With barely four weeks to go until the election, it’s pretty clear what the Florida Democrats’ game plan is for November. It’s all about beating Rick Scott.
The Florida Democrats have put most of their chips on Charlie Crist who, only 22 months ago, wasn’t even a member of the party. Sure, the Florida Democrats will sometimes turn their focus away from the gubernatorial contest to lob a few attacks at Steve Southerland or Carlos Curbelo. There’s even the occasional potshot at Carl Domino, who isn’t exactly likely to close in on Patrick Murphy in the final stages of the election.
But almost every Democratic egg is in Crist’s basket. Sometimes, George Sheldon, who Crist — then a Republican — beat out for education commissioner in 2000, tags along to his former rival’s events as he runs against Pam Bondi. Agriculture commissioner candidate Thad Hamilton barely gets acknowledged as he runs against Adam Putnam. William Rankin, who is running against Jeff Atwater, gets even less love from the Florida Democrats, probably due to his shady past.
As for the Legislature, the Democrats aren’t making any inroads there. It’s mathematically impossible for them to flip the Senate in November. They also could lose a seat since Maria Sachs is in close rematch with Ellyn Bogdanoff. The only Senate seat the Democrats can realistically pick up is the one held by Jeff Brandes, but he is a favorite to beat Judithanne McLauchlan. On the House side, things look bleak for Democrats as some of the freshmen, mostly based in Central Florida, who rode in on Barack Obama’s and Bill Nelson’s coattails in 2012, look vulnerable.
Even if Democrats win their first gubernatorial election in 20 years, not a sure bet by any means, they still face challenges to make their party competitive with the Republicans. The ease a former Republican like Crist had in winning their gubernatorial nomination shows just how weak the Democrats’ bench is. Nor does the rest of the ticket offer much promise in a has-been like Sheldon who has failed miserably when he ran for statewide office before and total unknowns like Hamilton and Rankin.
In the meantime, the Democrats do have some rising stars on their hands in the likes of Patrick Murphy, Ted Deutch, Amanda Murphy, Alvin Brown, Darren Soto, Katie Edwards and possibly Gwen Graham. But a lot of the Democrats’ former rising stars are already off the scene or going nowhere: Alex Sink, Rod Smith, Suzanne Kosmas, Dan Gelber, Scott Maddox, Darryl Jones, Jessica Ehrlich, Dave Aronberg, perhaps Val Demings whose star has really flickered since she almost beat Dan Webster in 2012.
No doubt about it — Democrats need to rebuild badly in Florida if they want to compete outside of presidential years and the occasional gubernatorial race. Whatever happens in the gubernatorial contest, Democrats can’t place all their chips on a single candidate if they want to be competitive year in and year out.