Mitch Perry
This Saturday in Orlando, a task force created by Florida Democratic Party Chair Allison Tant in the wake of last fall’s statewide election disappointment will convene to discuss what they’ve learned since then. And while Tant has reached out to a variety of Democrats in the past month and a half to get their thoughts, two vanquished Democrats remain bitter that she hasn’t reached out to them following their unsuccessful campaigns in 2014.
“I personally have a lot to share,” said Will Rankin, the party’s nominee for chief financial officer who lost to GOP incumbent Jeff Atwater by 18 percentage points. “I know what didn’t happen. I know what support we did and didn’t get (from the party). And we got none. And as a result, Democrats are just standing there in shock, because where’s the support? “
“Not one recognition,” Rankin added. “Not a thank you. Not a ‘job well done.’ Nothing. And I wrote to Allison and (Democratic Party executive director) Scott Arceneaux and said ‘thank you for what you didn’t do.”
Alan Cohn, the Democratic congressional candidate in Florida House District 15 who lost by 20 percentage points to Republican Dennis Ross, echoed Rankin’s comments at the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee on Monday night. “There’s been no outreach,” he complained. “Just like there was no outreach during the campaign.”
A spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party, Joshua Karp, says the LEAD task force (that stands for Leadership Expansion to Advance Democrats) has had a number of conference calls and discussions over the past month and a half with party members, and says that outreach will continue.
Sally Phillips, the chair of the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus, said Tant invited her and other caucus chairs to Tallahassee last month for a no-holds-barred discussion about the good and bad emanating from the 2014 campaign. “To hear that the candidates haven’t been talked to is disappointing,” Phillips acknowledged, though she said the task force’s work isn’t over.
In regards to the criticism, Tampa Democratic Party strategist Ana Cruz says that it’s best if losing candidates aren’t part of the process.
“What happens if you get a bunch of candidates in the room who didn’t win, it becomes about them vs. the actual mechanics of the campaign,” says Cruz, who is part of the LEAD task force. “And then you don’t get anything done, because it’s just so full of emotion, and it’s personal to them.”
The LEAD task force does include a handful of elected officials, including Pasco County state Rep. Amanda Murphy, Miami-Dade state Sen. Dwight Bullard and Miami-Dade state Rep.Jose Javier Rodriguez. It’s co-chaired by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings.
Rankin boasted on Monday night to Hillsborough Democrats that while he did lose, he received over 2.3 million votes, which he said made him the 11th top Democratic vote getter in the country, surpassing Texas gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, “and I did just as well if not better than candidates who ran statewide four years ago who had money and party support.”
If you go by lack of financial resources, Rankin did do well for himself, considering he raised only $37,000 to Atwater $4 million. But in fact the Democrats’ losing CFO candidate in 2010, Lorraine Ausley, also received over 2 million votes, and she lost that race by 18 percent as well (though she did have more financial support).
FDP spokesman Joshua Karp says that Rankin, Cohn and any other Democrat is more than welcome to have their voices heard by the task force. “They’re on a number of lists that have received invitations to give public comments. Every member of the Democratic committee all across the state has been invited, and …every member of the public is invited, he says, referring to the task force’s website where people can contribute suggestions.”
“Everybody loves to pick on the party,” says Cruz, a former executive director of the FDP. “We don’t have any means to rebuild this party until we occupy a statewide office, particularly the Governor’s Mansion. We don’t have any ability in the House or Senate to raise any real money because we’re still in the minority.” She says wistfully that if Charlie Crist had been elected last November, it would have been a “whole different ballgame” in terms of fundraising for down ballot candidates.
But he didn’t win, hence the task force.
