Three's a crowd in '14 House Democratic leader race

A third Democrat in the Florida House has declared his candidacy for the post of minority leader for the 2014-2016 cycle.

Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, entered the fray Thursday, joining Reps. Darryl Rouson of St. Petersburg and Mia Jones of Jacksonville. All three are in the running to succeed Rep. Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, after the 2014 election.

The choice will be made by a secret ballot by the 44 members of the House Democratic Caucus, more than half of whom (24) are freshmen who were just elected to the Legislature and barely know the candidates seeking to lead their caucus.

Williams, 37, has an M.B.A. from Florida A&M University and is a marketing consultant. He was first elected to the House in 2008.

-- Steve Bousquet

Miami-Dade Dems choose first Latina chair, Annette Taddeo-Goldstein

In Florida's largest and most-Hispanic county, the largest political party has finally managed to choose a leader who's "Latina," according to the following press release:

Miami, FL — Annette Taddeo-Goldstein has made history by being elected the first Latina chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee (DEC) at the December 3rd DEC organizational meeting. She will be replacing Richard Lydecker.

Smith, Thurston take over as Democratic leaders at Capitol

In separate ceremonies in the historic Old Capitol Monday, Senate and House Democrats elected their leaders for the new term: Sen. Chris Smith and Rep. Perry Thurston, both of Fort Lauderdale.

Senate President-designate Don Gaetz and other GOP senators were on hand for the late afternoon event, and two busloads of community activists made the seven-hour trip from Broward County to witness the ceremonies. 

Smith, a lawyer, was elected to the House in 1998 and the Senate in 2008. He listed three priorities: improving Florida's schools, implementing President Obama's health care act and reducing the burden of high property insurance premiums on homeowners. His reference to Obamacare brought loud cheers from the audience.

"The election is over," Smith said, referring to Obamacare. "The issue has been deliberated, debated, litigated and procrastinated. Now it is time to be implemented."

Smith leads a 14-member Senate Democratic Caucus, following the party's pickup of two seats in the recent election. The bow-tied senator joked proudly about the presence of his hometown cheering section which he called the "Sistrunk Mafia," a reference to the historic boulevard that runs through the heart of the Fort Lauderdale African-American community.

-- Steve Bousquet  

Dems to Scott: Stop meddling

Democrats charged Friday that Gov. Rick Scott is meddling in the U.S. Congressional race between Patrick Murphy and Republican Allen West.

 A judge denied a demand by West, the tea party-based incumbent, for a recount of early voting ballots in St. Lucie County, which makes up the 19th Congressional District along with parts of Palm Beach and Martin counties. Murphy led West by 1,907 votes. Earlier in the week, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent a three-member team to audit the results, according to news reports.

That prompted Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, to issue a statement.

“In a clear effort to overturn an election result after having lost at the ballot box, Allen West has now run to Governor Rick Scott to needlessly interfere with and politicize a non-partisan election process.

"All votes in this election were counted fairly and accurately, and Allen West has lost beyond the mandatory recount range. Having Governor Scott intervene is outrageous and inappropriate. After disenfranchising Florida voters by cutting down early voting days and creating extraordinarily long lines at the polls, Governor Scott is now trying to blatantly overturn an election result he disagreed with and undermine Gertrude Walker, a three-decade veteran of the St. Lucie County Supervisor of Elections office. Governor Scott needs to remove himself from this process immediately."

That led Chris Cate, the spokesman for Detzner, to issue a response.

Claims that there is any interference by the state in this election are wholly inaccurate and unhelpful to the voters who need to know their votes have been counted accurately. We have a responsibility to ensure Florida’s election laws are interpreted and enforced properly, and our involvement in St. Lucie County has only been observational with the purpose of protecting the voice of the voters and ensuring fair elections were conducted in all of the St. Lucie County races, not just the highest profile contests.

 

Scott Randolph drops out of race to become Dem Party chair

Orange County Democratic Party Chair Scott Randolph announced Friday that he will withdraw from the race to become chairman of the Florida Democratic Party after his surprise race and subsequent election as Orange County Tax Collector.

Randolph, a state legislator from Orlando who retired because of term limits, entered the race for Orange County Tax Collector at the last minute after its long-time incumbnet, Earl K. Wood, died three weeks before the election at the age of 96.

Randolph's withdrawal now leaves Annette Tadeo of Miami and  Alan Clendenin of Hillsborough County left in the race for party chairman. 

Here's Randolph's statement: 

Dorworth, potential future House Speaker, loses a shocker in razor-thin Central Florida race

The projected future Speaker of the Florida House, Rep. Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary, is in the fight of his life to hold on to his seat—a stunning development for one of the most powerful legislators in the state.

In House District 29, Dorworth was losing by 37 votes out of 73,461 cast as of 12:30 a.m., a less than 0.1% lead for Democratic challenger Mike Clelland. The 50.03 to 49.97 percent race is within the recount margin and 100 percent of precincts in Seminole County have reported results. 

The outcome is surprising because Dorworth was one of the Legislature’s most prolific fundraisers, raking in more than $1 million dollars for his campaign and through his committees. Clelland has only raised about $70,000 in donations to his campaign.

Given Dorworth’s powerful position—he was recently picked to become the House Majority Leader this year--the race was a sleeper, and was not listed among many lists of competitive races. 

The Democratic party used mailers to try and paint Dorworth as an irresponsible politician whose finances were in shambles. Media pieces and columns highlighted Dorworth’s financial problems and questioned whether he was fit to be a leader in the Republican Party.

Dorworth poured $300,000 into a late advertising blitz aimed at helping carry him over the finish line.

But Democrats also stepped up their spending in the final weeks of the race, perhaps smelling blood. 

The race is so close that it could be several weeks before voters—and a wide swath of donors who pumped cash into Dorworth’s robust political committee--know the final outcome.

It could come down to a manual recount, and there could certainly be legal challenges.

Dorworth was scheduled to become House Speaker in 2014.

Stay tuned…

Another presidential race, another Palm Beach County recount

It's a ballot recount in a tight presidential race that invites easy comparisons to the electoral crisis of 2000.

About 27,000 absentee ballots can't be digitally scanned because of a recently discovered design flaw. Elections workers began Monday duplicating the markings from bad ballots to new ones so that the votes could be recorded, an effort that has led some to question the accuracy of results.

And it's all happening in Palm Beach County.

"By now, questions can be asked about why these type of problems keep happening in this one county," said Ed Foley, an Ohio Sate University law professor and expert on election law.

But Foley and other elections experts say that unlike the butterfly ballot and hanging chads of the infamous Bush-Gore voting 12 years ago, this year's mishap with Palm Beach absentee ballots probably won't sway an entire national election.

"There are no perfect elections and glitches happen," Foley said. "In this case, they caught it in time and set up a pretty good review process that's transparent and is probably the best one possible."

FL Dems crushing Republicans in voter registration

From a Florida Democratic Party email:

FL Dems announced that we out-registered Republicans in September by 16 points, marking the 8th consecutive month that Dems have beat the GOP in voter registration. More information and a copy of the e-blast below:

BY THE NUMBERS:

September is the 8th consecutive month that Democrats have out-registered Republicans.

Democrats registered 18,063 more voters than Republicans in September, beating the Republicans by 16-percent.

In September, Democrats had a nearly 30-percent registration advantage with Hispanics. Overall, Democrats are beating Republicans in Hispanic registration by roughly 10-points.

In September, Democrats had a 21-percent registration advantage with women. Overall, Democrats are beating Republicans in women registration by roughly 10-points. I wanted you to be the first to hear some very exciting news.

Florida's September voter registration data shows Democrats' most impressive month yet: we've out-registered the GOP in Florida by over 16-percent in September, with over 43,000 new Democrats on the rolls.

Florida Democrats have built the strongest, largest ground game this state has ever seen — we are entering the final month in a strong position to win Democratic victories up and down the ticket.

Thank you for your handwork and support. We've got 29 days to bring it home and we can't let up now.

Scott Arceneaux

FL Republicans crushing Dems in campaign money

From The News Service of Florida's Jim Saunders:

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, October 8, 2012.......With less than a month before Election Day, new campaign-finance reports show Republican legislative candidates often dominating the money game against their Democratic opponents.

In some races, the state Republican Party poured tens of thousands of dollars of cash into House candidates' campaigns during a two-week period in September --- even into races that have drawn relatively little attention. In other instances, GOP candidates simply scooped up more contributions than their Democratic counterparts.

The biggest fund-raiser among House candidates between Sept. 15 and Sept. 28 was Rep. Scott Plakon, a Longwood Republican who faces a tough challenge in District 30 from Maitland Democrat Karen Castor Dentel.

Florida Democratic Party, two liberal groups accused in mysterious complaints of voter-registration fraud

The Florida Democratic Party and two liberal groups have been accused of voter-registration fraud, according to the Florida Department of state, which is not releasing the complaints to the public.

The department has forwarded the complaints against the Democrats, the Florida New Majority Education Fund and La Raza/Democracia USA to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

FDLE is already investigating he Strategic Allied Consulting firm hired by the Republican Party to conduct voter-registration activities in Florida and other states. About 10 county elections supervisors have voiced concerns about the registrations collected by Strategic Allied Consulting, which has since been fired.

Neither agency would comment on the extent of the new allegations or how many voter registration forms it involves.

One of the new complaints was filed in Republican-heavy Lee County, Supervisor of Elections Sharon Harrington confirmed to the Associated Press. She refused to answer any other questions.

Three La Raza-linked registration cards were flagged as suspect last month by Miami-Dade's election department. La Raza said in a statement that at least two of those three forms (all involving the same family members) appear to have been processed.

Miami-Dade's elections office also found five suspect Republican-paid registrations.

The Democratic Party, which has recently been gloating about the misfortunes of the Republican Party, found the timing of the recent complaint suspicious.

“We have no information to suggest that any of our volunteers registered a person known to be ineligible," spokeswoman Brannon Jordan said. "Our volunteers go through a rigorous and extensive training process to ensure they comply with all laws when registering voters. We will continue to take every step to abide by every applicable rule and regulation."

Update: The New Majority Fund responds: "To date Florida New Majority Education Fund has not been contacted by any state official regarding our voter registration program. We stand ready to assist with any inquiries, should they come. Florida New Majority Education Fund has rigorous quality control processes in place to ensure our registrations are fully compliant with all applicable laws. We have registered nearly 10,000 new Florida voters. We will continue to push forward with our efforts through the October 9 voter registration deadline."

La Raza responds: "At this time, NCLR has not been notified of this allegation by the Florida Department of State or any other state agency involved in this process.  NCLR is both deeply concerned and frustrated that the Department of State saw fit to send this email message after their offices were closed for the day, and on the eve of a holiday weekend, thereby depriving NCLR of the opportunity to request additional information, determine the specific issue, and get to the bottom of the situation."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.