deluges of illegals, and I call them semi-legal immigrants in Florida. Our hospitals and jails and schools are filled to capacity.
Well, his problem with Latinos was something he didn’t have to worry about when FL-CD 7 was drawn to include “his kind" of voters. Yet, now that the Florida Supreme Court recently undid the GOP’s illegal gerrymandering:
- FL-CD 7 now has 21% MORE LATINO voters!
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Add to that another 12% of new African-American voters!
That shift in demographics is huge, folks. YYYUUUUGGE. But wait, there’s more...
The Orlando Sentinel repeatedly endorsed him in past elections because he was Chairman of the influential Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. That has ended since he was termed out. And then there’s the hypocrisy. While campaigning as a fiscal conservative, his critics point out that John has used his campaign account to spend a whopping $230,000 on meals since 1998 at restaurants across the US.
FL-CD 7 is now a big freaking battleground. What we have here is an incumbent who is a Trump apologist, teabagging nut, in a district that is trending blue, with a GIANT influx of big, scary minorities.
Enter Democrat Bill Phillips. The Orlando Sentinel announced his candidacy in October of last year. A banker and former communications director for the Florida Education Association, he had the support of the Democratic establishment. Every source I went to on the web named him as the challenger.
Anywhere else, a right-wing candidate like John Mica would be running scared. At the very least, the state GOP should be forced to spend a few bucks on defending the guy.
But, as I’m sure John Mica has prayed, thank God for Florida Democrats.
Since he was listed as the challenger, and I wanted to do a post on him to gin up support, I tried contacting him.
No website. No Facebook. Not a tweet since December.
I finally tracked him down. I told him we were ready to fight.
He told me he had already dropped out.
He left the race back in February. He took down his web presence. He told me he wasn't positioned to “raise the resources required to unseat someone of Mr. Mica's tenure.”
Are. You. F-ing. Kidding. Me.
Whoa. Democrats, no. We have the best chance we have had in decades—are we really going to let Mica just walk to victory? Thousands of new Latinos are registering in droves to vote against Trump. Don’t you think we should have someone's name as another option instead of the guy who just spit in their face?
I would love to think that Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her friend Allison Tant, the Florida State Party chair, (whom DWS personally advocated for the position), are on the phones working their tails off trying to recruit someone for this opportunity. Unfortunately, DWS seems preoccupied fending off her own surging primary challenger. And Allison Tant is mostly known for giving this infamous, public rant after losing the elections in 2014.
Considering past experiences with both of them, I just don’t have a lot of confidence that this is going down. After all, before the election slaughter of 2014, myself and other Florida Kossacks had to throw our own event for half a dozen Congressional and other Dem candidates because of the lack of support from the local and state dem parties.
Hopefully, I am very wrong. Sure, Allison and Debbie could be wrangling in someone as I speak. It would be nice if that were true, and if it was, it would be very helpful to know who this mystery person is so we can help.
I am always optimistic, but I am also realistic.
Unfortunately, this isn’t even the last time the Democratic establishment candidate dropped out against Mica! In 2014, Democrat Wes Neuman quit campaigning after the primary. In the critical months before the election, the Orlando Sentinel declared that he “vanished from public view.” (At least Bill had the decency to quit before the primary.)
I am furious that this is even a thing for such a critical election. For all of the things I can say about the FL GOP, they have their act together. They always recruit and support candidates for office. Do you think for a second that they wouldn’t have one at this point in a freaking battleground district?
C’mon, guys. We have a great shot at winning FL-CD 7. We finally have a really great shot at defeating John Mica.
But it will require someone to actually run against him.
PS...If you are interested, the filing deadline is June 24.