Florida Dems are in a fighting mood— among themselves

TALLAHASSEE — When Rep. Anna Eskamani of Orlando returns to the state Capitol thismonthto start hersecondterm, something will be missing: Five fellow Democrats.

“My friends are gone, and that pisses me off,” Eskamani, a blunt-talking leader of the party’s progressive wing, toldme.

Five House Democrats lost to Republicans on Tuesday, including Reps. Cindy Polo of Miramar, Delores Hogan Johnson of Port St. Lucie and Jennifer Webb of St. Petersburg, all after one term. Republicans added victories in Democrat-held seats in Miami-Dade and Sarasota to clinch a total of 78House seats to the Democrats’ 42.

Riding President Donald J. Trump’ s coattails, the GOP also won two open Senate seats and could win a third, pending a recount of ballots in Miami. Republicans finished painting the town red by picking off two Democratic members of Congress in Miami-Dade.

Democrats should have seen it coming, andthat’s part of the problem. Amonthago in this column, Rep. Joe Geller, D-Aventura, cited Trump’s many problems and the disruption caused by the pandemic and made this prediction :“I don’t think this is a good year for Republicans.” In fact, itwas a terrific year for Florida Republicans.

Now, in the aftermath of their latestd rubbing, Democrats are blaming themselves, with some demanding a party house-cleaning

confrontation is building between the party’ s younger progressive wing and older traditional liberals and moderates over the future. Let it rip. These are Democrats, after all. The so-called circular firing squad is practically part of the party’s bylaws.

Disappointed by the Democrats’ ground game and what she sees as a failure to counter act Trump’ s talk of“socialism” in Miami, Eskamani wants the resignations of Party Chair Terrie Rizzo and executive director Juan Peñalosa.

She blames the pair for a blunder that reverberated in races across the state: a request for $780,000 in PP P loans from the federal government. The money was sent back, but the damage was done. Republicans flogged Democrats over the loan and made false allegations that the cash was funneled to specific Democratic campaigns.

“There’s a pattern here of corporate money holding back Democrats from being the party of working people,” Eskamanisaid. In aprogressive refrain, she said Democrats are too beholden to big-money interests such as Disney, U.S. Sugar and Florida Power & Light, who will always shower Republicans with many more millions to protect GOP majorities in Tallahassee.

Eskamani, who’s often mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for governor in 2022, says reliance on corporate money is why the state party and some leading Democrats were so lukewarm in support of the $15- an-hour minimum wage amendment, which passed with 60.3 percent of the vote.

“They throw crumbs at us, and that keeps us quiet,” she said. “We’re a moderate, corporate-driven party.”

Geller is disgusted by such talk. He called it “ridiculous” tha tDemocrats are a tool of corporate interests, andthat it’s “stupid” to make party leaders’ heads roll after Tuesday’s losses.

“I’m against scapegoating and finger-pointing,” Geller told me. “I’m for analysis and hard decisions about messaging ... When you don’ t win, mistakes were made.”

On a call Wednesday with Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo of Miami and South Florida House members, Geller said everyone agreed that their party’s messaging failed and its “status quo hierarchy” is notworking.

Democrats focused on the pandemic more as a health issue than the economic threat that it is to Florida families. They also didn’t register or turn out enough new voters.

Geller noted that Democrats suffered state-level losses across the country Tuesday night. But that won’t fix what ails Florida Democrats.

Geller, 66, has been around Democratic politics for decades and is a former chairman.of the Miami-Dade party. He remembers earlier intra-party wars that ended disastrously in the 1998 fiasco that unseated Rep. Willie Logan of Opa-locka as House Democratic leader in a badly-executed coup with racial overtones. Historical perspective matters, but the 30-year-old Eskamani represents the party’s future.

To put Tuesday in perspective, Florida House Democrats took a beating in 2004, the year GeorgeW. Bush beat JohnKerry. The leader of that34-member caucus, Dan Gel ber, now the mayor of Miami Beach, said at the time :“We keep looking into the abyss and finding there ismore abyss.”

The description fits the present. With redistricting and races for governor and U.S. Senate on the horizon in 2022, Florida Democrats need to quickly develop better strategy and messaging. AsGeller said: “In truth, we have problems.”