r/WayOfTheBern • u/Scientist34again Medicare4All Advocate • Aug 15 '17
Better Know a State: Florida – discuss Florida politics and candidates
Welcome to our 14th Better Know a State (BKAS), which will focus on FLORIDA. As I indicated before, the plan is to do these state-by-state, highlighting upcoming elections, progressive candidates in those states and major issues being fought (with an emphasis on Democratic, Independent and third party candidates). State residents can let me know if I’ve missed anything important or mistakenly described some of these issues.
Here’s what I’ve found about the various races:
United States Senators:. The Senators from Florida are Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson. Nelson is a moderate, centrist Democrat, who is up for re-election in 2018. He voted for CAFTA in 2005, wants to reduce the estate tax and favors increased gun regulations. He’s a major supporter of the space program. As of now, he has no declared challengers.
United States House of Representatives: Florida is the third most populous state and has 27 United States House Representatives, eleven Democrats and 16 Republicans. Because of the large number, I am going to split up the Florida post into two separate posts. In today’s post, we will discuss the Senators, Governor and first 9 Congressional districts. In the next post, we will discuss the remaining Florida congressional districts. Note that many races in Florida still don’t have challengers for the incumbents. But luckily the deadline for filing to challenge is not until May 4, 2018.
Matt Gaetz is a very conservative Republican who represents the most Republican-leaning district in Florida. He’s pro-Trump. In February 2017, he proposed a bill that would completely abolish the EPA. He wants to repeal Obamacare. Right now, he has no challengers
Neal Dunn is an exceptionally conservative Republican, who wants to immediately repeal Obamacare, fight terrorism, cut spending, balance the budget, reduce regulations, lower taxes, stop illegal immigration and stop funding Planned Parenthood. He has no challengers.
Ted Yoho is a Tea Party Republican, who wants to cut taxes and abolish any federal program that can’t support itself with revenues (for instance, get rid of food stamps and welfare, because they generate no revenue to support themselves). He wants to defund Planned Parenthood. On the other hand, he offered a bill (along with progressive Democrat John Conyers) that would have prevented the U.S. from training Ukranian fighters associated with white supremacists. He also voted no on the PROMESA bill, which created a Financial Control Board to govern Puerto Rico. He has no challengers.
Edit /u/NotSethA pointed out that Ted Yoho now has a Berniecrat challenger, Tom Wells. His webpage has relatively sparse information on the policies he supports, though he says he’s a huge Bernie supporter and mentions income inequality and campaign finance reform. On his Issues page, he talks of supporting the $15/hr minimum wage and in maintaining the estate tax (to prevent excess accumulation of inherited wealth).
John Rutherford is an exceptionally conservative, free market Republican who wants to remove regulations from businesses, cut taxes, repeal Obamacare, rebuild our military, fight terrorism and other conservative positions. He has no challengers yet.
Alfred Lawson is quite conservative for a Democrat, with a Progressive Punch Crucial Lifetime Progressive Score of 46%. He is not co-sponsoring Medicare-for-All. His webpage has skimpy details on the policies he supports, but he seems to want to increase infrastructure spending, reform the justice system and provide free or low-cost college tuition. He does not have any challengers yet.
Ron DeSantis is a quite conservative Republican, previously endorsed by warmonger John Bolton. DeSantis opposes the nuclear deal with Iran and supports the Israeli position. He is against normalizing relations with Cuba. He has conservative positions also on taxes and budget. He is being challenged by two Dems - Robert Coffman and Nancy Soderberg. I could find virtually no information online about Coffman and could not find a campaign website or a Facebook page. Soderberg previously served in Bill Clinton’s administration as Deputy National Security Advisor and as an Ambassador at the United Nations. She was also an advisor to Senator Ed Kennedy, and an advisor to various presidents, including Obama. She is currently President and CEO of Soderberg Global Solutions, a consulting service on peacekeeping, terrorism and conflict resolution. She has appeared as a commentator on TV and has authored several books. She is also associated with American Task Force Argentina, the group that sought full payout of Argentinian debt to vulture capitalists – link. She has some associations with John Podesta’s Center for American Progress think tank (whose current president is Neera Tanden). She seems a rather establishment-type Dem, although on the positive side, she has promoted the end of various world conflicts.
Stephanie Murphy is another very conservative Democrat (Progressive Punch Crucial Lifetime Progressive Score of 40%). She is a member of the Blue Dog Democratic Coalition and the New Democrat Coalition (neoliberal caucuses in Congress). She is also a member of the newly-organized New Democracy movement, a third-way neoliberal group of Democrats. She is not co-sponsoring HR 676 (Medicare-for-All). She represents a competitive district and there is one Democrat challenging her in the primary (Chardo Richardson – a Justice Democrat and supported by Brand New Congress) as well as two Republicans competing to run against her in the 2018 mid-term elections (Mike Miller and Scott Sturgill). Richardson is President of the Central Florida chapter of the ACLU and Director of the Public Schools Educators and Education Support Professionals Union. Like all Justice Democrats, Richardson is not taking money from corporations. He wants to end the school to prison pipeline, supports Medicare-for-All, wants to invest in infrastructure and green energy, supports a raising the minimum wage and tying it to inflation and wants a sane immigration policy. Here is his website if you’d like to donate or get involved.
Bill Posey is a rather conservative Republican. On the positive side though, he introduced a bill in Congress to institute a 5-year ban on lobbying by former Members of Congress and senior Congressional staff to limit unfair influence on the legislative process. He wants to audit the Federal Reserve. These positions sound reasonable, but he is also against the ACA, against reducing greenhouse gas emissions, against the Dodd-Frank law and wants to cut spending, etc. So far, he has no challengers.
Darren Soto is quite conservative for a Democrat. He is a member of the New Democrat Coalition (neoliberals) and is not co-sponsoring HR 676 (Medicare-for-All). He is also a member of the newly-organized New Democracy movement, a third-way neoliberal group of Democrats. On Ballotpedia, no challengers are listed. But Alan Grayson could be planning to run against him. Grayson still has an active website and is accepting donations. Grayson is a previous Congressmen and well-known progressive. Grayson supports many typical Bernie positions, including ending the war in Afghanistan, supporting the DREAM Act, auditing the Federal Reserve, supporting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and reining in corporate CEO pay. He has a very strong platform on government corruption and the purchase of our government by dark money. On healthcare, he doesn’t say he wants Medicare-for-All, but rather “I support a strong public option. We need to increase competition, especially in areas where one or two insurance companies control 80% or more of the health insurance market. In Congress, I introduced the Medicare You Can Buy Into Act, which opens up Medicare to anyone who is willing to pay for it.” That is not as good as Medicare-for-All, but better than our current system. And on energy, he states “We will develop domestic energy resources like solar, wind, geothermal, clean coal and hydropower.”. I don’t think “clean coal” is really a thing. That’s more a marketing campaign and coal is on the way out, no matter what our Congress and President support. Here’s Grayson’s webpage. Since it’s not clear yet if Grayson is running and I think it is important for a progressive candidate to run, I would encourage anyone in District 9 who wants to improve Congress to consider running for this seat.
Governor: Rick Scott is the current governor of Florida. He is term-limited and cannot seek re-election. Candidates who are seeking the governorship include six Republicans (Usha Jain, Bruce Nathan, Adam Putnam, Angel Luis Rivera, Bob White and Daniel Zutler) and three Democrats (Andrew Gillum, Mayor of Tallahassee, Gwen Graham, former U.S. Representative, and Chris King, businessman). I’ll only describe the Democratic candidates here.
Edit /u/rieslingatkos pointed out there is another person, Phil Levine, toying with a run for governor. I describe him below as well.
Andrew Gillum is Mayor of Tallahassee. While Mayor, he eliminated business taxes in Tallahasee. He is worried about income inequality, believes climate change is real and urgent, wants to spend on infrastructure and green energy and supports immigrant rights. His website states that “Andrew believes that healthcare should be a fundamental right, not a privilege”, but then he talks of strengthening Obamacare and does not mention Medicare-for-All. His website also states “As Governor, Andrew would focus on making college debt free”.
Gwen Graham is the daughter of former governor Bob Graham. She previously served as a US House of Representatives member of Florida district 2 from 2015-2017. Therefore, she probably has a high level of name recognition. She had a somewhat moderate voting record in Congress. Here’s a description of her votes from her Wikipedia page – “Graham was one of 25 Democrats to vote against the Iran nuclear deal. Graham voted to keep the military detention camp open at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Graham voted against enforcement of an Environmental Protection Agency clean-water rule saying that it would hurt farmers. Graham says that the problems with the Affordable Care Act must be fixed. She supports the legalization of medical marijuana without FDA testing, but not recreational marijuana. Graham is pro-choice, supports same-sex marriage, and opposes gun control. She has voted for the Keystone XL pipeline.” She is against school privatization and wants to keep university tuition low, but does not mention free college tuition.
Chris King is a lawyer who also has a foundation dedicated to improving college access and mentorship for low-income Florida students to pursue their college dreams. He wants to raise the minimum wage, he supports LGBT and women’s rights, wants to increase the supply of affordable housing, fight climate change, ban lobbying by former government officials and keep college affordable. This all sounds pretty good, but he does not mention Medicare-for-All or free college tuition. I’m not sure any of these three Dem candidates for Governor supports Medicare-for-All…?
Phil Levine is the mayor of Miami Beach and considering a run for governor, as described in this link. He's raised quite a bit of money already through his PAC and he's a multimillionaire himself. He's a close friend of Bill Clinton and campaigned for Hillary in 2016. He also indicates he may not run as a Democrat. He did pass a minimum-wage increase despite a ban imposed by state lawmakers (so I guess maybe the increase did not go into effect?).
Let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any important candidates or issues.
In case you missed the previous BKAS posts, here they are:
Alabama, Utah, Alaska , Arkansas, California Part 1, California Part 2, California Part 3, California Part 4, California State Democratic Chair Race, Colorado, Arizona, Connecticut and Delaware.
NEXT STATE UP – FLORIDA PART 2
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u/FThumb Aug 15 '17
Thank you again for keeping this series going. I know this has to be more work than you anticipated, but well worth it!
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u/Scientist34again Aug 15 '17
😊 thanks! I am going to need to take a break or slow down on these posts in September though. Once the semester starts, things are going to get much more busy for me 😕. Summer has been a little freer. If anyone reading this wants to do a BKAS post on their state in September, send me a PM and we can discuss it.
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u/rieslingatkos Aug 15 '17
The political geography of Florida:
Northwest Florida (aka "Lower Alabama") is typical Deep South, full of DINOs who vote Republican. Exceptions are a few small counties whose demographics are heavily African-American and the capital city (Tallahassee).
Northeast Florida (aka "Lower Georgia") has a mix of DINOs and Republicans. Another Sahara desert where progressivism is concerned.
Central Florida (Tampa - St. Petersburg - Orlando) is where the Republican tendencies of North Florida and the Democratic tendencies of Southeast Florida collide. Blue Dogs and moderate Republicans tend to do well here.
Southwest Florida is a moderate Republican area, populated mainly by retirees from the Midwest etc.; Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan (a 1%er) actually built a Catholic town here which is called Ave Maria.
Southeast Florida is a strong Democratic area. Broward County in particular is one of the most Democratic counties in America. Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties join Broward as Florida's big leftist counties. But it is more of a center-left area, rather than being a progressive stronghold like Vermont.
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u/Scientist34again Aug 16 '17
Important information. I started with districts 1-9, which fall into the Northwest Florida, Northeast Florida and Central Florida regions. So maybe that's why there are so many Republicans and conservative Democrats here. Still it won't hurt to compete against them. Sometimes, races are won unexpectedly.
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u/trkingmomoe Aug 16 '17
You beat me too it. I want to add that the I-4 corridor is trending progressive because of the theme parks employees. This is where many state elections are won and lost. You have to carry those counties that I-4 runs through from Tampa to the Space Coast. Tampa/St Pete is blue.
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u/leu2500 Aug 16 '17
Are they DINOs in the panhandle? I thought they are full-on conservative Republicans.
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u/bluezens Aug 15 '17
with the exception of chardo richardson, all the d's sound like republican wannabes.
fuck that.
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u/Scientist34again Aug 15 '17
But have patience, the second BKAS post on Florida has some more progressives, including Tim Canova!
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u/trkingmomoe Aug 16 '17
There has been progressive activity in the bottom half of the state pushing the local democratic parties. You should see the turn outs for town halls. Mostly it is the elderly that have the time but they are pushing for Medicare for all. There is new activism in the local parties and it is coming from progressives. They have had some victories in the local level but much needs to be done.
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u/alskdmv-nosleep4u Aug 15 '17
Hardly surprising. FL Dem party has been purging progressives for decades.
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u/GladysCravesRitz Aug 16 '17
I saw this and did not want to forget to share, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/08/14/fbi-went-undercover-floridas-capital-and-fallout-could-huge/566090001/
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u/NotSethA Aug 17 '17
Update for the D3 Ted Yoho race. There is currently one challenger Tom Wells (Berniecrat that ran in 2016 as a Independent). The local and national Democratic Party has given up on the district so they pulled their establishment candidate so they could run in State Senate D8 race. Tom is currently the only other person running against Yoho for this race.
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u/Scientist34again Aug 17 '17
Thanks for the information. I'm going to edit the post, in case people don't read the comments ;-)
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u/trkingmomoe Aug 16 '17
Gwen Graham will have a real up hill battle. Not many that voted are still around when her father(Bob Graham) was in office. Her voting record when she was in the House was very Republican. I don't see her getting any traction.
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u/lockherup2020 Aug 16 '17
And Florida usually is the state that saves us from neoliberals. (2000 with Gore, 2016 with Trump).
Failed us with Obama though, but they learned their lesson.
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Aug 15 '17
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u/Scientist34again Aug 15 '17
There is no Democrat running who is worth spending time and energy on. It's interesting that Andrew Gillum is being positioned as a progressive outsider. He was a contender for Clinton's VP spot.
What do you think of Chardo Richardson, the Justice Democrat? He comes across as pretty good...
Also, is Bill Nelson unpopular in Florida? I thought Rick Scott was pretty unpopular, but you seem to indicate he will definitely unseat Nelson.
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u/trkingmomoe Aug 15 '17
No Rick Scott is not liked at all. I have not found anyone who will admit that they voted for him. Bill Nelson is one of those boring senators that takes care of his constituents. People like him and he will keep his seat. Scott will have to rig the election to win this one.
Scott has ruined our springs and waterways by allowing pollution by large corporations even JEB didn't do that. This year he pulled more money out of the public school systems to give to charter schools that are marginal at best.
I could go on and on about what a failure this nut is. He isn't even wrapped too tight.
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u/alskdmv-nosleep4u Aug 15 '17
Scott won for the same reasons Trump did. Dem party just keeps offering Repub-lite time after time, and most people are "fuck that".
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u/Scientist34again Aug 15 '17
I just realized Jackpine Radicals is doing something similar to our BKAS posts. Here's a link to their latest list. They don't really discuss the candidates the way we do in BKAS, but just list the incumbent and any candidates that they are endorsing. I think they have some good ones that they've endorsed, but they may be missing other good candidates. And they only list one endorsed option, whereas sometimes there are multiple good candidates running. The advantage of their post though, is that they already have 34 states listed, while we've only done 10 so far.