Daniel Tilson: New way forward for Florida Democrats

Florida Democratic Party leaders say it’s very hard to recruit candidates for local legislative races. They said it in a press conference during their recent “Leadership Blue Gala” fundraiser and statewide membership meeting.

I was working in New York City on non-Florida, non-political stuff when I took a break and saw that item on SaintPetersBlog’s live blogging from the conference. My mind was yanked back to my regular beat and I got ”mental” for a few minutes. But I calmed down, resisted the temptation to drop everything I was doing to vent and write, and got back to other tasks at hand.

Now, I’m back in Florida, back on my Context Florida beat. And I can’t help wondering why Democrats, liberals, progressives (and independents) put up with hearing the same old story, election cycle after election cycle.

Grassroots party activists in particular have been told this bold blue bedtime story for longer than I care to remember. Elections come and go with dozens of uncontested GOP-held districts and ongoing Republican domination of the Legislature. Then FDP leaders fuel the faithful’s hopes and dreams with tales of “new plans” for candidate recruitment and legislative competitiveness.

Promises, promises…

Even attributing good intentions (no idea why, just trying to be a more positive guy) to FDP “Alphas,” the bottom line is they don’t deliver, not in my 10 years on the scene anyway.

In fact, during a couple of years working (volunteering!) within the party structure, I sat through a number of leadership meetings full of big talk about doing what’s needed to succeed in recruiting candidates and becoming truly competitive statewide. But that’s mostly what it turned out to be — Big Talk.

There was talk of connecting in meaningful ways with local communities of shared interest, rather than the usual “reaching out to blacks and Hispanics” each election season. But the talk never translated into concrete, broad-based action.

It’s not very expensive or complicated. But it does require setting proper priorities, and following through on them.

Imagine if the FDP dedicated modest resources to actively work on local projects in African-American, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Haitian, Mexican, Chinese, Venezuelan, Jamaican, Filipino…and other distinctly ethnic, tightly knit communities. Year-round. Every year.

Why not issue a mandate to Democratic clubs statewide to build sturdy bridges to those communities? Instead of asking residents to help Democrats, ask how the Democrats can help them.

Identify community projects, causes and issues that club members and young Democrats can lend a hand on. Keep working together. Let the electoral politics come later, organically.

The FDP would need to invest some administrative and human resources. Print some fliers. Train community members to do a phone bank. Give them media training. But do it all to advance their causes, no strings attached. You think the return on investment might pay off come election time?

Imagine then, if the FDP empowered its Progressive Caucus to find or create intersection between progressive activists and networks statewide, and the new work being done at the neighborhood level by the party and local clubs. You think after a year or so that identifying potential Democratic candidates in every legislative district might get easier?

And then what if instead of pointing candidates toward a few “select” vendors for campaign services, the FDP built a statewide “talent bank”?  Local writers, web designers, filmmakers, accountants and more, who’d work at reduced rates to advance progressive Democratic candidates from their own communities.

Only when the FDP does all this, has it earned the right to talk about how hard candidate recruitment is.

Daniel Tilson has a Boca Raton-based communications firm called Full Cup Media, specializing in online video and written content for non-profits, political candidates and organizations, and small businesses. Column courtesy of Context Florida.