I hope you're aware that Blue America is helping with an effort to remake the disastrous Florida Democratic Party as a real vehicle for real change. we're supporting an effort to flip the state legislature, for example, by having candidates for every seat, something the state party has opposed-- although is happy to claim some of the credit for now that it's a fait accompli. And now that it's done, they're demanding that the 36 recruits pay for access to the voter files in their districts-- an old trick the Democratic Party often does to prevent working class people from running for office. The Florida Democratic Party is demanding $750 from every House candidate and $1,500 from each of the state Senate candidates. They should be helping these men and women financially, not taxing them to use the voter files.While a grassroots effort was insuring that there would be 141 candidates in the 141 legislative seats-- the Florida Democratic Party jeering from the sidelines-- the party hired Rosy, a hack operative from Deval Patrick's failed campaign to run their legislative operations. Here she is fighting on Twitter with people trying to help, rather than hinder the candidates:She's real piece of work-- and comes across, at least on Twitter, as either ignorant or dishonestAnd the party executive director, Juan Peñalosa, jumped into the tweet spat as well-- on the side of not allowing the candidate's access to the voter file unless they pay the party:Adam Christensen, the progressive congressional candidate for the 3rd district (Gainesville area), works closely with the legislative candidates inside his congressional district, everyone trying to lift everyone up, up and down the ballot. He tried explaining to Rosy why the Florida party should help them as well:It didn't seem to have done any good. Like the state party she works for, she's a negative force-- and doesn't even realize it:I asked Virginia civil rights icon Dr. Fergie Reid, Sr., the first African-American elected to the Virginia Assembly since Reconstruction and currently working on the 90For90 efforts to encourage greater voter participation. He was very clear that "making candidates pay for VAN access is essentially a current age “poll tax”; it’s not a problem for those with money; but, it can be an unnecessary and undue burden for those of lesser means. It artificially excludes the 'less well off' candidates from even the possibility of the chance of the greater success, that early VAN access can bring. It is the proverbial 'knee on the neck.' A winning sports team owner would never make his or her players pay for the 'arena custodial services, team uniforms, airplanes, buses, equipment,' etc. The owner does everything in their power to provide an environment that will make it easy for the players to perform to their greatest potential."UPDATE: From Adam ChristensenI think at the end of the day the Florida Democratic Party and everyone running at all levels can agree on a couple of things.
1. We all want to flip The Florida House 2. We want to bring more people into the Democratic Party 3. We want to be able to get out the vote for November like no one has ever seen.
In the races that we don't have the money, we have people who are passionate and dedicated. People and volunteers that will do everything they can to win in their local areas and help the Democratic Party. So let's put them on an equal playing field against republicans for their elections, let's give them a shot to make up the margins we need in November. Let's give them data because it would be a win/win for the party.When we do:
1. More people will become Democrats2. More races will be won3. The Florida Democratic Party will increase its fundraising and ability to scale.
This year is an incredible opportunity, and the Florida Democratic Party has a chance to do something no one thought possible FLIP Florida blue. And doing it using the power of the people, well that would be a beautiful thing.UPDATE II: From Guido WeissOur campaign cannot afford the Democratic party voter database so we have had to get very creative with data. The cost of the database makes it a major investment (prohibitive) for any non-incumbent unless they are coming in with a lot of money (I am not). During Democratic Club meetings, the local party organizers have been vague to me about exactly how to get a hold of the voter database in the first place, I was also berated by one county leader for the thought of running against an incumbent. The party has not assisted any congressional primary candidates with the process to my knowledge and now they are holding debates in this district only for candidates who are not running for Congress (Judge, FL House, etc). The efforts to prohibit primary candidates from having productive campaigns are ultimately going to harm the party and our democracy.
