Democrats are on a remarkable losing streak in Florida when it comes to state elections. The Republicans have held at least 70 House seats and 25 Senate seats since the 1998 elections and since 2000 have won 13 of 14 races for Governor/Cabinet. Much of the recent focus of websites like this and activists around the state has been on former Governor Charlie Crist and his party switch. But this article is not about Charlie Crist but about Democrats at the legislative level who have substituted hard work and candidate recruitment with allowing party primaries or nominations to be controlled by those have no loyalty to the principles and platform of the party. This story is about Broward and Palm Beach counties, long the most Democratic large county legislative delegations.

Southeast Florida for various reasons tends to have the lowest turnout on primary day and that has empowered some “power brokers” in local Dem clubs as well as activists who consider personality and access to elected officials more important than ideology or competence. For years we have seen this as elected Democrats have no loyalty whatsoever to the ideology of the party and the talking points they spout out at local Democratic clubs are difficult to reconcile with votes cast in Tallahassee. Furthermore, a growing number of former Republicans are running as Democrats and gaining partisan support in the area.

Katie Edwards has gotten a remarkable amount of abuse from progressives over the past week. I strongly opposed Ms. Edwards candidacy and supported her opponent, a good progressive Louis Reinstein last year because I had followed her actions and words when working for the Farm Bureau, lobbying in Tallahassee and as a candidate in 2010 in a more conservative part of southeast Florida (SW Miami-Dade County). Yet Edwards was embraced by many progressives who now are pouring scorn on her. But considering she was the only Democratic candidate for State House in the entire state to earn an “A” rating from the NRA, and spoke openly about being a “fiscal conservative and social moderate” it is not her fault but that of local Democrats that she won the primary easily. Edwards is acting in Tallahassee exactly as she had promised she had, if the Democrats who value access over ideology had bothered to pay attention. Critiques of her after the fact simply are not fair because she is conducting herself in office just as she had promised to and just as she did before being elected. The extreme disappointment in her is the fault of those who did not pay attention to her words and actions in the past. As for me, she is voting and acting exactly as I had expected and certainly how those who backed her financially expected.

Now take Rick Stark who bested an excellent Democratic woman, Robin Behrman in a primary. Stark was a longtime Republican activist locally even serving as an officer of the Broward County Republican Executive Committee until recently. His party switch in 2010 seemed entirely based on his desire to seek an open or redrawn House seat in the 2012 reapportionment year. Getting elected as a Republican in Broward County is difficult and Stark had been on the front-lines helping the GOP over the previous decade so he knew how difficult it would be. Stark’s party switch was embraced by several activists and party leaders and I was even told by some that he had “genuinely changed.”

A simple question should have been asked directly to the Democratic club leaders and activists who supported Stark. Do you really believe that Rick Stark would have become a Democrat if it was not convenient for him to do so locally? Stark is sure to cast some horrible votes in Tallahassee but those who value access and being on a “winning team” over competence and ideology do not have a leg to stand on when he stops towing the party line.

No Democrat stepped forward in an open seat to challenge Jared Moskowitz, a Parkland Commissioner and son of Broward State Committeeman from 2000 to 2012 and thus Moskowitz has voted erratically since getting elected, and is also getting criticized by activists. But again I questioned him based on following his words and actions and prevented the Political Hurricane from issuing an endorsement for him because he is not a progressive. The same area is represented in the State Senate by Jeremy Ring who could be the single least reliable Democratic vote in either legislative chamber. Yet his district gave both Alex Sink & President Obama huge majorities in recent elections. Ring hasn’t been called to the carpet by local Democrats and thus can you really blame him for continuing to vote in the manner he does? (As an aside I have been the one called to the carpet by several people locally for having the audacity to criticize Ring for his unacceptable voting record)

Palm Beach County has had its share of Democrats who say one thing locally and vote another way as well. I could write a whole novel on disloyal Democrats from that county so I will save it for another day, but it fits this well developed pattern. Low turnout primaries in a reliably Democratic part of the state continue to be dominating by party insiders or activists who fail to do homework on the candidates. The area is also attracting lower caliber Democrats to run for office than Central Florida, where one must work hard, and build a real infrastructure to be successful as a Democratic candidate in a truly competitive environment.

How does this impact the failure of the Democrats to build a majority in the state? When you have representatives from your most liberal areas who don’t advocate forcefully the values of your party, it is impossible to build a real statewide infrastructure. When it comes to repeated failures statewide for the Democrats, Southeast Florida must bear its share of the responsibility because it is the members from liberal southeast Florida who in many cases don’t stand as tall as needed on progressive issues thus allowing the caucus and the party to not take an appropriate stand on what really matters to Floridians. It is these same members who have contributed to allowing the lines between the parties to become so blurred that someone like Charlie Crist can easily walk into the Democratic Party and have the level of support he currently enjoys.

Small wonder Broward and Palm Beach county elected officials routinely backed the most “electable” candidates in Democratic primaries for Governor against the will of their constituents. Rick Dantzler was backed by many over Buddy MacKay in 1998, Bill McBride over Janet Reno in 2002 (Reno crushed McBride in both counties despite the hostility of many local officials and party officers, Rod Smith over Jim Davis in 2006 (though this one was more mixed, and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schutlz strongly backed Davis, helping him win Broward) and evidently Charlie Crist over Nan Rich in 2014 even though the later represented Broward County in the Legislature for 12 years.

Several progressives from central and north Florida have asked me in the last week how the Crist conversion could happen and be so easily accepted. Just look at Broward and Palm Beach counties for your answer. It is impossible for the Democrats to be a real values based party if we cannot even right our own ship and use our nomination process to select those who actually represent our views and our way of thinking. Before blaming elected officials for going rouge, SE Florida Democrats must look at themselves in the mirror.