Annette Taddeo campaign manager’s pitch: Wait until voters get to know her

Well behind other Democratic gubernatorial candidates in polling, fundraising and name recognition, Sen. Annette Taddeo’s campaign is pressing potential supporters to help carry her until voters can get to know her.

In a memo to donors and organizations late last week, Taddeo Campaign Manager Nick Merlino attempted to lay out a case that Taddeo can win if she’s just given a chance.

In the April 21 memo obtained Thursday by Florida Politics, Merlino contends that no Democrat gubernatorial candidate has established “presumptive nominee” status. He asserts that the Democratic Primary Election is as unsettled as ever, and that Taddeo’s campaign research shows she can surge with exposure.

For nearly a year now, the Miami Senator has say in a distant third place in Democratic gubernatorial polls. Many of those polls also show that majorities of Democrats respond to pollsters about her with, “Sen. who?”

Taddeo’s campaign has barely raised enough money to run a tough state Senate campaign, much less a Governor’s race against a well-funded incumbent. Her fundraising has progressed at a fraction of the pace seen by Democratic Primary opponents U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

Meanwhile, their fundraising has been a fraction of what Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has managed, making long-term prospects even more foreboding, and leading Merlino to suggest Democrats have to consider something different.

“It’s urgent. It’s an urgent time,” Merlino told Florida Politics, in offering context for the memo.

A key message in the memo is that Florida has seen many statewide candidates skyrocket or crash late in campaigns, and that Taddeo’s voter appeal potential may be much better than either Crist’s or Fried’s.

“If these polls mattered Crist would be in the U.S. Senate, Gwen Graham would be Governor, and we never would have heard of Lawton Chiles or Rick Scott,” Merlino argues in the memo. “You should probably ask Governor Adam Putnam about polling this far out.”

Much of the memo reads like an appeal of generic hope and optimism, with lines similar to what any trailing candidate’s campaign might espouse.

The memo contends that the Democratic Primary Election is still unsettled; that claims of any particular campaigns surging or tanking are “unfounded”; that it’s time for Democrats to try something different; that Taddeo’s campaign “feels great” about early fundraising and support; and that Taddeo’s campaign has not yet begun to spend money to introduce her to voters.

The memo also goes through many of Taddeo’s early talking points: that as a small business owner and working parent she has voter appeals that Crist and Fried do not, and that as a Latina she’s in much better position to rebuild the Democrats’ critical, yet crumbling, Hispanic voter base.

“Whenever she does have the opportunities to speak to people, the response is overwhelming,” Merlino said to Florida Politics. “We know that based on every event we’ve been to with the three candidates. People flock toward Annette.”

In particular, the memo calls for potential supporters to consider Taddeo’s efforts to aggressively counter Republicans’ false, yet successful, claims that Democrats are socialists or want to defund the police, slurs which the memo contends cost Democrats the past few elections.

Merlino’s memo also turns to data.

That includes year-old polling done for Taddeo’s campaign by SEA Polling And Strategic Design. That data indicated her support among Democrats soars past Fried’s and Crist’s “when voters hear about the three candidates.” The polling found the most significant improvement in Taddeo’s numbers among women voters and Hispanic voters.

For Democrats to win the General Election, they need to perform well in Miami-Dade County, her home, the memo suggests.

“Biden had the worst collapse in voter share in Miami-Dade in history (Hillary did 23 points better; Gillum did 15 points better). We lost because Democrats didn’t bash down GOP lies about socialism and defunding the police,” Merlino writes.

“Only one candidate can do this: Annette Taddeo,” the memo suggests.