A.G. Gancarski
Former Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo has plenty to say about Democrats in Florida in the wake of his snap decision to renounce not just Caucus leadership but the party itself.
And his problems start at the top of the party, in the form of Democratic Chair Nikki Fried, who he blasted during an interview with WLRN as an ineffective, failed politician who flamed out in a race against Charlie Crist three years ago.
“We’re headed at the state level by somebody who probably wasn’t feeling confident that they’d win reelection in their own seat and said, ‘you know what, if I’m going to go out, I might as well go out with a bang. So let me run for Governor.’ That didn’t end well,” he said about the former Agriculture Commissioner who took issue with his “temper tantrum” on the Senate floor last week.
But Fried is only part of Pizzo’s problem with his former party.
“I know there’s a large clutch of angry or shocked people at my decision. Most of them though, the loudest voices, are ones that are just pissed they can’t hit me up for money this year and next year,” Pizzo said, before bemoaning raising big bucks for the flatlined Florida Democratic Party even though he knew there was no point.
“I fundraised over $5 million for the Senate Democratic Caucus in a declining condition and status of the Democratic Party as a whole. I was very honest in my assertion that I didn’t think we were going to pick up any seats, which I think is a win based on declining Democratic registrations compared to the delta of Republicans,” he said. “I was lambasted for that, but it turned out to be true, and on the House side, they lost members.”
Ultimately, Pizzo doesn’t even see the FDP as functional.
“There is no party, okay? If they wanna characterize it as quitting or leaving whatever — there is no party. There’s a bunch of sort of disjointed ideas, no clear path of leadership whatsoever,” he said, calling his former running mates a “bunch of autonomous children in the room at this point that feel impossible to coalesce.”
While the language is stronger, it aligns with Pizzo’s original announcement, given on the Senate floor last week, in which he called the Democratic Party in Florida “dead.”
14 comments
Foghorn Leghorn
April 28, 2025 at 8:39 am
Nikki Fried and David Hogg. Two Floridian’s that are the top recruiters of new Republican voters. One on the state level, the other one nationally. I thank you both..
Karen zann
April 28, 2025 at 8:43 am
Pizza sounds very interesting!
Bill Pollard
April 28, 2025 at 9:27 am
The Republican Party in Florida is devastating this state. At some point people will vote against it. Either they will vote for Democrats, Libertarians, or independent candidates. Possibly a new party will form, but I am certain the Democratic Party will still be a player.
Paul Passarelli
April 28, 2025 at 12:13 pm
Oh Bill, the Blue kool-ade is dribbling down your chin again.
I left the Democrat hellhole that was once my beloved Nutmeg State, and came here because of the promise of Ron DeSantis’ revitalization of things.
Yeah in the beginning of the pandemic, a few missteps were made. but The Free State of Florida emerged from that nightmare so much stronger and any blue State you can name. The state’s economy is booming, people are moving here (much to my displeasure & chagrin), but that’s because The Sunshine State is setting the tone that honest, hardworking, liberty minded people need to hear again.
Pizzo has simply acknowledged that the Blue kool-ade guzzling sheeple are lost, and scared. Does that mean I would like him or trust him? Hell no. He was a Democrat and he rose to power in that Party. That means he knew that his career was based on lies & deception. A leopard doesn’t change his spots, and rats are the first to flee a sinking ship.
But I can cite his words as proof that the Democrats are done. I’m not especially gleeful on that issue, well, ok I am gleeful. But that’s because it’s athe first step to dismantling an organization that objectively does not have the best interest of US citizens as one of its core tenets.
Good riddance!
It's Complicated
April 28, 2025 at 3:27 pm
I wouldn’t hold my breath for that outcome.
Bottom line, the RPOF is now beating Democrats in devastating fashion at the very games they were once good at, and that is fundraising, effective messaging, registering voters, and getting voters to the polls. Neither party has absolute control over the quality of candidates, but both parties have systems to cultivate and train candidates. The GOP voter registration delta is approaching 2M more than the Democrats, too.
NPA voters may soon outnumber Democrats, (not trending that direction to overtake the GOP) but they are FAR from a homogenous group of voters spanning the spectrum from uber-liberal to arch conservative and everything in-between. When candidates run as NPA, they rarely get more than a low single-digit percentage of the votes.
ScienceBLVR
April 28, 2025 at 10:10 am
…children in the room? Really Jason? Things don’t go your way so you take your ball and go home? Like I tell the kids.. Winners never quit and Quitters never win!
Liz Harris
May 4, 2025 at 3:43 pm
I don’t think it’s a case of taking his ball and going home. Look at the national level…they suck and are in a mess. They ignore middle America completely. We told them we don’t want Biological males in women’s sports…do they listen? NO. The Republicans did, though. We don’t want DEI…did they listen? NO, the Republicans did, though.
Somewhere down the line, Democrats stopped listening and don’t care what we think. He did a smart move…it’s escaping a sinking ship. If they find common sense again…then yea…but with David Hogg and people like that…it won’t happen.
People are fleeing blue cities like crazy! Why? High taxes and so many regulations.
CW
April 28, 2025 at 11:59 am
Fla Dems are definitely struggling. The right leaning GOP present a real challenge for Florida moderates. Bailing out rather than trying to work on bipartisan solutions is a cop out.
Better to get what you can than give up a seat at the table.
MH/Duuuval
April 28, 2025 at 8:47 pm
Agreed.
Paul Passarelli
April 28, 2025 at 12:03 pm
The Democratic Party all of it, national & state level should be investigated for RICO corruption charges.
Furthermore the Party members all need to have their heads examined for the degenerative effects of lead and/or mercury poisoning, or amoebic brain infestations.
Or they can choose to sign a document that acknowledges that they were indoctrinated as children and a admit that they were emotionally & intellectually damaged and/or crippled before they reached the age of majority, and therefore unfit to vote.
MH/Duuuval
April 28, 2025 at 8:49 pm
How can you so studiously ignore the corruption going on around Donnie “Pay to Play” Trump? Find any element touched by Trump and his avid-a-dollars smudge is everywhere.
JD
April 28, 2025 at 9:11 pm
“Or they can choose to sign a document that acknowledges that they were indoctrinated as children and a admit that they were emotionally & intellectually damaged and/or crippled before they reached the age of majority, and therefore unfit to vote.”
Damn you sound like a full blown Naz! with that last statement. Not even trying to hide anymore behind a thin veil of “patriotism”? Wow. Just Wow. You do recall they won for awhile and then were blown to sh!t?
MH/Duuuval
April 28, 2025 at 9:22 pm
Paul digs Benito.
JD
April 28, 2025 at 9:36 pm
The Italian people weren’t exactly kind to Benitoi in the end, but not that it wasn’t well deserved. Ironically, his granddaughter, after a career posing nude, was later elected to political office. There’s something to be said for that.
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