Joe Henderson, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Joe HendersonSeptember 22, 2018

You can’t have a major political campaign unless the candidates debate, right? Usually, they are over-scripted, overhyped and underperforming, but a Florida Governor’s debate between Andrew Gillum and Ron DeSantis should be memorable. Both sides were working out the specifics on Monday, but it looks like this is going to happen. You would assume someone […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 17, 2018

Everyone knew Florida’s Senate District 18 battle between Democrat Janet Cruz and Republican incumbent Dana Young would be contentious. Both women are strong, smart, battle-tested, and play to win – just what we want from candidates. There is no middle ground here. Voters have a clear choice, and that’s always good. Democrats targeted the Hillsborough County […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 13, 2018

It is nearly mid-September and the Tampa Bay Rays are playing meaningful baseball games. They still have an outside shot of making the playoffs. Being the wise baseball sage that I am, I certainly saw this success coming after the club ran off all its high-priced talent in an offseason purge that at the time […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 12, 2018

The Republican game plan to defeat Andrew Gillum has been clear from the start: Paint him as the compromised puppet of billionaire Democratic donors who want to unleash a radical socialist agenda on Florida that would END LIFE AS WE KNOW IT!! Sorry, I didn’t mean to shout. We saw some evidence of that on […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 10, 2018

Judy Genshaft has been many things during her nearly two decades as president of the University of South Florida. She has been relentless. Focused. She was the center of nearly every room she entered. She had a vision for USF that probably sounded ridiculous when she arrived on campus in 2000, but then made it […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 10, 2018

David Straz Jr. didn’t say anything wrong during the kickoff for his self-funded campaign to be Tampa’s Mayor. Give the billionaire philanthropist that much. But as he outlined his platform in a one-minute, 52-second video, he didn’t say much that would get anyone excited either. There were a lot of platitudes and a bunch of […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 5, 2018

Don’t you wish Marco Rubio had just turned around and popped that InfoWars doofus Alex Jones right in his piehole? I sure do. I’ll bet Alex Jones was hoping for that too. I’ll bet he was praying to be arrested. It would have been ratings gold. But Rubio, Florida’s junior U.S. Senator, handled his confrontation […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 4, 2018

Aakash-Patel-Hillsborough-County-Commission-candidate-District-1.jpg

Aakash Patel is bright, energetic, and creative – traits that would be considered valuable at a place like the Hillsborough County Commission. But when Patel, a Republican, ran to represent a countywide district on that board, he was trounced in the primary last week, losing to attorney Todd Marks by a 2-to-1 margin. The margin, […]

Joe HendersonSeptember 4, 2018

Maybe more than any election in a long time, voters in the middle might as well be people without a candidate. Think about it. Maybe your politics are center-right. You might be generally conservative but will vote for something that sounds somewhat liberal if you decide it’s a good thing. Or, maybe you’re the opposite […]

Joe HendersonAugust 29, 2018

If Ron DeSantis didn’t believe it would be seen as racist when he said of the state’s economy we shouldn’t “monkey it up” by electing Andrew Gillum as Florida’s next Governor, then he is incredibly naive. However, if this Donald Trump Mini-Me was sending a signal to remind his less, um … tolerant supporters that Gillum is, […]

Joe Henderson
A state investigator, right, works with a Florida resident to look out for fraud after Hurricane Helene. Photo via Florida Chief Financial Officer,.

Joe Henderson: Candidates should let it rip at gubernatorial debate

Dana Young vs. Janet Cruz race contentious now with more to come

Joe Henderson: Tampa Bay Rays are winning, fun. Will it matter?

Joe Henderson: If Andrew Gillum is radical, so are lots of people

Joe Henderson: Judy Genshaft did what many believed impossible at USF

Joe Henderson: David Straz may find he needs political skills to be Tampa Mayor

Marco Rubio kept cool and won by a knockout

Joe Henderson: Aakash Patel’s loss not surprising, but margin was

Joe Henderson: Voters in the middle, where is your candidate?

Joe Henderson: Ron DeSantis ‘monkey’ comment naive at best, racist at worst