Bi-Party Crist Wont Pick Partner
Florida Governor and one-time leading Senatorial Candidate Charlie Crist is finding that coming out as bi-party is not the cakewalk that he was hoping for - his old friends feel betrayed and confused, his new friends are somewhat fickle, and his enemies are gleeful as he bends and twists to distance himself from the very party whose supporters he must approach if he is to have any chance to win.
Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, Crist declined to answer the caucus question - if elected, will he caucus with Democrats or Republicans? As he has for weeks, he evaded the question by asserting that he will "caucus with the people of Florida." Unfortunately, the people of Florida don't hand out committee assignments.
A few days ago, he tried to go both ways on healthcare. He stated that he would have voted for healthcare reform then he corrected himself and said he would not have voted for the bill. He doesn't like it - not one bit! But since it's already passed and everything, he thinks we should keep it and make it better. Of course, since he wont be sitting on any committees, his opinion may not matter all that much.
And last week in liberal Broward County, he thanked God that he was no longer a Republican then travelled to a much less progressive part of the state and bragged about being a "Jeb Bush Republican."
But even as Chain Gang Charlie repaints himself as a bi-party milquetoast with compassionate leanings who still enjoys the occasional hippie punching, Kendrick Meek and Florida Democrats are gearing up to remind voters of Crist's true preferences:
(Click to listen to wav audio file.)
This is Charlie Crist calling to set the record straight. I'm pro life, I oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants, I support traditional marriage, and I have never supported a new tax or big spending program.
The fact that Meek, a real Democrat, won the party nomination over self funding former Republican Jeff Greene will make life difficult for Crist. Democrats will use the boastful conservative's own words against him again and again and Democratic voters will continue to come home to Meek - Meek presents a clear progressive choice vs. Chain Gang Charlie's newly found wishy washy middle-of-the-roadism.
Meanwhile, Marc Rub's (Marco Rubio has had the vowels removed from the end of his name for conduct unbecoming a Hispanic, per Tampa's La Gaceta newspaper) campaign is hammering Crist as a turncoat and newly enflamed liberal. Crist wont be winning too many votes from this wing of his spurned party.
So far, Crist refuses to pick sides, but he can't win with independents only, his old party still hates him, and Democrats are warming to Meek - Meek is far and away the best candidate on the issues, and he is, in fact, just the kind of "better Democrat" that we need in DC.
Crist's approval ratings are dismal and he is a man without a party. Many observers do not see a way for him to win unless he promises to caucus with the Democrats, but just as he missed his oppurtunity to switch parties and clean Meek's clock in the Dem primary, Crist may again be waiting too long to pick sides.
No Longer Beating a Dead Horse
I give up - there's really no reason to rally behind the only real Democrat in the Democratic primary race. No Party Charlie Crist is with us on everything except what he's not with us on and that's good enough for me, so the primary is officially moot.
Look, I will always like Kendrick - he's such a nice guy! But his campaign is teh suck. It lacks visibility and support, and Meek is not a gifted orator, and he's not as cool and popular as Charlie, so it's over. I can not vote for Kendrick. I am going to invite Crist into my life.
Some say we need work hard to elect better Democrats. Balderdash. I used to be in that camp, but I have seen the light - a halo, actually, just behind Crist's head.
I don't care if we have a real Democrat on the general election ballot in November. I don't need a chance to vote for a candidate who stands for my values.
I am going to vote for Charlie Crist come hell or oily water. What could possibly go wrong?
To this point, Charlie Crist has been nimbly avoiding the literal gusher of indictments and arrests and trials and IRS audits and FBI investigations and lavish credit card spending sprees and, well, just about everything bad that's been happening to the Florida GOP. So I'm betting that none of those scandals will touch him, and I'm absolutely certain that no new bombshell revelation will pop up that might affect his general election chances.
In fact, I have such faith in Crist that I'm betting everything I have.
Of course, I'm not worried that after the Democratic primary Crist will realize that I now have no leverage over him - that I've already placed my bet and that I will have no recourse were he to kick me in the face. I don't need a plan 'B'. I'm positive that Crist is different. He wont hurt me. Honest.
And by backing Crist now I can absolutely guarantee that Marco Rubio will not win the election.
After all, there's no way that anything that no one could have predicted could possibly have come to pass by the time I cast my ballot for Charlie Crist in November.
So I see no reason to even pay any attention to the Democratic primary much less back a candidate just because his values line up nicely with mine and the rich carpetbagger he's running against is a real schmuck. This would be a waste of my valuable time and it really does not matter one iota who the Democratic nominee is because I am going to vote for Charlie Crist.
What could possibly go wrong?
Kendrick Meek could really use our help, but none of us like him anymore, so just don't bother.
I’m Not Afraid of the Big Bad Rubio and Jeff Greene is a Real Schmuck
I’m NOT Afraid of the Big Bad Rubio
and Jeff Greene is a Real Schmuck:
Why We All Need to Get Behind Kendrick Meek Right Now
I keep hearing folks say that they have given up on Kendrick Meek and that they’re voting for Chain Gang Charlie Crist in November because he is the only hope to keep Tea Bagger Marco Rubio out of Washington.
Bullshit.
It’s true that the polls don’t look very good for Meek right now, but November is a long way away and Marco Rubio is primed to self-destruct. As Rubio implodes, Dems may end up with a real choice in November, but only if we ensure that Kendrick Meek wins the Democratic Primary.
Rubio is a lightweight. He’s never been tested in a statewide race. His West Miami district is safely Republican. Like some other Tea Party candidates who found themselves suddenly newsworthy, his campaign is wilting somewhat as the harsh glare of the national media spotlight illuminates slimy stances that are forcing the candidate to dance around the issues.
But in Rubio’s case, the campaign is also drowning under a deluge of scandal.
Rubio, the fiscal responsibility candidate, was carrying a million dollars or so in debt as of 2008 and is a deadbeat. Apparently, at least since he was forced to cut up his Republican Party of Florida AMEX, he has not been making monthly mortgage payments on a house he co-owns in Talahassee. Rubio’s camp claims it’s all a big misunderstanding. The Bank has filed for foreclosure.
Speaking of Rubio’s RPOF AMEX, he was one of the big spenders, racking up one hundred and six thousand dollars in charges. He is known to have double billed taxpayers and the RPOF for expense reimbursement and he was very slow to reimburse the party for personal expenses incurred on his card. He chalks all that up to accounting oversights. The IRS and FBI are investigating.
It was accounting again, along with staff errors, that led to six million dollars allegedly being misappropriated by Ray Sansom, Rubio’s hand picked successor as Speaker of the Florida House. Neither Marco Rubio, whose job as Speaker required him to sign off on all budget items, nor Governor Charlie Crist, who could have vetoed this particular turkey, have any memory whatsoever of the line item which paid for a brand new airplane hanger for Sansom’s future employer. Sansom is awaiting trial.
All of these scandals are starting to wear on Rubio and he’s already slipping in the polls. He’s not coming back up.
So, if Rubio continues to slip, then there really is no reason to strategically back Crist to keep Rubio out of DC. And if Kendrick Meek wins the Democratic Primary then we will have a choice between Crist, a Republican who is adopting Democratic ideas in a calculated move to appeal to the political center and Meek, a real Democrat who has always believed in and voted for the ideals that form the bedrock of our party.
But now, with Jeff Greene having purchased a spot on the primary ballot, Meek first has to win the Democratic primary in order to give us a real choice in November. Jeff Greene has bombarded the airwaves and has literally bought himself up to parity with Meek, but no one really knows anything about him or where he stands on the issues.
It is, however, fairly easy to illustrate the difference between the Democrat in the Democratic primary race for Florida Senate and the other guy who is running in the Democratic primary.
First, from The Buzz:
Jeff Greene's first campaign stop in Tampa Bay yesterday. He met privately with assorted politicos, taped some TV interviews and stopped by the Jordan Park gym in St Pete, to visit an after-school program serving mostly African-American children. His chauffeur drove up in a shiny cadillac, and Greene cheerfully pressed the flesh with nearly two dozen people.
Jeff Greene with his Limo and his Driver
And from The Miami Herald:
Unlike most candidates, Meek usually carries his own bags and takes the wheel on campaign road trips, even while making fundraising calls or doing interviews. He drives a solid 80 mph on the highway, frequently in the left lane. ``The one thing I like about going out on the road [to campaign] is that I get a chance to drive,'' he said.
Kendrick Meek delivers petitions. Meek is the only statewide candidate to qualify for the ballot via petition in Florida history.
We've got a regular guy with working class credentials and values up against The Millionaire Billionaire and his wife mom.
Billionaire Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene features his 83-year-old mother, Century Village of West Palm Beach resident Barbara Greene, in his newest TV spot.
“My Jeff, he’ll shake things up in Washington and he’ll get results. That’s what he does,” Barbara Greene says in the ad.
The Billionaire and his mom.
People were being mean to Jeff Greene so he used his mom as a human shield. Classy.
Look, I haven't even touched on the fact that Crist is tied into most of the same scandals as Rubio plus a few of his own. Crist and Rubio could both conceivably be under indictment soon. Even if you think you will ultimately vote for Crist, you need to support Meek right now during his primary challenge or you could find yourself regretting your lack of a plan B as you hold your nose and send Democratic Primary Winner Jeff Greene to DC.
Keep your options open. Support Kendrick Meek in the primary. Don't let this schmuck Jeff Greene buy the nomination. Ensure that voters have a real choice in November.
This Is Democracy?
Florida’s statewide filing deadline for November races fell on Friday and news reports highlighted a great example of the kind of behavior that disgusts voters who say that they are just fed up with the same old “business as usual” as politicians from both parties took turns abusing a loophole in Florida law that allows for the disenfranchisement of thousands every election season.
Last minute write-in candidates closed primaries between Republicans vying for a state Senate seat and Democrats running for the Hillsborough County Commission.
In the District 3 commission race, incumbent Kevin White will square off against former state Sen. Les Miller and businesswoman Valerie Goddard in the Aug. 24 primary.
The winning Democrat will face Dwight Bolden - a political newcomer who filed to run as a Democrat but qualified as a write-in candidate - in the Nov. 2 election.
"I didn’t have any money or a campaign team, so I went with the non-traditional way," said Bolden, whose name, under election laws, won’t appear on the ballot.
He wasn’t the only unexpected contender to qualify this week for the fall elections.
In the District 12 Senate race, a pair of unknowns qualified as write-in candidates, fueling speculation about whether the two were asked to run to close the primary.
They are Derek Crabb, 30, a Petco store clerk, and Kimberly Renspie, 20, a student at Catawba College in North Carolina.
If they hadn’t filed, all district voters, regardless of party, would have decided the race between former state Rep. Kevin Ambler and Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman in the primary.
The write-in candidates mean that only Republicans can vote in the primary, leaving all other voters with a choice in November of the primary winner and the two write-in candidates whose names won’t appear on the ballot.
So, who is 30-year-old Crabb?
Republican candidate Kevin Ambler wondered the same when he read Crabb's sparse financial information.
"My first thought was, my opponent might want a closed primary, so maybe he recruited this person," he said.
The opponent, County Commission member Jim Norman, is also Republican.
Because no one has filed as a Democrat, the Aug. 24 primary would have been open to all voters.
That is, until Crabb came along as a write-in, listing no political party.
The district comprises northern Hillsborough and central and eastern Pasco counties.
Speaking hurriedly from the pet store, he said he has never held public office.
When asked why he is running, he said, "I don't think I want to comment on that." Pressed for an answer, he said, "Without disclosing too much, I want my voice to be heard." Pressed even more, he added, "I'm trying to lay low right now."
Write-in Candidate Loophole
Florida is a closed primary state. Only voters who are registered as a member of a particular party may participate in that party’s primary election.
In 1998, Florida voters stated their desire for more open and meaningful elections by passing an open primaries amendment that allowed all voters, regardless of party affiliation, to participate in a primary election if the winner of the primary election would be running unopposed in the general.
In other words, if 5 Republicans are running for a State Senate seat and no Democrats are in the race, then every voter in that district should be able to vote in the Republican primary - which is ordinarily only open to registered Republicans - because the primary will effectively decide the winner of the general election.
If only registered Republicans are allowed to vote in the example above, then Democrats and independent voters are disenfranchised along with folks who are registered with minor parties like the Greens or the Tea Party.
Although the intent seemed clear, and eminently fair, the actual language left just a bit of wiggle room.
If all candidates for an office have the same party affiliation and the winner will have no opposition in the general election, all qualified electors, regardless of party affiliation, may vote in the primary elections for that office.
The amendment passed in 1998. By 2000, a loophole was already being used to close primaries that should have been open to all registered voters. Several legislative races and at least one US House race were affected.
The write in loophole has affected only one US House race, the district 1 Republican primary between incumbent Joe Scarborough and Bob Condon, both of Pensacola. There are 4 write in candidates.
This is how it works: Back to the example cited above with 5 single party candidates in the race. If a candidate will benefit from disenfranchising two thirds of the electorate, all the candidate need do is produce a write-in candidate and VOILA! the primary is closed to all but the party faithful.
A write-in candidate can qualify for the ballot pretty easily.
A write-in candidate is not entitled to have his or her name printed on any ballot; however, a space for the write-in candidate’s name to be written in shall be provided on the general election ballot. A write-in candidate is not required to pay a qualifying fee, election assessment or party assessment, or file petitions(Section 99.061, Fla. Stat.)
And once a write-in candidate is “qualified,” then the general election will be "contested" and the primary is closed.
Of course, many voters thought that this loophole was unfair, and lawsuits have been fought to fix it. Florida courts have sided with the politicians in this fight.
In Lake County, a man who was registered as a Republican declared himself to be a write-in candidate for the Democrats in a county commissioner race. That step prevented 93,000 Democrats, independents and other non-Republicans from casting a ballot in the election.
But Hill said he could not - as the loophole's challengers wanted - make a judgment on a write-in candidate's intentions.
"Nothing in the Constitution authorizes this court or any other court to predict the degree of opposition a candidate will present or to determine whether a candidate's opposition is significant or even realistic," Hill wrote in his ruling.
The average margin of victory in the general election for these primary winners who take on a write-in candidate is 99.8 percent.
A spring study by the Florida Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections showed that, through 2006, a write-in had filed to run and thus "closed" a primary in a state legislative race 38 times since the advisory opinion was issued.
The average margin of victory over those write-in candidates was 99.8 percent. Seven times, write-in candidates did not even vote for themselves. The story is similar for many local races, as well.
Critics say this proves that many write-in candidates are just spoilers. They enter the race with no intention of campaigning, much less winning. They simply want to shut out non-party members from voting. Typically, the dominant party in a county uses the strategy when the other party cannot field a candidate with a chance of success.
Both Parties Do It Routinely
Both Democrats and Republicans have learned to love this loophole and to abuse it routinely.
Aronberg said both parties are guilty. In South Florida, it’s seen more often with Democrats, who are in the majority. Elsewhere in the state, it’s a common Republican practice.
Why won’t it change? "It’s hard to ask politicians who benefit from the system to change the system. This is something that the public a only finds out about every two years,"
That’s Dave Aronberg, one of this year’s Democratic Attorney General candidates. He’s been fighting to close this loophole since it was opened up in 2000. Sometimes it seems like he is the only politician in the state who actually cares about this issue. He’s championed lawsuits challenging the loophole and (From the same article:)
State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, introduces legislation every year to close the loophole. And every year he loses.
"It’s disgusting. It’s un-American. It’s un-democratic. It’s a manipulation of the process. And it will continue because the politicians use it to protect themselves," he said.
What’s more, it’s easy because the write-in candidate doesn’t pay a fee or collect petition signatures to get on the ballot.
The result, Aronberg said, every election season, the voters lose out. "In a matter of seconds, thousands of voters are disenfranchised."
The pols who abuse this loophole in the Florida Constitution and the write-in candidates who enable them are frequently so pleased with their cleverness that they don’t even try to hide their evil scheme.
Schlein, 60, a Leesburg Republican, said she declared as a write-in candidate in the race to prevent Democrats from voting in the Republican primary, which pitted two-term incumbent Jennifer Hill against challenger Jim Miller.
The loophole is manipulated easily. In 2004, Jean Enright had her mother file as a write-in candidate for the Port of Palm Beach commission seat she ultimately won. Two Pinellas County brothers have raised eyebrows in running - ostensibly against each other - for a seat on that county’s commission.
Democrat Manuel Press qualified as a write-in candidate to replace state Rep. Irving Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, in District 90. Press was on vacation Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Press and Harvey Arnold, who is running for the seat as a Democrat, belong to the United South County Democratic Club. Arnold, the club’s former president, has received support from local Democrats. Public records show Press’ spouse, Phyllis, another club member, donated $100 to the Arnold campaign.
Arnold denied encouraging Press to qualify as a write-in candidate, though he knew of Press’ plans several weeks ago, he said.
"I’m delighted Press is running so that Republicans won’t vote," he said.
In the race for the House District 86 seat formerly held by Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, homemaker Kathleen Faherty-Ruby of Delray Beach qualified to run as a write-in. A Republican, Faherty- Ruby said she was, paradoxically, running to give Republicans a choice in the election, even though her candidacy shut Republicans out of voting in the primary.
"I wanted to give Republicans a choice of writing in whoever they wanted to in the general election," she said. "Basically, I thought it was the right thing to do."
No one encouraged her to run, the mother of six boys said. She said she doesn’t necessarily want people to vote for her, just whomever they want to write in.
So, if you live in a district with a closed primary and you want to vote for your elected representative, you may have to make a strategic decision to change your party affiliation before the registration deadline on July 26. Then you can vote in the closed primary!
But even that wacky strategy will fail if you live in the area within Hillsborough County where County Commission District 3 and Senate District 12 overlap. In that case you can vote in either the District 3 County Commission race (if you are a registered Democrat) or, for Republicans, the District 12 State Senate race, but not both. Independents wont get to vote in either race.
In Florida, we call this democracy.
Disclaimer: Dave Aronberg is taking on fellow Democrat Dan Gelber for the right to face the Republican nominee for Florida Attorney General in November. I like both Democratic candidates. As of now I am undecided on this race and I will enthusiastically support whichever candidate ultimately prevails. I am writing about the loophole because it is in the news today, not to give props to Dave Aronberg. Having said that, it is impossible to write about this issue without mentioning Aronberg and giving him credit for fighting to fix this mess.
UPDATE: From the comments - Did you notice the Hill-Hill connection? Commissioner Jennifer Hill and Judge Mark Hill are married.