Mitch Perry
The Florida Democratic Party will gather this weekend for their fall convention in Lake Buena Vista.
The confab comes almost a full year before the 2016 election, where in addition to trying to keep the state blue for the third straight time at the presidential level, the party is hoping to get one of their to join Bill Nelson in the U.S. Senate.
One of the highlights of the three-day event takes place Saturday night when Senate candidates Alan Grayson, Patrick Murphy and Pam Keith will address the crowd.
Keith has been outspoken in saying that she hasn’t been given a fair shake by the party establishment. Whether she’ll dare to say that could be an interesting development. And who gets the love from the crowd between the better known Florida members of Congress will be instructive as well, as the thought is that the party wants the centrist-leaning Murphy to be their standard bearer next fall.
The featured guest speakers will be Connecticut Governor Daniel Malloy on Friday night, and Missouri U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill on Saturday evening.
Leading up to Malloy’s speech on Friday will be appearances by one of the party’s rising stars who may be redistricted out of office next year, Congresswoman Gwen Graham. Bill Nelson will also speak, along with Democratic members of Florida’s congressional delegation and Democratic congressional candidates.
