A.G. Gancarski
Tom Cruise said in Cocktail that “everything ends badly; otherwise it wouldn’t end.”
The same principle can be applied to the relationship of the Florida Democratic Party to Jacksonville, where despite clearly prioritizing victory, the state party didn’t seem altogether enthusiastic about the Bold New City of the South.
The damage control started the weekend before the election, when claims went out from the state party that the Alvin Brown re-election effort was being “significantly outspent” and that Lenny Curry ads were “beyond saturation” in the Jacksonville market. Despite the Democratic advantage at the end of early voting, there were worries that the “lopsided” ad spending would make the critical difference.
Was this an attempt at a CYA play? Quite possibly. However, ad spending didn’t win the election for Curry in and of itself. Other factors were in play, including failures of messaging, and they might have been alluded to in Facebook posts from party operatives, such as this one from Stephanie Hendrick, data director for the Florida Democratic Party:
Just heard a conversation among some real Jacksonvillians about the election, and it was fascinating:
[someone mentions the election]
[statements of who they voted for without being able to remember their names, except Curry’s]
[personal opinions on the candidates that are actually the candidates’ exact talking points]
[believable statements as facts that are actually false]
[all involved lose interest and change the subject]
The stereotypes of Jacksonville residents that the post perpetuates are remarkable. The subtext: Jacksonville residents are brainwashed dupes who recite “exact talking points” when they aren’t rattling off fake facts before meandering away from substantive conversation.
Is that how you win hearts and minds? Definitively not. But it does give insight into the condescension and contempt behind the one-dimensional messaging that Brown promulgated for months. If you repeat a claim from WalletHub or “36,000 new jobs” enough, the rubes will remember it. That is, if they’re not distracted by a sparkly object in their line of sight. Or a Stuckey’s coupon.
Another gem of condescension from Jeff Branch, deputy political director: “Well DUVAL County, last night results weren’t what I was hoping for. I don’t know what it will take to get folks to vote all the time and every time. So in the meantime … the struggle continues!”
Ah, yes. The struggle.
Sort of like how Alvin Brown struggled, for the entire campaign, to even say the word “LGBT,” before finally being trolled by Lenny Curry to do so in the third debate. But that’s OK: As one Brown campaign operative told me, off the record, there was no need to talk about LGBT issues because “this is the South.”
Y’all.
The struggle is real. Sort of like how Brown, when Curry called him out for being a Barack Obama delegate at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, struggled to remember where he was three summers ago, telling me and another reporter after the debate that he didn’t know what Curry was talking about.
The struggle continues. The Democratic Party won 25 percent of its races against Republicans in Jacksonville on Tuesday, despite having the power of incumbency and an advantage in terms of raw vote and voter registration both.
“I don’t know what it will take to get voters to vote all the time and every time.”
Perhaps that’s the problem.
In these high-stakes campaigns, there is obvious incentive to bringing in national-level talent to handle operations. But there is an attendant risk as well, in that it’s hard to fake being local. The messaging from the Brown campaign against “Party Boss” Curry often seemed tailored not to locals, but to address longstanding state party beefs.
Perhaps part of the reason voter turnout ultimately sagged for the Democrats was that the negative messaging delivered wasn’t sufficiently local. Conversely, Curry’s critiques of Mayor Brown were hyperlocal, targeted to address concerns of people in each neighborhood in many cases.
When trying to get voters to vote “all the time and every time,” a key to that might be addressing their concerns, where they live, rather than formulating a one-size-fits-all critique to address the “average voter,” who doesn’t exist.
