FDP First Vice Chair Alan Clendenin who is a recognized statewide leader in the Democratic Party has penned this letter with regards to recent FDP changes. TFS is honored to run this letter from someone who has been a great supporter of this site and of progressive causes throughout the state of Florida.
In the last two days Chairwoman Allison Tant made a couple of significant announcements.
1. She created a Task Force “LEAD”, Leadership Expansion to Advance Democrats.
Allison has tasked the task force to complete a review and offer recommendations on:
· Best practices for candidate recruitment for local, state and federal offices.
· Examine data and digital footprint to ensure new technologies are being utilized.
· Assess field and turnout operations and recommend steps to improve performance.
I have spoken with Allison and she absolutely expects the committee to utlize their vast networks to solicit input, experiences and recommendations from stakeholders and subject matter experts. Each individual on the committee has unique circles of influence which, when united touch much of Florida.
Rather than paraphrase Allison’s intent let me quote her directly from a response she posted earlier today. “The group is meant to receive feedback and hear from experts. We can’t learn anything sealed in a room just talking to each other.”
2. She has announced her intent hire future pollsters and vendors through open competition.
This is a significant step forward for our party and has always been a significant concern of mine. We must ensure we are getting the best product for the investments we make.
Independently of the above-announced initiative, Allison is doing a top to bottom review of Florida Democratic Party organization and staffing. Look for more changes to come….
If you know me, you know I have VERY strong opinions about direction of the party. That being said, when we take steps forward we need to recognize the progress. Will it work? You tell me! What I do know, we have to start somewhere, might as well be here.
Alan Clendenin
Feel free to leave any comments below for Mr. Clendenin.
The Florida Squeeze 
Too little too late. The fact that the GOP won control of both the U. S. Senate and U. S. House of Representatives is because the Florida Democrat Party failed miserably at the local level. A prime example is the voter fraud of Corry Westbrook which has essentially destroyed the Indian River Democrat Party.
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Here are my questions for the FDP:
1. given that Dem turnout (%) is much lower than Rep turnoput in midterms, is it not true that the only (or at least most effective) way to increase the # of votes is to increase the number of voters? And that the only way to do that is via voter registration?
2. given that VR cannot be done instantly, isn’t the most effective way to sufficient (to change election results) way to accomplish the task to do it over 4 years?
3. doesn’t a long term, multi-DEC effort require creation of a plan, and then tracking and management to ensure that the plan is fulfilled?
I don’t see any other way that success can be accomplished. However, we continue to spend million$ on media….
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I am interested in knowing make up of the Task Force “LEAD”.
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This entire process and committee is a joke!
The gutless FDP grass roots idiots that put Tant in there in the first place because of the arm twisting of Sen Nelson and I know Nothing Shultz need to fire Tant and completely clean house from top to bottom
We need to start over !!!!
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I’m with you CD! But I want to keep Alan Clendenin!
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Sorry…they all suck. You start a team to review what to do different and you include the same past people who have lost year after year. They might as well have included losers like Clemens who call people and threatent them…again Ms. Rizzo did nothing probably because she is still cover up both Mr. Siegal and Mr. Freedman sickness. My hope is Dave Aronberg will thorugh them into jail for a long time. Why isn’t Robert Wexler on the team. Fucking losers.
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Let’s make the best of this people, shall we?
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I am interested in coordinating, authoring, and editing the 2015 Florida Democratic Party Institutional Effectiveness Plan (FDP-IEP) based on the recommendations of the LEAD Task Force.
I was just nominated Vice President of the Treasure Coast Progressive Alliance and serve on the editorial board of the scholarly Journal for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness. I blog for The Nation.
I founded the Adjunct Faculty Union at Indian River State College in July of 2013 which I then expanded across Florida, 32 states, and 6 nations in just a few months using social media.
I recently served as Indian River County field director for Space PAC. In just four months, I sent out 130,000 social media shares and constructed and installed over 1,500 signs. We need real action oriented workers and communicators to lead the Democratic Party and this includes me.
I call on the leaders of the Florida Democratic Party to check me out on LinkedIn and e-mail me at ProfessorRF@hotmail.com to receive a bio and references. We must plan to run the table in 2016. I am your best weapon.
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First off, how did they not see this election disaster coming ? Were our pollsters and advisors and leaders that clueless ? As someone who has been involved with the for many years, I have heard this all before. I do not believe any of the current FDP folks have a clue as to how to turn around this continuous round of losses. I think it is particularly troublesome when our Federally elected representatives and senators think they really know what the average person on the street is thinking and what direction we should go in. These folks live in a bubble and are relatively out of touch. I have witnessed this go on for years down here. it’s too bad the best political minds in Florida are often viewed as a liability and are never allowed to rise to the top by the old guard who cannot let go.
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As much as I like Alan, I do have some issues with this. First, I am glad that they are “opening up” the bidding process for pollsters. But why just pollsters?
Second, polling gives the FDP the results of their efforts, but does not tell future trends. Polling firms are not (or at least should not) be in the prediction business. And, as we see, most of the polling in 2014, no matter what state we look at, was way off.
I am glad that some changes are happening, but I am afraid that those at the FDP do not have the intellectual capacity to correctly read polling data. Yes, that is a bit of a dig on the FDP, but in all honesty I do not see anyone that they have employed that can take data and understand what the numbers really mean.
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Dave Trotter is right on!
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II think some people are missing Mr. Clendenin’s point. His last words in this post…
“we have to start somewhere, might as well be here.” This task force and small changes maybe a complete failure but is doing nothing like she has for the last year and a half a better option?
Dave, I am not a fan of the Florida Democratic Party but it looks like he’s not defending anything they are doing. It looks more like sharing information. And that is a good start!
I am a pessimistic bed wetter like the rest of you but until there is new leadership in Tallahassee what choice do we have?
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Alan Clendenin and Kartik, please take a serious look at ProfessorRF. I have, and believe he is the right person for the job.
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I’d just like to get an honest, REAL answer as to how these people were picked to serve. All we can do is retread the dead?
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I want an all out effort to field GREAT candidates at the local level in 2016 and 2018. School board, county commission city commission, and legislative races. We have to build a bench from the ground up.
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Floridian, let me point out that in Dade County our previous DEC Chair, Annette Taddeo, organized a full slate of people to run in every seat and not let the Republicans win elections without challenges. Like this is some great new idea on winning elections, right? Well, she is being criticized because the strategy forced the Republicans to defend their seats, it caused them to raise more money and stimulate the Republican turnout.
Ridiculous, but the criticism is out there. Apparently, the Democratic strategy is to win a few seats and let the other side win a bunch of theirs unopposed. I personally don’t trust the FDP.
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Resources are limited for Dems, but not Rs. You pick your seats, and you run 110%.Leave the other seats alone. Sure there’s a possibility you could have picked up a few flukes, but more than likely it will just allow the Rs to raise more money and mobilize more voters to help the R candidate at the top of the ticket.
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