Ryan Ray
It comes as no surprise that West Palm Beach City Commissioner Kimberly Mitchell wants to be Mayor after twelve years of waiting in the wings. That her former spouse and Republican über-lobbyist R
What’s really raising eyebrows in left-of-center circles around the state is who’s along for the ride in their quest to unseat Mayor Jeri Muoio, a well-known Dem despite the nonpartisan veneer atop the race: a cadre of heretofore true-blue stalwarts, including a sitting Democratic legislator and a merry band of operators hoping to ride that NPA deniability to the bank.
Lake Worth state Sen. Jeff Clemens and longtime Democratic campaign consultant Beth Kennedy are working on Mitchell’s behalf in this race, as well as for a group of down-ballot candidates for the commission, Cory Neering who is challenging Katherine Waldron in District 2, and Leonard “Len” Fintzy, who is taking on District 5 Commissioner Keith James. All seats on the commission are elected city-wide in West Palm Beach.
Obama for Florida alum and communications wunderkind Eric Conrad — a key mythmaker of Congresswoman Gwen Graham‘s bipartisan “North Florida Way” campaign message — is now doing some aisle crossing of his own, running the comms shop for Mitchell. Word on Clematis Street is that Ashley Walker has joined up with the cause as well.
According to a January 7th filing with the Florida Department of State, Clemens and Kennedy established a limited liability corporation by the name of Landslide Strategies, LLC (not to be confused with Mike Kaplan‘s Coral Springs-based Landslide Victory Campaigns, Inc., though they may now be competing for clients). Relevant campaign finance reports are not yet available, but observers may reasonably infer that Landslide is a vehicle for coordination between the pair and the above slate of municipal candidates.
Despite never exactly achieving a landslide victory of his own — Clemens captured the Democratic nomination in his Senate race against Mack Bernard by just 17 votes back in 2012 and has faced weak opponents in most other races — the Senator has a history of dabbling in local elections, with some success.
Clemens, for instance, backed Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay in her 2014 Democratic primary against former Wellington Mayor Kathy Foster. McKinlay’s bid was buoyed by an early bundle of contributions from Senate GOP-ers like Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, Denise Grimsley, Greg Evers, Ellyn Bogdanoff and Jack Latvala.
Clemens is not alone as a self-styled South Florida power player with an ideologically promiscuous streak. His above electoral ties to Miguel DLP are shared by Rep. Katie Edwards, a personal friend and ally of Clemens who also has a consultancy history that many in the Democratic fold find somewhat treacherous.
The shadowy Progressive Choice Florida committee involved Edwards heavily and used DLP-tied vendors to attack Charlie Crist from the left last summer. Edwards backed Nan Rich in the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary for presumably local reasons, though Edwards hardly has a voting record that comports with Rich’s “liberal fighter” primary persona.
Some Democrats worry this exceedingly pragmatic tendency within their ranks will compromise their ability to present a united front and water down their function as a proper opposition party.
Conrad declined to comment on the record about the unorthodox arrangement surrounding Mitchell’s bid, which is sure to need a boost from Democratic ticket splitters in order to prevail, deferring to the old saw that it’s the candidates and the issues that should be the story, not the staff.
Which is by and large true. But sometimes, as in Mitchell’s hybridized campaign, exceptions must be made.
