When you are a permanent minority party on the state level I suppose Sayre’s Law is at play. “”In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.”
The stakes around Florida Democratic Party disputes are in the bigger picture minimal (unless you are speaking specifically about the consulting fees for entrenched political operatives) but yet political professionals act as if the world is caving in whenever we have situations like flared up this week. In reality all it shows is a party that cannot win elections has reduced itself to petty, personal disputes related to political fiefdoms which mean little in the larger scheme of things.
In case you missed the news, House Democratic Leader designee Darryl Rouson did something that was, well beyond odd for a party leader particularly a Democrat. He started a “leadership fund” or what really should be called a leadership slush fund. For years these were banned in Florida due to abuses in the 1970s by legislative Democrats who were then a super-majority party in both houses of the Legislature. At the time Florida was among the most corrupt states in the country, a dubious distinction that has now returned under Republican leadership.
I for one cannot understand Rouson’s desire to start a “leadership PAC” or an Affiliated Party Committee (APC) as they are officially known unless he was trying to hide things from the party. Then again, given the party’s track record of losing elections, perhaps he has good reason to want to stash money elsewhere. Still this is the type of committee and politics progressives cannot and should not support under any circumstance. When APC’s were brought back into Florida’s campaign finance setup by the majority Republicans in 2010, Governor Crist vetoed it. However the next year the veto was overridden after the GOP picked up five House seats and two Senate seats in the 2010 election. In both cases Rouson voted the right way.
APC’s are potentially sleazy entities that have no place in politics. Lobbyists and political insiders may find no problem with these committees but political parties and more importantly those in favor of good government certainly do.
FDP Chairwoman Allison Tant and current Democratic Leader Perry Thurston rightly called Rouson to the carpet when this was discovered earlier in the week. However what happened next reflects the immaturity and pettiness of many in the Florida Democratic Party and was far from the Chairwoman’s finest moments.
Chairwoman Tant sent a letter to House Democrats informing them of this committee. That was a move I am not sure I agree with but I can understand her outrage at discovering this entity. Additionally, House Democrats began dealing with this and somehow it became a press story, being leaked first to the Florida Times-Union and then to other papers. It is unforgivable that matters like this would leak and it demonstrates that some Democrats are more interested in turf battles and settling petty grudges then moving the party forward. It is also stunning that this would happen right in the middle of a critical special election in House District 36, where the Democrats have a very good shot of winning.
On Thursday, Tant fired Chris Mitchell and Jeff Ryan from House Victory. As for Mitchell, perhaps he wasn’t the best qualified person for the job but his firing appears to be the settling of a political score because he helped lead Alan Clendenin’s campaign against Tant for party chair. Though, this does give Tant the opportunity to hire someone with more experience than Mitchell, though hopefully she won’t rely on the same consultants who make money off the party while losing race after race for the recommendation of a replacement.
But Mitchell’s firing isn’t the real issue it is the firing of Ryan which simply makes it that much more difficult for House Democrats to compete in the business of raising Tallahassee based money. Ryan has been the primary fundraiser for House Democrats since 1998. In that period of time he has somehow been able to raise money for a caucus that has no chance of regaining the chamber. He’s worked hard to maintain relationships and a fundraising infrastructure while the rest of the party collapsed around him.
Yet, for something that Darryl Rouson did, Jeff Ryan took a fall. I do understand many do not sympathize with the “just following orders” defense so many give, but in Ryan’s case I bet his involvement in this was simply that. Given that so many people involved in the Democratic Party have no link to the past, no institutional memory and no context/perspective on current happenings, the firing of Ryan is completely irresponsible.
Few Democrats left in Tallahassee have Ryan’s experience and depth of knowledge. He was able to successfully maintain a party fundraising apparatus despite the tumult of the last decade including bad leadership, problems with the party itself and all the petty, small-stakes gamesmanship that happens within Democratic ranks in Florida. Yet the party continues to employ as consultants people who have continuously lost elections.
Ryan’s sacking smacks of an overreaction by Chairwoman Tant and her allies. Mitchell’s firing looks like the settling of a petty political grudge. Allison Tant is absolutely correct to be unhappy with Darryl Rouson, but her firing of the staff was a melodramatic way to try and rectify something that should have been handled tactfully and with kid gloves.
By handling it this way, Tant has allowed the petty grudges that have torn the party apart to grow even deeper while driving off someone of Ryan’s remarkable experience. It’s a lose-lose for a party that continues to do nothing but lose on the state level.
The Florida Squeeze 
This def reads like an outsider’s perspective on the whole matter. Arceneaux has been trying to fire Ryan for years. He goes through the motions and makes quite a bit of money doing it. Maybe its time for some new blood in HV but I agree, the way this was handled was totally irresponsible. Especially the timing.
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House Victory had a fundraiser for Amanda Murphy in Tallahassee last week. They only managed to get two people to the event: Darryl Rouson and Allison Tant. Maybe that also explains the firings.
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It doesn’t seem to matter what county, it’s all the same…..the party needs leadership skills, why the disregard of Nan Rich, an announced candidate at the JJ dinner….. they are so desperate to win with name recognition…..guess they figure most folks have amnesia anyway…..it was decided that Crist could beat Scott…….unfortunately, it’s a ONE party system with two names reality…….with lobbyist and corporations calling the plays…..
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disagree on Ryan agree on the rest. No one covered themselves in glory here.
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Christian should be fired too. The state party is a joke. This is the least of their problems. Ask Tant how she is doing with the Crist situation. You better be careful what you wish for.
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If Tant weren’t so petty and incompetent Kartik, Rouson never would had to form the type of committee you decry! Your article makes sense if you are taking Tant and Thurston at their words as honest people but they are trying to have Christian Ulvert who I believe you are making veiled references to control everything. You should be dead set against that!
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As bad as things are Tant made things worse. She inherited a mess but made it wirse and she has none of the leadership skills nor humility required to conduct the job properly. She has no perspective, No plan, has proven not to be able to raise money and is just a petty bitter woman.
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Rouson is one disaster after another. A former Republican whose own past is not one of a progressive, a person determined to buck the party he wants to lead and someone not interested in maintaining Democratic values.
I say this despite HATING Tant.
They both should go.
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[…] ← Florida Democrats dysfunction reaching embarrassing levels […]
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🙂
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The House memebers not supporting Rouson are pawns of status quo. Allison Tant and her unprofessional staff are are floundering. They use House money has their private slush fund, redirecting it to where ever they please.
BIG WINNERS…. Christian Ulhvert will continue to line his pockets. Florida GOP will use the disjunction and take out a few 2012 Democratic gains.
BIG LOOSERS…. Democrats looking for a directional change for the party. Members of the Florida House, there will be a lot less of them in 2014 due to Allison Tant’ incompetence.
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Dude, I get your point but you always misspell LOSERS. Stop it please. Its hurting everyone’s eyes.
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Guys I have voted “yes” to remove Rouson and feel he is a disaster. But the problem here is the factionalism. Tant, Ulvert and the consultants Kartik and Trotter previously always take veiled shots at HAVE TO GO ALSO.
Rouson is scum and his baggage and idiotic behavior including this committee have given Tant and her allies a stick to hit all of Clendenin’s people with. If Alan were smart at this point he would clearly come out and say Rouson has made countless mistakes and needs to go but Tant was dead wrong in how she has handled everything for six months. Announce now he is seeking a recall of Tant and will run again if she is recalled.
We have two “leaders” Tant and Rouson both completely unqualified to do the jobs they were selected to do, encouraged by territorial, petty, know-nothing hanger ons like Ulvert and Mitchell/Edwards and thus we have a disaster.
Neither had covered themselves in glory as Kartik’s initial post said. BOTH are dead wrong. BOTH have violated the trust of the party. Just because they are on opposite sides does not mean we need to take one side or another. Get rid of both. We need to burn this house down to save it. That is if it can be saved. The Democratic Party is such a total #%%#^#%@!!$!@%^!
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I agree 100 % with Kartik that Jeff Ryan’s firing of longtime loyal and successful Democrstic fundraiser shows the stupidity and immaturity of Allison Tant(rum) to fire a class act in retaliation to settle a political score against former opponent Alan Clendenin and his friends and allies…Darryl Rouson and Clendenin’s campaign manager for FDP Chair Chris Mitchell…and the real behind the scenes scum former Republican consultant and Rouson confidant Barry Edwards who really hired Chris Mitchell.
Allison’s inability to raise any money against the Republicans (she is getting creamed by the Republicans almost 4 to 1 in the latest reports) now that she just fired the best fundraiser that House Victory and the FDP had, just got even worse.
The issues here are harder to spot but really need addressing with the disaster that is going on at the FDP…but the reality is that Tant has been a disaster from day one that started because the stupid sheep of committee men and women who switched their votes from Alan Clendenin who rightfully would have cleaned out the scum and rats of Christian Ukvert and Scott Arceneux out of the disasterous losses they and their loosing consultant buddies have orchestrated for the majority of us registered Democrats. Those two idiots found their puppet in Allison Tant who never set foot in a local DEC and became Chair of Leon County overnight. Then they simultaneously strong armed Debbie Wasserman Shultz and Sen Bill Nelson’s staff to also bully these DEC committeemen and women to vote for Tant…all over two monkies who were scared of loosing their jibs and who should have lost their jobs long ago .
So the three Stooges, Tant, Ulvert and Arcenesux, give us their first blockbuster disaster…the great Democratic CFO candidate that will run the finances of the State of Florida…who has filed for bankruptcies several times and who can’t balance his own checkbook to run the finances of the State? Really? Allison Tant your an idiot!
That Tant disaster lasted 72 hours before the candidate who signed up quit…but the stench of the dead rat still remains…and we Democrats are stuck with the cleanup.
So, after all that, the question remains, did Rousoun do wrong and should he and HIS staff go?
Well what Rousoun did WAS wrong…and he knew better. He has a scumbag advisor too in former fellow Republican operative and consultant in Barry Edwards with a sordid past. And Barry staffed House Victory with his completely unqualified and inexperienced “consultant buddies” in Chris Mitchell and his former business partner Nick Janousky and together they have scammed tens of thousands of dollars out of a broke Democratic Party according to FDP finance reports at the Division of Elections.
Thus the real reason for opening the seperate formally banned and illegal Leadership “Slush” Fund emerges…the two fighting forces within the Democratic Party…Rousoun, Edwards and Mitchell didn’t want Tant, Ulvert and Arceneaux to have any control or access to House Victory and their money and who they hire and pay like Nick Janousky (isn’t that what Jim Greer in in jail for doing with the Repiblicans?…)
Well round one in the fight…ring…proves that old adage that whoever controls the checkbook…controls the power! And Tant(trum) with the puppet string pullers Ulvert and Arceneaux laughing right behind her) finds her (their) excuse to exert her power over who signs the checks.
And therefore “Boss Hog” Tant(rum), with her two Stooges “Curley and Moe”
I mean Ulvert and Arceneaux go and fire the entire House Victory staff….wow..now that’ll show you whose boss!!
Sadly caught up in this stupid mess is the longest serving good (a rarity) loyal servant if the State Democratic Party, Jeff Ryan, who was head of the fundraising arm of House Victory.
As a subplot here, Rousoun won his leadership position vote by the skin if his teeth (like Tant(rum) did hers) and the sub “Court Jesters” here are Edwards and Mitchell for Rousoun and Ulvert and Arceneaux (and Tant(rum)) for Mia Jones (who can’t raise miney and couldn’t fight her way our of a paper bag) who lost her election against Rouson for Minority Leader.
So in summary, if Darryl Rousoun goes…and that’s a a real possibility if there is a recall election for Democratic Minority Leader..then Allisin Tant(rum) DEFINATELY MUST GO TOO!!!
And we can bring Alan Clendenin back or some other leader to be a real Chair who has vowed to clean house of the loosing scum, rats and loosing consultants at the FDP and start over with a clean slate and get our party back with new leaders to defend the seats we have and win some seats that we have a shot at winning….starting with a new Democratic Governor at the head of the ticket!!
But this time we have to take our time and do it right. Because we have to be careful of what we wish for.
Because lurking out there are equally incompetent “leaders” and “consultants” who are waiting for this opportunity to get their foot in the door and they can be equally as bad as the bums we just kicked out!
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The article and nearly all the comments posted are the REASONS Democrats in this state continue to lose elections!!
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[…] From the Tampa Bay Times. My views on this subject are well known but in case it was forgotten. […]
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