Over the last two days reports have been circulating that Rep. Dwayne Taylor (D-Daytona Beach) plans to challenge House Democratic Leader-Designate Mark Pafford (D-West Palm Beach) before or at the organizational session on November 18th. Taylor has been backed by a faction of dissidents, led by Rep. Darryl Rouson, who seem to have been more concerned with exploiting Democratic losses in the recent election than actually helping endangered Democratic incumbents survive the national tidal wave.
Taylor now claims to have the votes to become the next Democratic Leader. What’s wrong with this? Everything.
We’ve already learned the dissidents have a problem with math. In 2013, Darryl Rouson’s camp claimed he had 30 votes but he ended up with 23. This same group of dissidents rallied behind Taylor towards the end of legislative session and believed they had the votes to overhaul Pafford – they didn’t and were not even close.
Let’s review some other facts about this situation:
This past cycle the House Democratic Caucus raised more cash for incumbent protection and new seats than in the previous two cycles. Technology was embraced as a fundraising tool and the attempt to cultivate new donors beyond simply a handful of transactional Tallahassee-based lobbyists was made. Simply put, under Mark Pafford attempts were made to finally identify and reach out to Democratic donors that give to national and state campaigns but never give to Democratic legislative committees. This effort threatens the comfort zone and livelihood of many who back the Rouson faction – corporate lobbyists, insurance lobbyists, private school voucher advocates, and those who benefit from seeing the Democrats in a permanent minority status as a value-free party.
The previous regimes that ran the caucus employed a very backward and Tallahassee-oriented fundraising approach. The team which Pafford has hired at House Victory tend to be long-term thinkers, embracing technology, running numbers in a creative and results-oriented way, and identifying longer range goals than the constant cycle-to-cycle crisis mode under which House Victory previously operated.
Democrats lost six House seats on Tuesday in the midst of a national tide. That’s not good, but unlike the 2004 cycle when every hotly-contested seat ended in blowout Democratic loss and an embarrassingly low 36 members in the caucus, every race save one was highly competitive. In 2004, Chris Smith the Leader-Designate was not challenged in the caucus. After massive loses in 2010, Ron Saunders was not challenged aggressively in the caucus. That election was similar, with a net loss of five seats (the same as 2014 because the Democrats picked up seat in a special election after Pafford became Leader-Designate) yet Saunders wasn’t challenged as aggressively. Why?
Simply put the Rouson faction contains a handful of sore losers, members who didn’t work hard this cycle for their party, instead preferring to play in Democratic primaries to elect allies to their out-group, perhaps in order to mount this coup regardless of what happened November 4th. The faction also has aligned itself with transactional lobbyists, political consultants who dabble with both parties and others looking for consulting or fundraising work. This is a movement based upon narrow self interest and nothing more.
Rep. Dwayne Taylor might be a nice guy but he’s not a leader. Rep. Mark Pafford has been among the leading progressives in the House throughout his tenure. Considering we are entering a two-year period where Democrats must demonstrate clear differences between the parties, ousting Pafford for Taylor will represent a massive victory for the Rick Scott Republicans who seek to neuter the Democratic opposition.
Progressive activists throughout the state need to take action to prevent the Rouson faction from gaining power and essentially sidelining the Democratic message in the House for the next two years. The Rouson faction believes a value-less party that kowtows to Tallahassee lobbyists who represent Republican-oriented special interest groups is the way forward. Those of us who love and care about the principles that make us Democrats know the opposite is true – and even if the Rouson faction carries the day, we won’t give up the fight against the Rick Scott Republicans as easily as they do.
The Florida Squeeze 
OMG. I can’t believe this foolishness
Barbara
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
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This is bullshit propaganda. We need someone who can work with the republicans not just bomb throwers.
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So we should just cut deals and surrender our ideals???
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Nailed it!
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Kevin Rader the leader of this faction is a whore of the insurance industry. He needs to be stopped.
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Kevin Rader the man responsible for this attempted coup as well as every previous one is just a bitter, angry man whose agenda is to benefit his insurance business and insurance companies he works with. He wants to join the Crissifulli/Scott team.
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The dissidents have a clear agenda. Put Barry Edwards in charge of house victory and rehire Jeff Ryan. Ensure lobbyist control of the house caucus. Make sure Rick Scott has it easy.
This article is important and I’m going to send it around.
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The party squandered a substantial portion of the $3.5MM record raised going on the OFFENSIVE against a front row Miami Republican who been easy for Democrats to work with over the years and also going against Bill Hagar in Palm Beach. Contrary to Pafford’s statements, Erik Fresen – unlike the FDP – never went negative in winning by 10 percentage points. Yet FDP spent almost $1MM of the $3.5MM on those two races instead of on defending the SIX races that it lost. The FDP paid a premium for consulting that it ran out of Tallahassee and paid the companies owned by the party’s own Political Director and Executive Director — party salaried staff — over $10,000 per month in additional “consulting fees” for races they were already paid to run. On top of that 3rd party organizations were paying them even more through ECOs to get out the vote and do “Voter Education” of the same voters that they were paid by FDP to get out to re-elect these six members and Charlie Crist. Despite getting paid HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to do these jobs, they didn’t do these jobs. Meanwhile, Sheldon couldn’t even get on TV, because of a lack of party and 3rd party resources. Now, tell me what the problem here was and whether the problem needs to be addressed. Because it looks to the outside campaign finance report observer that the problem borders on malfeasance. But at a minimum it was misfeasance. I doubt even Pafford is aware of the real situation. And therein lies the problem.
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Actually Silvers’ mother put close to $1 million in the race for her son to beat Hager-a pro choice, pro equality Republican. It was a nasty race with an unprepared candidate who is obviously spoiled by his family wealth. All he did was prove a point. The FDP doesn’t want the average Democrat to run-they only want Democrats with the riches to run on their own dime. Oh and his campaign manager is another Christian Ulvert flunkee. How did Washington DC work out for you, Kennedy?
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Let me guess: Beth Kennedy!
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[…] also a step forward for the Democratic Party in the legislature especially as transactional forces attempt to create havoc in the House. Joyner is a needed leader in a caucus that has been split based on personalities and the […]
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Both factions are playing politics. Pafford protecting Ulvert and horrible vendors. Rouson-Rader-Taylor trying to push criminal Barry Edwards and business interests.
The best move for the caucus would be to keep Pafford but look for a fresh face next time. Someone not named Janet Cruz or Kevin Rader.
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FWIW Taylor is pro school vouchers.
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Jeff Ryan got a raw deal. The Rader faction will bring him back and that’s only fair. He knows the house better than anyone.
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Rader’s entire m/o in office is to benefit insurance companies. Rouson lacks an ideology of any kind. Taylor is just blah. Pafford too trusting of Ulvert. Janet Cruz useless.
We really have NO leadership.
In the Senate only Darren Soto is a natural leader. The rest are useless.
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As someone in the know ill tell you Kevin Rader is behaving like an immature little kid who as you imply in this article was going to make a move on Pafford regardless of the results.
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Well said.
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Rader has always acted like a little kid. The party should not have let him back in after his first loss…they never learn but what do you expect…they let Wexler back to campaign for Crist. South Florida is full of scum politicians. Most of them should be in the privatized prison by Scott with Scott
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[…] we discussed yesterday, the push for Taylor to replace Pafford is based largely on personal self interest among members […]
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Daryl is no help to democrats. First, he’s a republican, now trying to ‘bridge’ over Deveron Gibbons. He also likes crack and hookers. Rouson needs to go!
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[…] I wrote last week, those backing Taylor have created a movement based upon narrow self interest and nothing more. […]
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[…] claimed to have 24 votes for leader. But as I pointed out later that same day, the Rouson faction has a poor history of counting votes. That has now proven to be the case once again as Taylor’s bid languishes with only a handful or […]
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[…] saying the six seat loss and new veto-proof GOP majority were largely a result of national trends, internal caucus divisions and bad luck. But now with a Special Election slated for April 7th in a district that only leans […]
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[…] Rouson backer and impresario Barry Edwards will almost certainly lend his interesting arsenal of political tools to aide his guy’s […]
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[…] Rouson backer and impresario Barry Edwards will almost certainly lend his interesting arsenal of political tools to aide his guy’s […]
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