This is Part II of our election breakdown. Part I can be viewed here and we will wrap up our list tomorrow with a third installment. Stay tuned!
LOSER
JOHN MORGAN AND BEN POLLARA
Despite the national Republican tide, legalization of cannabis took major steps forward nationally on Tuesday – except in Florida where Amendment 2 started out as a sure bet and went downhill from the word go. Morgan and Pollara will get the bulk of the blame whether fair or not. Morgan, a longtime power playing trial lawyer on the Florida political scene may need sometime to recover from this defeat.
WINNER
SKIP CAMPBELL
Speaking of accomplished high-profile trial lawyers, the 2006 Democratic nominee for Attorney General was seen as irrelevant politically following his controversial late withdrawal from a targeted State Senate race in 2008. In that race, Campbell dropped out after qualifying. This year, with Coral Springs good government activists desperate to find a candidate for Mayor after former Mayor Roy Gold dropped out after qualifying, Campbell stepped forth and was able to defeat the favored Tom Powers. Campbell was one of the leading Democrats when he was in the State Senate and his return to the big stage catapults him into potential statewide consideration again. But first he must fix Coral Springs, a large city that is in terminal decline.
LOSER
UNIONS
Unions particularly the Teacher’s Union were all in for Charlie Crist even before the primary against the progressive Nan Rich. The massive effort of labor to rally Florida’s citizens against the tyranny of total Republican control of state government fell flat. Now the union movement looks more ineffective than ever in terms of impacting Florida elections.
WINNER
KEN CORNELL
Alachua county is this little island of blue in the great sea of red that is Northeast Florida and Ken Cornell’s victory on Tuesday makes the county commission all Democrats. While the blue stops at the county line, it was a nice victory in a week of many disappointments. It gives a good example of training and running good candidates – although the county has a Republican State Senator (Rob Bradley) and is partially represented by a Republican State Rep (Keith Perry), at least the county is doing it’s part in bench building.
LOSER
JACK LATVALA
Despite seeing his son elected to the legislature, key Latvala allies Ellyn Bogdnaoff and Ed Hooper lost hotly-contested races Tuesday. Not good for someone long considered a kingmaker in Florida politics.We will see how the Senate President battle with Joe Negron plays out in the coming months, but Latvala now appears to be at a disadvantage. With regards to the Bogdanoff defeat, the massive Democratic field effort that was undertaken to benefit Maria Sachs almost was responsible for flipping a House seat (Bill Hager) and stimulated higher than anticipated Democratic turnout in Palm Beach County. Had Hager lost, and Rick Scott been defeated as well, Latvala may have been an easy Republican scapegoat.
WINNER
ARTHENIA JOYNER
The incoming Senate leader was able to keep Geraldine Thompson and Maria Sachs in the Senate while employing the largest field program for a Democrats in the legislature in the history of this state. Beth Matuga and the Senate Victory staff directed an effort which stemmed the national GOP tide and kept 14 Democrats in the upper chamber. Joyner’s progressive leadership is 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 willingness of some Democrats to compromise on fundamental issues in recent sessions. As the highest-ranking Democratic elected official at the state level after Tuesday’s results she has the bully pulpit which is welcome news to progressives.
LOSER
HILLSBOROUGH DEC
Florida’s most important urban bellwether county was a disaster for Democrats Tuesday night. Charlie Crist ran several points behind Alex Sink’s 2010 numbers, George Sheldon was routed in his one-time home county and Pat Kemp’s excellent and important campaign was defeated by a narrow margin. Democrats lost Mark Danish in the House and under-performed from a turnout perspective. Fixing Hillsborough County has to be among the top priorities in the state going forward for progressives.
WINNER
STEPHANIE PORTA/ORGANIZE NOW
Orange County has taken a beaten post election from critics not without some justification. But two bright spots in Orange County were the August passage of Earned Sick Time and the reelection of Geraldine Thompson over the horrible Gary Siplin. Stephanie Porta and the entity she leads knocked on over 90,000 doors pre-primary and stimulated a higher than anticipated turnout on August 26th. In the general. Organize Now’s extensive canvassing efforts helped the Democratic ticket carry the county (Orange was the only large county in the state where the drop-off from Charlie Crist’s numbers to George Sheldon’s was under 3%) and made three local House races more competitive than some experts and polling firms, such as St Pete Polls indicated they would be.
LOSER
RUTH’S LIST
The majority of their state house candidates lost – Karen Castor-Dentel, Linda Stewart, and Daisy Baez were all on their list. While there were many other factors at play, the they put a lot of time and energy into those candidates with no results and the presence of Ruth’s List hardly gave these candidates an edge. Not exactly motivation for pro-choice women to run. This organization will have to work hard to stay relevant in the future.
The Florida Squeeze 
Joyner is awesome! Need a leader with her moral compass worse than ever in this party.
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Organize Now is a great choice! So is Senator Joyner. Great points RE: Latvala.
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Good list.
Surprised you did not find some b/s justification to place OFA Ashley on the list again. Something like all the Ashley OFA kids that win races yadi yadi ya.
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I never realized Ashley was so controversial until yesterday…silly me.
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I do chalk up the anti-Ashley commentary to professional jealousy but what do I know?
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Where are Allison Tant and Mark Pafford?
The party fired Chris Mitchell and Barry Edwards both of whom were great strategists and Jeff Ryan whose relationships throughout the state ensured a steady flow of money. Ryan needs to
Be brought back into the party and Mitchell would make a great ED.
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Ha ha, you made a funny!
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I agree with your assessment of the complete ineffectiveness of the FEA (Teachers). I would add SEIU (healthcare) & AFSCME (state & local workers) to that list. Because those are the specific unions that coordinated with the Crist campaign & FDP instead of their union allies and thereby weakened the force of solidarity or unity that makes unions effective in campaigns. No Democrat, however, can ever underestimate or devalue the importance of their built in ground game: unions. FDP tried to run it for the unions and it was, of course, a disaster. Let the unions run it for themselves and it won’t be. Might want to start by getting rid of anti-union staffers inside of FDP. Also, the unions themselves will never be strong unless they UNIFY. Their experiment of operating in various silos is a failure. Time to own it and fix it.
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LOSER: JEFF WRIGHT
Teachers union boss forced flawed candidate Charlie Crust down democrats throats. We got four more years of Rick Scott instead!
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Ruth’s list too irrelevant to be a loser quite honestly.
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I’d put PlannedParenthood on the losers list also.
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The ridiculous pseudonyms are getting a little out of control.
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Latvala got his son elected with Steve Schale’s help don’t forget!
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What? Where is Ashley Walker??? Obama wouldn’t be president without her!!!
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Ashley Walker is an opportunist with more losses than wins. 2012 Obama race was a combo of factors that led to victory, none of which had to do with Ashley Walker. And the fact that she calls herself a Democrat is laughable considering how much work she has done for Republicans.
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Ashley Walker is an opportunist with more losses than wins
Well that describes most Democratic consultants in the state.
And the fact that she calls herself a Democrat is laughable
Ashley is far more ideologically driven than most other Democratic consultants I know in this state. Sure like everyone else a bit of blurring of the lines takes places but she is far less “laughably” a Democrat than many others. I don’t want besmirch the names of those people here so I will leave it to our readers to mention them if they care to.
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Unfortunately, Alachua County, like all of northern Florida is trending more Republican every election. Scott increased his vote share by almost 2% points and increased his vote total, while Crist’s vote total was actually less than Sink’s in 2010.
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Ruth’s List puts no time or energy into anything except lining the pockets of (then) Ellis Robinson and (now) Marley Wilkes. Kartik, your wife was right about them a long time ago and told people to investigate their financials long before they became the talk of Florida scams.
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Uh………
http://thepoliticalhurricane.com/2012/12/26/ruths-list-useful-organization-or-cash-cow/
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It’s interesting that Ashley Walker represents the talking point for a list she is not even on!
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[…] Part II […]
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Biggest Loser- Charlie Crist. Now a 3 party loser. Lost a sure thing victory by refusing to debate Nan Rich. Did everything possible to destroy the Democratic Party with his Independent run for the Senate and losing to the worst liked Governor in the history of the world. Sorry Charlie.
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[…] – Part 2 […]
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