We spilled lots of proverbial ink on Orange County’s Vote Local effort including guest columns by Stephanie Porta and Debbie Simmons . The effort culminated with a remarkable increase in early and absentee turnout for the August 26th elections. Overall turnout increased by over 33%, while turnout among Democrats increased by 63%. This owes itself not only to the Vote Local effort but also to the stronger organization of the local Democratic Party and the strong progressive infrastructure that has been developed in the county.
The strong effort gave the Earned Sick Time initiative which TFS supported a big victory in addition to carrying several progressive candidates either to victory or into November runoffs. This was a remarkable spike in turnout when one considers no contentious county Mayor race was on the ballot, nor a competitive Gubernatorial Primary (Republican) or Democratic US Senate Primary featuring a well-known African-American lawmaker (Kendrick Meek) like in 2010.
Orange County activists have proven having a two year plan and ongoing grassroots efforts can pay off in a big way. Congratulations to everyone at the local level that helped make this happen.
The Florida Squeeze 
The Orange County Democratic Party is mostly responsible. Vote Local was a nice effort with good results but the long standing permanent campaign lmode of the OCDEC has made most of the impact.
Justin Snyder’s tweet about the FDP needing to replicate these efforts was totally un called for. Justin is completely ignorant to the field efforts of the paftyand the amount of field staff the party has taken on.
Kartik and Katy are well aware of ghe massive FDP efforts. Why don’t they enlighten their collegue? His tweets and facebook rants are an embarrasment quite honestly guys.
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Vote Local was hitting 3500 doors a day for months before the “primary” election. I’m a member of the OCDEC, and it’s a fantastic organization that’s getting better all the time. But the DEC just doesn’t have the bandwidth to match 3500 doors a day. Was there a DEC-FDP GOTV effort that we don’t know about as members? I thought this was a nice commentary that included everyone’s efforts. With everyone working to GOTV we’ll hopefully see more victories like this.
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Vote Local was hitting 3500 doors a day for months before the “primary” election. I’m a member of the OCDEC, and it’s a fantastic organization that’s getting better all the time. But the DEC just doesn’t have the bandwidth to knock 3500 doors a day.
Kartik did a nice job of spreading the plaudits around. Increasing turnout to this extent required grassroots as well as party support — why not give credit where it’s due?
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Hope thus carries over to the fall!
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Really good news about the increases. I think things are falling in place there though Crist continues to be weak.
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Honestly getting things like sick time passed iis probably more critical then electing Charlie Crist. Just my view.
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You’ve got to be kidding. If Rick Scott is re-elected and doesn’t need to face voters again, there’s no telling the amount of damage done by the Republican legislator without fear of a veto.
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Susan, some people actually care about issues and working folks. It is not just about party and social issues.
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Why vote between 2 known liars? Florida, we are fortunate enough not to
be stuck picking one liar or the other this time. We actually have an
alternative. Take advantage of the opportunity. Adrian Wyllie deserves
my vote. He is a honest average Floridian just as you and I , that is
willing to stand up and do something for the interest of all of us here
in Florida. The other candidates both Republican and Democrat are owned
and controlled by special interest, like puppets and will lie to your
face to gain your vote, then continue the same old agenda that we
complain about year after year. Time to get off this merry-go-round,
election after election, thinking it will be any different. Take a
stand, vote for the candidate that loves this state and is willing to
take time out of his life, effort and money to SERVE the people of
Florida and stop voting for these ‘paid for’ career politicians that are
only out for money and fame and have zero interest in us Floridians.
Even if it’s just for honesty alone, vote for Adrian Wyllie instead of
the other two (Scott/Crist) which are proven liars. The choice is yours
and yours alone, if you want the same old corruption and slap in the
face, go ahead and vote for one of the two puppets (Scott/Crist) OR do
what is right for our (yours and your children’s) future and vote for
Adrian Wyllie. Support him by donating to his campaign, spreading the
word and contribute to the super brochure program which I think is very
powerful. Visit his website today
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[…] fingerprints were all over the effort to kill Earned Sick Time. Last month, Orange County voters overwhelmingly voted in in favor of Earned Sick Time. Sick time now has passed in Orange County but think about the lives of […]
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