Editors Note: Nick Steffens a prominent Broward politico has penned this piece for TFS. Following Election 2014 we invite all our readers to submit thoughts about where the Democratic Party goes from here. These guest columns do NOT need to conform to TFS’ editorial views to be published. We are looking to stimulate discussion and improve the fortunes for the Democratic Party in future cycles.
By Nick Steffens
The Florida Democratic Party announced the formation of the Leadership Expansion to Advance Democrats (LEAD) task force this week to absolutely horrendous reviews. The committee has three goals, all of which are laudable: (1) Review best practices for top to bottom candidate recruitment, (2) Examine data and the party’s “digital footprint” and (3) assess field and turnout operations. In all three areas, the committee is ostensibly required to suggest improvements.
Here is my first suggested improvement: find almost a whole new committee. Why is that necessary? Well, first we should look at who is on the committee itself.
The Committee is co-chaired by U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. He does not recruit candidates at any level, cannot tweet on his own and wouldn’t know how to assess a field or turnout operation to save his life. He’s also retiring in four years. His service to our party, state and country has been laudable. He is not needed here.
The Task Force is also co-chaired by “former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings.” I put it in quotes because that is how Saintpetersblog listed her. I presume the party would use a similar choice. I would call her “Failed Congressional Candidate and Orange County Mayoral Campaign Quitter Val Demings,” but that’s just me. She’s not the right person for this. Listen, I understand if there is going to be a white male co-chairing a Democratic Party effort, you need a minority female co-chairing it. I get that. This is not the right choice.
Then we have some elected officials: Reps. Amanda Murphy and Jose Javier Rodriguez and Sen. Dwight Bullard. Sen. Bullard won a very competitive primary in 2012 and Murphy and JJR have won competitive general elections recently. Maybe they can give lessons on candidate recruitment. I just don’t think they have a lot of knowledge of data and digital footprint issues nor can they assess turnout and field. I’m sure their thought is simple: they won, so it’s good enough.
I had never heard of Nick Maddox. I thought he was probably Scott Maddox’s son. He’s not as Nick is African-American and Scott is Caucasian. I don’t know if he won because of name familiarity (keep in mind, Scott was the mayor of Tallahassee, former Chair of the FDP and is currently back on the Tallahassee City Commission.) Scott is young and African American. I read his platform when he won in 2014 and it is progressive and sound. He has a Twitter account, but with only 134 followers. I’m not too crazy about a lot of people from the Tallahassee bubble but that’s not his fault. I can’t claim a problem with him being on the committee.
Rod Smith? No. Just no. Please, no. Does he even have a Facebook account?
OFA Florida Director Ashley Walker is on there. Good choice. That’s two.
This take force will need to address the Hispanic outreach and turnout concerns and requires someone with ideas beyond “If Obama did something on immigration in October, we would have won.” Concrete answers on depressed Hispanic turnout across the state are needed. Ana Cruz’s resume has some good points – managing a race where her candidate beat an incumbent to become a State Representative. It goes downhill from there. She was handpicked by party leaders to be the FDP Executive Director for the 2002 cycle. That cycle sucked. She also managed Bill Nelson’s “West Central” office. I think that means Tampa and St. Petersburg. Not sure. Now she is a Principal of Leaders Edge where she consults for health care companies, telecoms, sports teams, etc. She apparently does some political consulting. I’m not sure Ana is the right person for the gig.
Then they pick someone from the FEA. The FEA’s political operation should be disbanded. I am a major proponent of unions but the FEA had the worst cycle. Teachers continue to fail to vote.
Joe Falk is listed as an LGBT community leader. Joe Falk is a fundraiser for major Democratic causes and candidates who also happens to by LGBT. He raised a lot of money for President Obama. He helped raise for Crist. The party and candidates did not suffer from not having enough money this cycle. I don’t know why he’s even bothering doing this when he has such a busy professional and social life.
I don’t know who Monica Russo is except I think SEIU does great work and didn’t do half as bad as FEA this cycle. I don’t know what she knows about data or candidate recruitment. I live in South Florida and have never heard someone says “Monica Russo helped nudge (Candidate X) into the race.” But I may be talking to the wrong people.
Patrick Byrd is the FDP representative from Congressional District 2. That’s North Florida. The North Florida Way! Listen, Gwen Graham won and if she wants this person on there, that’s fine. However, maybe there’s a better person who is familiar with this area and the race. We’ll get to that in a few paragraphs.
Terrie Rizzo is an extraordinarily nice person, whose county underperformed for the Crist campaign. She is also seen as a puppet of the elected officials in Palm Beach County. Again, she is very nice and I do not know if the former sentence is true. I just don’t know what she knows about data, digital footprint, etc. The State Senators and trial lawyers in Palm Beach do all of the candidate recruitment, this is fact.
And you know, what’s the worst? When people poo-poo things and don’t offer solutions. That’s what I’m going to do now. So let’s start with keeping Murphy, JJR and Bullard. We’ll also keep Nick Maddox, Ashley Walker, and Monica Russo (why not?). For my money, Murphy, JJR and Bullard should chair the committee.
Here are my ideas for people to be on the committee:
- Nic Zateslo – data guru for America Votes. He knows numbers and data. No brainer.
- Matt Isbell – emerging data guru and Democratic consultant. His website, mcimaps.com is interesting.
- Sean Phillippi – the emerging consultant, data guru in South Florida. He’s known well in all three counties. He is one of my best friends and ran my wildly unsuccessful School Board campaign so I am biased. Ignore if you want.
- Julia Gill – She ran the best race in Florida this cycle, right? Sure, she got help from DC folks, FDP and Steve Schale. But, I presume she knows about where the party was good in helping her and where it was not. She’s been a part of a lot of races (I met her when she was working on the CFO race in 2010) and has good institutional knowledge.
- Stephanie Porta – she is the leader of Progressives in Orange County. They didn’t have the best cycle. She still has good ideas about voter engagement, women’s issues and working in concert with progressive aligned groups.
- Ray Seaman – another for the data nerd set. He also founded Awake the State, does digital for Progress Florida and won a ballot measure in Marion County to help pay for schools through taxes. Yes, he convinced voters in Marion County to pay more in taxes to help public schools. Without a single lawn sign.
- Joe Saunders – he’s LGBT, from I-4 corridor, young and just lost his House seat! Shouldn’t we be listening to young, rising stars like Joe about what went wrong? The answer is yes.
- Karen Castor-Dentel – another loser from this past cycle who still has a future if the party can get its act together. Plus, her family is fairly connected, so maybe there are some good anecdotes.
- Ron Gunzburger – Ron is General Counsel to the Broward Sheriff. He also helped a Republican win in the Maryland’s governor’s race. He also helped run the campaign against Republican Al Lamberti to get Scott Israel elected Sheriff in Broward. Al was a popular incumbent, despite being from the wrong party in Broward. Ron also helped his mom, the incredible Sue Gunzburger, win her final term in office on the County Commission against former State Senator Steve Geller. He’s the closest thing this party has to Roger Stone and for that alone he should be included. Bonus: he’s gay!
- Jason Roth – based out of Jacksonville (a region that needs serious addressing obviously.) He also helped engineer the Jeff Clemens win 2 years ago in the most competitive primary of the cycle. He also helped run things for OFA in north Florida in 2008. I’m presuming he understands data, digital footprint, candidate recruitment, etc. based on this. He was recommended by someone I trust, so that’s that.
This list totally fails on diversity (in all respects really), so I apologize for that. There would be one African American and four women. That’s inexcusable. Despite this, my list is tremendous in another category: competence to assess based on the Party’s stated criteria. That should count for something, right?
Mr. Steffens, a Parkland based attorney who has been called a “Political Operator,” by the Sun Sentinel is a member of the Broward County Planning Council and its Executive Committee, the City of Parkland Education Advisory Board, the Executive Committee of the Parkland Chamber of Commerce, and the South Florida Planning Council’s State Road 7 Collaborative Steering Committee. In his spare time, Mr. Steffens enjoys spending time with his family, attending Florida Panthers games, and traveling.
The Florida Squeeze 
I personally think that more of the FYD’s and local activists should be on the committee as well. I think by picking the same old same old, nothing will get done. Younger leadership is greatly needed and missing.
LikeLike
The debate on the members of the LEAD task force is important and relevant. Once again it is all about inclusiveness. The FDP needs to listen to the voices of the people. That said, it is the responsibility of the FDP to then put it together. It is unfortunate that the selection was made without the input of more people. I hope the task force does a better job of listening than the party leaders have done.
LikeLike
Joe Falk is besties with Ulvert, and the Treasuer of SAVE. That’s why he is on the committee. To save his besties job.
LikeLike
We interrupt this program with breaking news re Ulvert taking $21,000 from one campaign he mismanaged and redirecting it to another campaign he mismanaged and then trying to cover it up with a pathetic excuse.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2014/11/miami-dade-courthouse-campaign-also-supported-democratic-pac-.html
LikeLike
With all do respect Nick..your choices suck as well minus 1,7,8…..
LikeLike
I personally know almost none of these Recommendeds-by-the-author,
But at one glance, I can tell all that these proposed CRITERIA for selection STINK. Flippant and shallow rationales! sorry
LikeLike
How’s that ERA action working out for you? Responding to a blog with the same personality you show in Tallahassee, thus, your problem.
LikeLike
Every single one of these Court Jesters to Allison Tant is a joke. Starting with Nelson who along with Debbie Wasserman “I know nothing” Shultz who rammed the Tant debacle down everyone’s throats because Scott Arceneaux and Christian Ulvert were scared of loosing their jobs…which they should have then and especially should now.
Ana Cruz along with her new business partner Ashley Walker are the Biggest Looser’s this cycle…Ashley having lost the Democrats biggest chance in 40 years of taking a Congressional seat with Alex Sink even having outspent her opponent 2 to 1 and having a rookie opponent who was totally unknown.
Ana Cruz, who doesn’t speak a word of Spanish, is another big joke having run 4 countywide campaigns in Hillsborough County this cycle…and loosing all four in spectacular fashion!
At least these two have the “LOOSING” part down…oh and they are big suck ups to the other loosing FDP consultant stooges in Tallahassee.
And the Democrats wonder why they keep loosing?
Really?
Do we really need a “Blue Ribbon” commission for that when I’ve just answered your question for free?
LikeLike
I find this article insulting and another example of do nothing arm chair supposed politicos who have opinions because they were not involved in the 2014 Election cycle. The comments regarding Palm Beach not turning out our vote is just wrong. If you want to complain let’s start with asking why Miami-Dade and Broward have not turned out their votes in the last three election cycles. If they had Charlie Crist would have won. Where were all of you working the past year. As the Palm Beach County Co-Chair in 2014 I know how hard people worked and turned out more votes in an off election year cycle that any other county in Florida. We did our job. So Joe where were you and what precincts were you working in the last year? Why didn’t your county turn out votes?
I think our focus should be what we did right and how we can incorporate those processes to make us more successful next time. We are looking at that. Have any of you whiners done that in your County?
And by the way you don’t get appointments by just existing you get them by doing the hard work necessary to succeed.
Start with saying thank you to all those who did work.
LikeLike
The FDP opened the dialogue about assessing what went wrong in the off year elections. Unfortunately, the body leading this effort is inadequate. That’s all this article is in response to and it would have not existed except for the actions by FDP.
Broward in 2012 did a great job turning out votes thanks to many hard working activists and a committed Obama campaign. In 2010, Alex Sink ignored Broward (except for money) and the logical result followed – a total lack of turnout. In 2014, Broward did well. It performed 7 points better than it did for Sink. Unfortunately, Palm Beach only performed 2 points better for Crist than it did Sink. Numbers do not lie, Madam Tax Collector.
LikeLike
Someone, anyone from Jacksonville would be nice. Sure, the I-4 is the swing area for national elections but demographics in this city are changing, and changing fast and in a way that should spell more and move blue victories. Sadly, the local party (on which I serve) isn’t doing a terrific job of identification and capitalizing on it. We in labor are doing (marginally) better here on that front.
There are no progressive, or any representation of those of us who would vote even further left if that were viable, but stay with the Democrats because it’s (somewhat) logical. However, if these voices are not heard, and the Democrats continue to lose by doing nothing put putting up these centrist and corporate candidates it’s only a matter of time before something else does become just a viable as a winless and soulless Democratic party and we bolt (and guess what, we do a whole lot of the actual work while the fancy-pant party bosses are meeting is swank hotels, having swank fundraisers, and generally knowing better for us than what we do)
Show me a committee with a white working single mom making under 40k, show me some young black folks who are not in college, but are college age, show me a hard working union brother from a rural or suburban county who doesn’t mind voting for a guy who’s for social issues too, but by god someone put some real meat and potatoes economic issues on his plate too. Show me a committee with not union leaders making 150k+ a year but rank and file union members, and show me a committee with some community activist, and some middle class moms who don’t work outside the home. Show me a committee that reflects the average Democratic voter., if you are not showing me that, you’re not really showing me people that are gonna’ tell you how to win.
LikeLike
Ann, I am just an armchair pundit for sure (sure on the central committee for Duval County and lead North Florida’s effort to turn out 150,000 union members and family members to the polls – making literally tens of thousands of voter contacts) and certainly those who work hard should be told thank you. The problem is however, that the work that they are doing is just not the work that needs to be done to win elections in Florida, and the people who run the party need to know that important piece of information.
Were I to be asked I would tell anyone who was willing to listen that we need a 67 County strategy. Yes, South Florida is of paramount importance and we need people working hard down there to get the vote out. But, the ones getting the vote out down there most likely cannot identify where Clay, Putnam, Taylor, Jackson, Union or Bradford counties are on the map without spending a few minutes really thinking about it. In some of these counties the local party organization has totally folded not for lack of Democrats, not because there are no votes there, but from lack of interest. The Republicans (and Republican SOE’s) can peel off most of the Democratic votes there and no one is any the wiser, yet all of these counties have (and no not South Florida numbers) but lots of black, poor, working class, Latino, and women voters who are just as frustrated as their counterparts are anywhere else in the state. When is the last time we had a state-wide democratic candidate who gave a fiddlers damn about Panhandle and Northern rural counties? If Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter can make Republicans fight and sweat in South Georgia then we sure as hell can make them sweat in North Florida. — Hell, our only big win came from North Florida.
The Republicans visit South Florida a lot, knowing their base is up here, but we don’t work voters here at all, again and again and again returning to this idea that somehow Florida is the northern transplant and fist and second generation Floridians of South Florida when there are literally hundreds of thousands of voters who’s families have been Florida Democrats since the 1840’s and statehood (or later depending on the side of Jim Crow they fell) , and who would gladly return to the fold if statewide candidates just paid a modicum of attention to the issues of north Florida (things like our wonderful springs being destroyed to suck out water for Orlando golf courses, things like taking the time and explaining how immigration is a good thing for Florida in general and isn’t just taking jobs from working class people, things like If we are ever going to take the citizens in the parts of Florida that are historically part of the “black belt” and finally make the restitutions they have needed since the 1860’s to lift them out of poverty and into educations and good jobs, decent housing and the things so many transplants in south Florida just seem to take for granted and don’t even stop to think that sure we have a wonderful modern, state that tourist flock too and with a great lifestyle, but we also have 20 + counties that offer just as cold of comfort to their citizens as the poorest pockets of Alabama or Mississippi and are much more similar culturally to those states than they are to South Florida.
If the leadership of the Florida Democratic Party want my advice (and I cannot see that any of them really do) it’s that North Florida exist, it’s that poor people exist, it’s that working class men and women want real economic solutions and all the social issues and abortion rights and immigration rights in the world don’t make a god damned bit of difference when you’re teetering on the edge of the pride of earning your supper and the humiliation of food stamps, and one party is offering you work and job and the other is offering you LGBT rights, which are fine and good and you hold no issues against, but the only LGBT person you know is two counties away, and it’s dinner time, the kids are hungry, and you just went another week getting no callbacks on the jobs you’ve applied for another week in a row.
What the Florida Democratic party needs to know is that we have got to fight, and that fight must be for every vote, in every county, and address the needs of every voter in their bellies, at their jobs, and in their communities. If they do not understand that then South Florida will continue to almost elect corporate Democratic Governors for years and years to come.
LikeLike
Spot on
LikeLike
I am interested in coordinating, authoring, and editing the 2015 Florida Democratic Party Institutional Effectiveness Plan (FDP-IEP) based on recommendations of the LEAD task force.
I serve on the editorial board of the scholarly Journal for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness and I blog for The Nation. I have been a progressive Democratic organizer in Florida since 1988.
I was Indian River County field director for Space PAC. In four (4) months, I sent out 130,00 social media shares and constructed and installed over 1,500 political signs.
I established the Adjunct Faculty Union (AFU) at Indian River State College on July 9, 2013. Within a few months, through my social media campaign blitz, the AFU spread across Florida, 32 states, and 6 countries.
I was most recently nominated Vice President of the Treasure Coast Progressive Alliance. I am the best weapon the Florida Democratic Party has. I will organize this state.
The Democratic Party needs workers who are action oriented and great communicators.
E-mail me at ProfessorRF@hotmail.com for a bio and references.
LikeLike
Nick, There are those who may not agree with you that I am extraordinarily nice, but thank you for the compliment!
I am sure there are many excellent choices who could have been appointed. With all due respect to your suggestions, it is imperative to include at least some people with significant experience with county DECs, since DECs are especially critical to Goal 3 (turnout & field) as well as the other 2. I believe I was asked to serve on the Task Force as I have significant experience in helping build and working with a large county DEC as PBC Chair (an unpaid position, by the way.) I am not an expert in “data, digital footprint, etc.”, but we have great people who are. And yes, here in PBC we have made an effort to include and work with all our elected officials (all levels, including municipal, county, state, & congressional) as they are key to helping support all our operations & activities, including community events, ongoing activities, GOTV, and fundraising. Our 2014 Campaign was the most coordinated we have ever had, combining our DEC operations and the campaigns of all the candidates in PBC, as well as the Crist Campaign. Anne is correct that due to a lot of hard work by a lot of people, this year we turned out a greater margin of votes than ever before in an off election year cycle, did better than even in 2012 in turnout percentage, and had the highest turnout of all large counties.
However, regardless of who did what, we all need to look at what we did right and incorporate those processes next time, examine what went wrong and what we can do to improve — and then develop a plan to do so. We are doing that ourselves in PBC, and this is what the Task Force is designed to do for the FDP. Constructive criticism and suggestions are important. We need to look past personalities and focus on solutions. I think we all agree that we need to do better, and we need to work together to “make it so”.
To Mike Stovall: I very much appreciate your detailed and constructive comments. The FDP does want to hear from you and others who have suggestions. I know I certainly do, and when the time comes and the process is in place, I will look forward to hearing more from you.
Please share your ideas. One last thing — I would like to suggest that people use their names when posting, as comments are much more credible, plus can be followed up personally, when there is a real name and not a pseudonym behind the remark or suggestion. Thank you!
LikeLike
Teri,
With all due respect, everyone knows that in PBC the vast majority of candidate recruitment is done by the trial lawyers, Burt Aronson and Senators Abruzzo and Clemens.
As far as modern and effective turnout and field operations, they come from the campaigns themselves. The Obama campaign is obviously the gold standard for this and the Crist campaign attempted to replicate it with some level of success.
The simple fact is this, Crist won by 2 more points than Sink did, while Broward almost quadrupled that number. We knew Crist would lose some people who voted for Sink in the north and Central part of the state, so south Florida needed to pitch in. Broward largely did and Palm Beach didn’t. You can say I’m not right, but I am. It’s fact.
I think “looking at what we did right” is entirely the wrong approach. The things that were done wrong need to be examined (lack of Hispanic turnout in I-4 corridor, collapse in Duval County and Panhandle, etc.) thoroughly by a competent committee.
LikeLike
I was intimately involved in the Palm Beach County election acting as the Democratic Party’s Precinct coordinator during 2013 and 2014.
I have to disagree that “looking at what we did right” is an incorrect way to examine the 2014 elections. In Broward County where a 2010 Alex Sink margin of 131,000 votes ballooned to a 180,000 vote margin no one can argue that a great deal of heavy lifting occurred to produce that turnout increase. Kudos to the Broward Democrats and I know each Democrat involved in Broward knows there’s more work to do in the future.
That being said, I will add that Rick Scott’s campaign produced 2,000 less votes in Broward this year.
In Palm Beach County, Alex Sink’s margin was just under 72,000 votes while Charlie Crist was given an 86,000 vote margin. Rick Scott improved his Palm Beach County turnout by 9,600 votes in 2014. This nearly 10,000 vote increase for the Governor obscures the actual turnout improvement that occurred in Palm Beach County.
Palm Beach County Democrats had their best fundraising season in history and due to the funding we were able to have a presence in nearly every method of GOTV except for Television.
Every Democratic Voter who was mailed an Absentee Ballot also received a trifold Slate Card. We also produced slate cards for Early Vote and Election Day. We were on Radio in minority communities, held Voter Rallies in numerous locations for various communities.
We also did our very best to coordinate with our Candidates at every level of government.
Our Party members worked with Campaigns by joining their Voter Outreach phone banks using automated dialer systems that greatly improved volunteer efficiency and voter connection. Our Vote by Mail signup program produced tens of thousands of VBM voters and we are already planning on increasing this program in the very near future.
Hint folks, the people who need them most (20-55 year old voters) are the ones who we need to educate and get a Ballot in their mailboxes.
We had many people working to raise Democratic voter turnout in numerous ways from door to door canvassing, phone banking, greeting voters at Polling Locations.
By understanding what we did right we can build upon our strengths by acknowledging we can improve upon our accomplishments.
We learned far too late in the Vote by Mail game that about 1% of the VBMs came in unsigned and in 2016 PBC Democrats will have a system in place from VBM day one to remedy these errors.
I am now speaking my personal opinion, I envision increasing our Vote By Mail program to participation levels only seen in Pinellas County and I believe every county should work to achieve that same goal.
Better Candidates, better outcomes.
We all have a monumental task of building a bench of individuals who will become tomorrow’s candidates for the future. We must develop methods above, beyond and around the current recruitment strategies that we currently employ in order to grow a successful bench of capable and knowledgeable Democrats who people will perceive worthy of their votes.
Our greatest obstacle is ourselves and our tendency to focus on fault and failure rather than focus upon our strengths, understand our weaknesses and to eliminate activities that do not produce the desired results.
We will do this by studying voter habits and creating programs designed to produce maximum voter turnout by offering voters candidates they perceive to be competent who are capable of dissecting their opponents messages.
Democrats are a huge coalition of Americans from every ethnicity, religion, and ancestry.
Our political opponents remain far more monolithic in ethnicity, religion and ancestry making their messaging challenges far less complex.
Our opponents do not have many election cycles left before they must alter their messaging as those who respond to the “dog whistle” messaging age off this earth.
Our future messaging must be “American simple” reaching into the hearts and minds of each of us.
It must be future oriented and it must incorporate comparatives that illuminates the damage voting for the other side does to the average American.
Each of us has our own version of our personal American Dream, it’s up to us to ensure we make our case the Democratic Party is the vehicle each of us needs to achieve our dreams.
Infighting and power trips do not get the job done.
LikeLike