Obama, Democrats Start Early In Broward
BY BUDDY NEVINS
The 2012 Election is more than a year and a half away.
Republicans still have to suffer through more than a year of bellowing from a dizzying array of presidential candidates.
Team Obama is not waiting.
The Obama campaign organization is already in Broward County. They just scheduled an April 2 training program for volunteers to teach voters registration and how to use the Democrat’s computer data.
The workshop is a joint effort by Obama’s Organizing for America and the Florida Democratic Party. It will be chaired by state Rep. Franklin Sands of Weston, who is the new state party official in charge in South Florida.
Sands got appointed to his new job earlier this year. I wrote about it here.
Helping Sands with the workshop is the doyenne of Broward politics Barbara Miller.
She did well in the 2010 judicial races, which I wrote about here. Miller and state Party Chair Rod Smith are long-time friends.
Miller is excited about the program.
The April 2 training program “is about grass roots,” Miller said. “We need people who will knock on doors and make phone calls.”
She said a major problem the Democrats have is motivating voters. She believes a well-tuned get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operation can reverse recent trends where “the election results we have had statewide is not a reflection of how many Democrats we have in Florida.”
So true. More Floridians call themselves Democrats than anything else.
There were 4.617 million Democrats, 4.049 million Republicans and 2.581 million independents or minor party members as of Feb. 28.
Why Democrats Need To Start Early
Democrats know that they need to win big in Broward to carry the state.
In 2008, Obama carried Broward by about 255,000 votes. Since the president only won Florida by about 236,000 votes, you can see how important Broward was to the fate of Democrats.
Team Obama realizes that Broward is the last Democratic stronghold in Florida, a state that is becoming more and more Red. One just has to look at Sumter County to see the Democrat’s problem.
Sumter was once largely known for Wildwood, the terminus of Florida’s Turnpike. The county was filled with conservative Democrats who helped elect candidates like Lawton Chiles and Reubin Askew.
Through the 1990s, Sumter remained marginally Democratic in presidential elections. Bill Clinton carried the county by slightly over 1,000 in 1996.
The voting patterns changed when an influx of Republican seniors started to fill the newly-built massive Villages retirement community.
Now Sumter is known as a smaller Republican equivalent of Broward — a county full of GOP condo voters. Every Republican candidate now holds rallies in the Villages, just like Democrats do in Broward’s condos.
By 2008, Obama lost Sumter County by more than 13,200 votes.
Note: Obama lost Sumter by more than the total ballots cast for the major candidates in the 1996 election. The new voters, many now living in the Villages, are Republican.
This trend is happening all over Florida.
Does any Democrat question the need to start early in Broward?
March 28th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
Why no mention of Mitch Ceasar and the BDEC?
FROM BUDDY:
Broward Democratic Chair Mitch Ceasar will be out of town when this workshop is held. There are DEC officers involved.
Ceasar told me that he has already held training sessions for DEC members and others earlier this year. He will be holding more in the future.
March 28th, 2011 at 1:38 pm
No mention because National Dems smart enough to operate outside (less cynical will say parallel to) BDEC. They dont need the headache and dysfunctional apparatus. That recognition is why they will do so well in Broward. A true grassroots effort without the BDEC baggage. By the way, BDEC proved it cant GOTV in 2010 and look what we are living with now. This is the time to change BDEC and make it relevant for national politics too!
March 28th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Ceaser and Judy Stern had a training session out at Davie Town Hall.
March 28th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Michael J. Satz has a big surprise coming.
March 28th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Barack Hassein Obama will not win Florida because Floridians are smart and they know that Obamacare and his other programs are a step towards SOCIALISM. Americans will sorry about the socialist garbage that Barack Hassien Obama left behind for years.
March 28th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Oh please, Red. The garbage is the boring stuff you write.
March 29th, 2011 at 2:02 am
I don’t know if I can face it again. I don’t think that I can. Trying to get inexperienced, sometime voters to actually show up and vote is a long slog, and it’s too much of a burden on the volunteers in the streets and on the phones. While the rest of us try to educate the working poor, single women, minority voters and youth that they must register in time and then actually vote, the party operatives at the top are removed, out of touch and intent on creating a cult of personality around Barack Obama. Tons and tons of printed sheets of white paper, stickers, smiling photos, slogans, call sheets and canvassing packets, and all for the pretense that one guy’s charm and personality will lead the way.
It would be so much easier if there were truly policies that directly and immediately benefit ordinary working people, along with some rhetoric from the President that alludes to the nation and the states being confronted not by an opposing party, but by extremists imposing social Darwinism on what once was the middle class in order to confiscate wealth for their cronies. Instead, the campaign will likely be a slew of Obama-bots slaving after their god-like idol. Personally, I really don’t care who is in charge. I care only about an administration, a cabinet and a party apparatus that is oriented towards the needs of everyday Americans.
Instead, it’s get-out-the-vote to combat the diabolically evil GOP so that we can try to win Florida for Government Sachs. I am not thrilled at the prospects. Perhaps they should spend some of the expected billion dollars for the campaign on lots and lots of TV and radio ads that will convince naive voters to show up and vote along with the politically aware. Otherwise, the burden is on volunteers knocking and knocking and dialing and dialing, all so that the Democratic Party can offer us KY as an alternative to the Republican option of using our own blood as a lubricant.
If the Broward DEC wants to truly get in the thick of the campaign and get Mitch Ceasar actually personally involved… well, I’d want a piece of whatever he’s making on the deal.
March 29th, 2011 at 6:19 am
AMwakeupcall hit the nail on the head…it ain’t happening in Broward unless Mitch and Diane are getting a piece of the action.
March 29th, 2011 at 7:13 am
Jesus was a Democrat. I know that’s true because I read his book.
March 29th, 2011 at 7:46 am
The Truth says that Obama’s reelection is out of the hands of either Mitch Ceasar or the Florida Democratic Party. People will decided on who to vote for on their own based the economy and international events in Nov 2012. If people have money in the bank and a job, Obama gets a second term. If the economy sucks, Obama is a one-termer. If we are still bogged down in three wars, Obama is a one-termer. GOTV will not change that formula. The Truth has spoken.
March 29th, 2011 at 7:51 am
Dear RedFlorida. I’m sure you are a god-fearing, ultra patriot, tax hating, etc., etc., “real American,” but if you want to insult the President of the United States by using his “arab” middle name, please get the spelling right.
March 29th, 2011 at 9:22 am
Buddy is right. The Democrats (especially President Obama) need to win Broward with not only a big margin (about 65%) but a big turnout. A trained junebug could win a majority in Broward if the junebug were a Democrat, but that is not enough to win statewide. They also need to win at least 60% of the vote in Leon (Tall), Alachua (Gainesville), and Palm Beach, and then at least split the I-4 corridor. Only then do they even have a 50/50 chance of winning.
Kevin
March 29th, 2011 at 11:23 am
after the GOP picks a face the crazies will pick a 3rd party candidate and Obama will romp….(to Suzie..i am a regular recipent on a number of right wing daily email blasts…these people a scary…when they come out of hiding in an open blog I cant resist calling a spade a spade)
March 29th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I don’t want to rain on their parade, or whatever they are having, but it will be a waste of time from a state-wide perspective.
March 30th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
congragulations to Franklin Sands in less then 3 months as the southern area reach out of the Democratic party,u manged to splinter the Broward Democratic party.
Babara Miller,does that mean Neil Sterling too.wowwwwwwwwwww great job Franklin your a mess