Author Archives: Kartik Krishnaiyer
Unwillingness of House dissidents to let go at the heart of leadership struggles
Editor’s Note: Kartik Krishnaiyer is traveling abroad for the next 12 days. His phones and email however still are active while he travels and he is in touch with many people across the state. Thus he will continue to cover the Florida political happenings throughout his trip which ends November 25th, though many blog posts […]
TFS crosses one million page views – A thank you
On Sunday, The Florida Squeeze passed 1,000,000 overall page views since we launched in late February 2013. I want to personally thank each and everyone who has written for this site in the last 21 months (in no particular order) – Ryan Ray, Katy Burnett, Sean Sorbie, Lauren Schwartz, Justin Snyder, Scott Gaillard, Nathan Taylor […]
Should Democrats abandon our values in light of election debacle? Some party leaders seem to think so
Post-election some Democratic Party insiders and FDP officials are talking openly about the failed 2014 effort as due to an overemphasis on progressive policies and turning out urban areas of the state. Make no mistake about it – candidate recruitment for 2014 was a massive failure for the party. But the solution of some party […]
School voucher advocates stand to benefit from Taylor/Rouson faction run
Last session House Democrats demonstrated remarkable cohesion on school “choice” issues. Under the leadership of Minority Leader Perry Thurston and incoming leader Mark Pafford, the caucus coalesced behind a position opposing the unprecedented expansion of taxpayer money being siphoned to private schools. This came just a few short years after 24 House Democrats broke ranks […]
House Caucus dissidents creating unneeded ruckus and problems for our values
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 […]
Did President Obama’s immigration punt cost Governor Crist the election?
I must admit the various postmortems on Governor Crist’s loss on Tuesday to Rick Scott have been interesting. The discussion of Scott’s North Florida strategy and the Crist campaign’s progressive messaging costing the former Governor the region (which Alex Sink did far better in) is being discussed – though I believe this is a canard […]
Florida Democrats: Time for calm introspection before making needed changes
Florida’s Democrats suffered a massive defeat on Tuesday. But so did Democrats across the nation and when you look at how things unfolded, Florida may have just done better than many of our neighbors. It is true that Florida’s record run of futility, losing 17 of the last 18 races for Governor or Cabinet (the […]
Florida’s media and Republican hegemony
The postmortems on the 2014 election in Florida are being written and the ink is barely dry. But one thing that stands out for me which nobody else will talk about is how complicit Florida’s press has become with the Republican Party in this state. The death of strong Tallahassee bureaus at the major daily […]
Quick Election Takeaways
I will save the long narrative about Florida’s citizens and media for later today. Here are some quick thoughts about what transpired last night. Given the national mood I would caution the critics of the Florida Democratic Party from shooting their mouths off today. I would argue the failure in past election cycles under different […]
Watch Pinellas and Palm Beach counties tonight
Our friends over at Saint Petersblog will appreciate this plug…while Hillsborough often is the county to watch when returns come in for statewide races, tonight it could be across the bay in Pinellas that tells the story. Pinellas is often the first large county to report in full and should Governor Crist not amass a […]
The Florida Squeeze 