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Posted on 04/14/2005 7:06:03 AM PDT by dukeman
TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Democratic Party has started 2005 with its worst fund-raising quarter in recent history, raising about $270,000 in the first three months of this year, compared with nearly $3 million by the Republican Party of Florida.
FDP chairman Scott Maddox was unavailable for comment Wednesday because of a family emergency. Party spokesman Allie Merzer said the downturn was expected after a campaign season in which the party raised millions.
"There's always a lull in fund raising because all the sources are tapped out," Merzer said. "The fund-raising goal for those first few months (after an election) is to raise enough to keep the lights on and the doors open as you start to gear up for the next cycle of elections."
This is the least amount of money raised by the party in any quarter since at least 1996, as far back as the state's online records go.
In similar reporting periods -- the first quarter following an election year -- the previous low came in 1997 when the party raised about $473,000. The previous low in any quarter since 1996 was $352,000 in the second quarter of 2003, shortly after Maddox took over the party.
Maddox is leaving in May, after revealing in March his well-known plan to run for statewide office next year. The former mayor of Tallahassee has yet to say if he will run for governor, attorney general or chief financial officer.
The party's power is at an all-time low in Florida. Democrats hold none of the four statewide elected seats and one of the two U.S. Senate seats that are elected statewide -- Sen. Bill Nelson's. And Republicans control the state House and Senate by a 2-to-1 margin. [The only locally-elected Dem in my part of Florida is the Tax Collector!]
Some have criticized Maddox's dual role as party leader and unannounced candidate, saying it hurt the party's ability to raise money from supporters of the two declared Democratic gubernatorial candidates -- state Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, and U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa.
"There's currently a void in the party leadership," said state Sen. Steven Geller, D-Hallandale Beach. "Obviously, people that are supporting either Rod Smith or Jim Davis have been unwilling to raise money for the party. I don't know why (Maddox) hasn't seen this."
Merzer said that's not the case and that Maddox has stayed focused on the party's health. "It really is a symptom of (donors) being tapped out," she said, adding there are no looming elections to use as a sales pitch. "It was a hard sell to fund-raisers."
Both Smith and Davis out-raised the party in the first three months of the year. Smith raised about $350,000; Davis raised about $420,000.
House Minority Leader Chris Smith defended Maddox, saying the GOP fund-raising juggernaut makes it hard for any Democrat to raise money. "I don't think Scott Maddox could do anything about it," he said. [All your fundraising are belong to us!]
Rod Smith declined to comment on the party's leadership.
"That will be for others to judge, but I think they'll make those judgments," Smith said when asked if Maddox's lame duck role had hurt fund-raising.
"No one is going to be successful running statewide or locally if the party is crippled," Smith said. "It's critically important that we focus the party leadership on the success of the party, that we divorce it from any individual agendas."
Chris Smith saved his outrage for the big bucks given to the Republican Party. Among the big donors so far this year: gambling interests, which gave tens of thousands of dollars to the party as lawmakers consider setting a tax rate for Broward County slot machines. "That concerns me," said Smith, "that the Republican party has just totally given up to special interests."
RPOF spokesman Joseph Agostini called such Democrat feelings "sour grapes."
"My suggestion would be that the Democrats stop their bellyaching and do what we did so successfully," Agostini said, alluding to the Republican takeover of Tallahassee in the past 10 years.
A group led by Geller, Florida Mainstream Democrats, had sniped with Maddox earlier this year, declining to invite him to the group's first statewide meeting.
Maddux called the group, largely composed of pro-Smith, south Florida lawmakers, "liberals" who didn't understand how to win votes in rural north Florida.
Still, the group collected $44,000 in late February and early March and gave it all to the party. Among the biggest contributors -- $25,000 from the Miccosukee Tribe, which is angling to upgrade its casino offerings.
Both Merzer and Geller said the party shares the same goal with the "Mainstream" group of electing Democrats around the state.
The Democrat Party's filing with state Department of Elections this week contained the individualized salaries of the party's full-time staff. Contrary to both state and federal law, that information had not been reported since late 2003, replaced by a lump-sum listing.
This quarter's report showed Maddox is making $3,229.17 per bi-weekly pay period -- about $80,000 per year. Merzer said the party is revising old reports for both federal and state election offices to fix the omissions.
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Onward to victory,
Can't say I blame the Democratics for feeling a bit low. I've read time and again over at the DUmmie site that the RATS won both the 2000 and 2004 elections.
They have reams and reams of proof, each ream more irrefutable than the last, and yet no one will listen.
Wanna shut 'em up? Next time they start in with that nonsense, agree with them wholeheartedly. Then tell them that means George W. Bush can run for President in 2008 and 2012, since he hasn't yet been elected. :-)
Understandable. The entire Dimocrat family has an emergency. It's called Delusional Whymecanotwinitus.
P/S ... I do not respond to the ... "Don't take them for granted, we've got to work harder" crowd, and you can't make me. ;)
Yes, they've been undefeated for years, haven't they? Perhaps '06 and '08 will go just as well. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
True "Florida Mainstream Democrats," religious, fiscally conservative, concerned about national defense, are now called "Republicans."
You got it!
For the first time in '04, I finally heard national presidential election commentators point out that north Florida just ain't south Florida when it comes to politics. We get all kinds of people here, but they tend to gravitate to different political pockets of the state.
You must be from my area. Several Dems switched over to Rep recently accentuating the democratic downturn.
I passed the Kerry headquarters many times before the election. They were busy little bees there, working hard for their man. So sad to see people so deluded. The day after, the HQ was a ghost town.
They worked really hard, to the point of robbing Repub HQ the day before, vandalizing Young R, and removing every single Bush sign they could find. (We kept trying to replace them but the Dems had a obsession about them).
And they still lost. They have to have been a little dispirited for a while.
Unfortunately, there are at least 9 RINOs in those ranks. We still have plenty of work to do, rather than getting lazy.
My father-in-law is a registered democrat and hasn't voted with that party in over 25-30 years. There are many more where he comes from.
The main drain on this state is SE Florida, and most of them are from the Northeast. Need I say more.
If they're hoping for Bill Nelson to have coat-tails that Hillery can ride on, they're about two-years off. Nelson stands for re-election in 2006, not 2008, due to U.S. Senators' six-year-terms.
Is there no end to the power of Diebold?
most of the south florida liberals are New England transplants. Most are retired and elderly. Their is a big problem of late with the democrats having a dying member crisis.
In addition there is the unspoken minor problem of many registered democrats being registed only as a democrat because the Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties essentially had a democrat dominated machines so if you did not vote in the democrat party primary you never got to vote. (that was changed but people don't change parties too often, especially if they can then use their vote to vote for the silly candidate.)
This should not be a perscription for complacency. Absentee ballot fraud is a MAJOR problem in the elderly rich south florida.
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