Last week qualifying closed for multiple legislative Special Elections. The Democrats have placed only token opposition in some of the races while no opposition in others. It must be openly stated however for those wanting to beat up on the party that all four seats (3 House and 1 Senate) where Special Elections will take place early next year are strongly Republican, though one of the seats, HD-24 was almost carried by the Democrats in the 2012 election. The House leadership did per multiple efforts make an effort to recruit the candidate (Milissa Holland) who came close there in 2012 but evidently did not have a plan B for a candidate in the seat.
The poll below simply asks if the Democrats should have made a greater effort to target these seats. Please consider the Republican tilt of these districts and also the amount of money it takes to run a strong Special Election effort before voting. Also you may want to consider the over-performance Democrats tended to bank in Republican-oriented State House seats in Special Elections between 1999 and 2008.
Please vote below and leave comments in the usual thread.
The Florida Squeeze 
We weren’t going to win any of these races. It would have been a waste.
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This is a NO brainer
Even if the seat is only 30 or 35% democratic you have to make an attempt in a special election when virtually no one will vote. Nobody will know about the election except the people you educate and get to the polls.
Grant the little snot-nosed kid is getting a pass because lobbyists are throwing money at him as a potential speaker.
I bet Pafford didn’t even make a call to anyone in the seat. Probably did not even bother.
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None of these seats are winnable. The critics may not want to admit it but we did better than most other places in the country. In other states seats like Murphy, Dudley. JJR would have gone.
If anything we should be patting ourselves on the back for stemming the tide. We almost won the governors race in spite of the national tide and being overwhelmingly outspent. We flip a congressional seat in asouthern rural area while every other southern state was losing seats.
The negativity from people has done nothing the last month but make matters worse. But the party is pushing forward and will win back the seats in 2016 and more.
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Anyone who thinks this cycle wasn’t a disaster is delusional. Based on candidate recruitment alone, it was abysmal.
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I have been more supportive of the party and House leadership than most but you have to be kidding me…
Seriously?
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I know Pafford did make an effort in HD-24. But it can be asked if it was a good enough effort because clearly we didn’t get the type of candidate who can be competitive.
Candidate recruitment for the House has to improve. I think we all know this.
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People here night not like Steve Schale but he flipped two republican seats to Democratic in special elections while Marco Rubio was speaker.
I voted NO. It’s as obvious as the day is long.
This really is a dumb poll. Anyone voting yes is either a party employee or a party hack.
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One of the seats was John Q’s seat which was a Democratic district…Darren Soto won that one over Tony Suarez who had shocked the state by winning a special election in the old HD-35 in 1999 as a Democrat before he became a Republican a few years later. This seat always should have been ours, but a variety of mistakes in 2002 and 2004 cost us.
The Tony Sasso win was impressive though. Schale deserves a lot of credit for that one. No argument here.
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This poll is dumb. Honestly like the person above says anyone who voted yes it’s just a party hack.
The failure to find candidates and take a chance it’s just a further sign of dysfunction and disorganization. And a house leader that is over his head on political matters .
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Just for some context:
HD36 – Murphy
Obama12 – 53.6%
Sink10 – 49.0%
HD17 – OPEN-Renuart
Obama12 – 30.4%
Sink10 – 33.8%
HD24 – OPEN-Hutson
Obama12 – 42.3%
Sink10 – 42.5%
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You can’t manufacture candidates out of thin air. They have to be groomed. If you expect Mark Pafford or anybody else to swoop in and find a viable Democrat to run in these districts without laying the foundation, you are not living in the real world.
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Spot on.
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