Category Florida Democrats
Legislative Democrats beginning to score policy successes
Last week, my colleague Justin Snyder called out the Florida Democratic Party for a lack of policy ideas. While we have seen the party itself slow to embrace the type of progressive agenda that moved voters strongly towards Florida Democrats in the 1970s, 1980s and to a lesser extent in the 1990s, many Democratic legislators […]
The Pulp: An Open Letter To Florida Democratic Party- Where Are The Policy Ideas? Where Is The Grassroots Organization?
Dear Florida Democratic Party, I really can’t anymore. Day after day, my Twitter feed, email inbox, and Facebook newsfeed are covered with constant attacks from you against our Republican Governor Rick Scott. Whether it’s bashing him for a weak economic recovery in Florida spearheaded by the creation of minimum wage jobs, his lengthy list of […]
Freshman House Democrats charting a unique course
Our inaugural TFS House scorecard showed that the most conservative members of the Democratic Caucus in 2014 were in fact members of the new class elected in November 2012. This session we have found the freshman class has found its feet and are stepping out in their own rights as effective legislators. It can be argued […]
House Democrats holding the line on vouchers
For weeks we have been calling for House Democrats to unite in opposition to the dangerous school “choice” proposals working their way through the chamber’s committee and towards the House floor. Yesterday, committee Democrats stood strong and firm in the Education Appropriations Subcommittee on a revised bill by Chairman Erik Fresen. This proposal was voted […]
House Democratic Caucus divisions largely non-ideological and personality oriented
In recent days we’ve heard a great deal about the divisions in the House Democratic caucus. In many places they have been cast as fights between the “liberal” wing of the party versus the “moderate” wing of the party. But in reality, what is happening is largely personality driven and politically motivated divisions. Earlier this […]
Legislative courtesy and the House Democratic leadership
We’ve discussed at length the floor debate on two bills related to firearms from last Thursday. As we discussed Democratic Leader Perry Thurston offered a repeal to Stand Your Ground as an amendment to one of the bills, HB 89 on the floor. Historically even if members of the minority party plan to support a […]
Democrats fail again on guns while ignoring political realities … Explanations needed
As my colleague Ryan Ray demonstrated again on Friday, the Democrats in the Florida House of Representatives failed on the gun issue once again. The gun lobby year after year finds new creative ways to chip away at any restrictions on ownership or use of firearms in this state, and year after year they find […]
The Pulp: Other Democrats Can Take Lessons From Orange County Progressives
When I was a freshman at Stetson University, I walked into pol sci 101, American National Government class, wanting to be a doctor. As I read the syllabus of that class, taught by the indubitable and CNN Hero Dr. Anne Hallum by the way , I came across a quote- a quote that has stuck […]
Alex Sink vs David Jolly – The decisions that cost the Democrats
Much has been written about the Democratic Party’s failures in the FL-13 Special Election last week. From speaking to people throughout the state in the past several days, we can put together a theme of the critical mistakes made by the Democratic Party and the Sink campaign. The Florida Democratic Party (FDP) sent several staffers […]
Flashback Friday: The 1970s and the Askew legacy on Florida Democrats
As we’ve said time and again on this website the 1970s were sort of an era of enchanted enlightenment in Florida’s political system. Reubin Askew who passed on yesterday was not only Florida’s greatest modern Governor, he was arguably the greatest ever from the southern United States and perhaps the best 20th Century Governor anywhere […]
The Florida Squeeze 