Florida Democrats prove once again they cannot win a big race in an area trending Democratic but traditionally Republican. Certainly more excuses will come from Florida Democrats who are disappointed by this result, but have long made a career of justifying unacceptable election results in winnable legislative and congressional seats. The polling was off the mark in this seat but congratulations to our friend Peter Schorsch at Saint Petersblog who nailed the trends over the past few weeks and the result. Â Much more on this election shortly.
CD-13 Special Election: Jolly defeats Sink and conventional wisdom
Florida History Podcast
The Florida Squeeze 
Would it be at all possible to get Maddow, Schultz, or Chris Hayes to do a piece on how inept the FL Dems are relative to other state parties? We need some major help!!!
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In the purplest of purple states the Republicans have a built in advantage b/c of the FDP’s ineptness. That should be a national story.
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What a political coup this is!!! Unfortunately, it’s a Republican coup. WHAT must rank and file Democrats do to make an impact on the establishment Party? There are dedicated volunteers contributing a great percentage of their disposable income, most of their free time, and large chunks of their hearts, to try and change the political climate in Florida. All to no avail. The “establishment” makes decisions based on their own political futures…and good candidates are left in the dust.. Victims of a “Good Old Boy” network.
Alex Sink is a smart woman. I am sorry that she will not be serving in Congress. Once again, we’ve lived up to our name, Floriduh.
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Now is the time for all good democrats to replace Alison Tant.
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Jolly was a WEAK candidate the GOP did not want.
Honestly sink would’ve won if Campaign campaign were not so ineptly run by the FDP operatives.
I know everyone will say she’s a terrible candidate. But this race was lost by the operatives.
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Sink actually was good this go-round. Disciplined and on message.
The FDP mail and OFA ground game f’d up BIG TIME.
It is on them and not on her.
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Yes, you can stay “on message”, but if the message was wrong in the first place, what is the point? Special elections are determined by ideology, not partisanship. Her move to the middle and “bipartisanship” made her a candidate with no real “message” whatsoever.
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The excuses from the FDP start in 3.. 2..1…
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This should be known as Tant’s last stand. All the dopey kids working for the party drinking the kool aid getting ambushed by REALITY!
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If you think Tant and the FDP run Congressional campaigns, you are clueless about how the party works.
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The DCCC and DNC bear a lot of the blame but so does Tant and the FDP who sent half the staff to work the race and controlled the vendor side of the campaign. Same Dem vendors, same results.
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And if you think the DCCC has 100% control of Congressional campaigns, there is enough clueless blame to spread. Honestly, your constant defense of Tant in the face of multiple problems during his time in office is staggering! If Tant told you to jump off a bridge….
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Her time. Oops…ready to hear about this one!
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This is a HUGE loss for Democrats in a district that Obama won twice. Dems had their hand-picked candidate who had universal name recognition running against an unknown Republican lobbyist who just won the primary 45 days ago. Another big thanks to obamacare! I can’t wait until Nov. Say hello to majority leader McConnell! We suck!
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In order to know who really won, we need to hand count the paper ballots. We accept the tabulating results of computers owned by private Republican companies. Why we are not allowed to count the paper ballots to check the computer results?
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The Dems should be quaking in their boots. They won’t admit it but they spent huge money on this election,substantially out spent Jolly and even brought in Bill Clinton to campaign for her. Sink lost to a no name candidate. Jolly also had to deal with a supposed libertarian candidate who was taking away votes from his column.
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A Democrat-plant Libertarian won 5% — hence the 2% margin. The important % is the 46% received by the better known Democrat in a district that Obama won in 2008 and 2012. That’s a terrible showing.
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Wasserman-Shultz, just a week ago said, and I quote, “A victory for sink, all but assured according to our numbers, means a victory for those who embrace the ACA and believe it to be the best thing to happen to America since Social Security.”
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Oh where to begin…
Let’s start with the same message I’ve droned on about…. The Democratic Party uses the same old loosing political consultants that are masters and experts in one thing….loosing!!!
Ashley Walker was great tuning Obama’s Florida campaign….cause the boys in Chicago really ran the show!
Nick Janowsky…Political Director..really?? The guy who lost every race in Hillsborough County that he ran last…
And Alex Sink, with all her money, couldn’t buy a repo house somewhere in Largo or Seminole, instead of an apartment in Feather Sound..just for show?
An inept Tallahassee political team ran by Cheif Democratic Party Politicsl Consultant Christian Ulvert….another looser,
But “The Biggest Looser(s)”??…the Nancy Pelosi led DCCC Washington based political “gravy train” team of even bigger looser consultants (I know its hard to believe) than the inept group in Tallahassee.
Yes Alex, your not in Kansas…. I mean North Carolina… any more!
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