We All Lost This Election-Even Our Winners

By Jerry Waxman

First of all, let me congratulate all of the candidates from both parties who took part in the recent elections. You are all special people. I only wish that more people had voted for both you and your opponents, about four times more people. Why? Because a twenty per cent vote is in no way indicative of any geographical district and only reflects the money spent on targeted voters. This has been a troubling trend for many years.

Back in 1980 Paul Weyrich, a Republican operative who was instrumental in founding both The Heritage Foundation and The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) told a crowd of 15000 conservative preachers:

“Now many of our Christians have what I call the “goo goo” syndrome. Good Government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

As bad as voter suppression is, especially with what is happening in Florida and other states with Republican governors and legislatures, that is no excuse for the pathetic turnout in the Aug. 14^th primary. The Democrats outnumber the Republicans in the county by huge margins, yet they lag far behind in activities, fund raising and precinct captains. The Republicans have far more precinct positions filled that the Democrats and have well over 200 members on their rolls; the Democrats barely reach 100 in membership.

To his credit OCDEC Chairman Scott Randolph has tried to rectify this imbalance and as a result membership is up for the time being. The shame of it is that due to redistricting he is not running for re-election for the house where he was an effective minority legislator and constant thorn in the side of Dean Cannon. Unfortunately, this is an election year and what the Democrats have is a young, inexperienced Precincts chair that has spent more time working on one campaign or another than tending to business. It is critical to fill those positions as quickly as possible. Precinct Committee people should be the first line of action in getting people involved and filling those vacancies will get more people involved. There’s room for at least 200 precinct members more and if Democrats want to win locally those positions are important. A bigger turnout might have changed some if not all of those races; after all if people don’t vote they have no right to complain about their representation.

Now that the general election is on the horizon local Democrats need to be keenly aware that they will have no coattails from the Obama people. It didn’t happen in 2008 and it won’t happen this year either. The local races still have a bigger impact on our daily lives than the big national ones. Local races put people in office who can affect our everyday lives a lot more than Paul Ryan can. Locally elected politicians determine what our schools get and how they run, how much we pay in local taxes, how our local health care system functions, and if you don’t think that is important then you’re brain dead. Local apathy kept two good progressives out of the runoff in County Commission District 3. Local apathy allowed the incumbent commissioner in District 5 to continue his disgraceful non-voting record. Local apathy from Democrats in HD 49 allowed for a lopsided race that should at least have been tighter. Local apathy (and expenditures of over $100,000.00 each), in two Ninth Circuit races, allowed for incumbent judges to continue their intolerant and insensitive ways. This shouldn’t have been. With two high stakes county races and two high profile congressional races in the mix Republicans managed to turn out more voters than Democrats but not by real significant numbers unless you consider that Democrats hold a countywide advantage of 80,000 votes. That’s an absolutely shameful performance.

The Ashton Lamar race probably would not have changed much nor would the Demmings Green race, but big numbers are always more impressive and show voter trends more than small ones. The only trend that small numbers show is that people just don’t care, and for that we all lose.

By Jerry Waxman

 

*Author’s Note-I am an independent advisor to the Shayan Elahi Campaign. I have no responsibility for managing it, my opinions are strictly my own and I am not being compensated. I would normally only offer my endorsement, however, the circumstances here are extraordinary and I feel compelled to let the sun shine through this miasma.

The Real Deal vs. the Interloper

Early on in late 2011few people in OCDEC knew who Joe Saunders was. He worked for Equality Florida in the Progressive Center. His job was to promote, raise money and advocate for narrowly defined equality issues in Florida. He regularly went to Tallahassee and met with other groups to influence legislators, as well as he met with city and county officials for the same purpose. It’s called lobbying even though he’s not a registered lobbyist. Frankly, the work he was doing was and is admirable. All of a sudden he started showing up at Democratic Party meetings and in quick succession he was appointed Chairman of the Fund Raising Committee by Party Chair Scott Randolph. All of a sudden a host of new members were coming into the party, many of whom were also working at the Progressive Center and those members were also being appointed to committee chairmanships, although  untried and untested. Randolph thought he had inherited a cash cow in Saunders that would help propel him to Florida Party Chair to replace Rod Smith. The best way to effect that was to promote Joe and others for legislative seats in Tallahassee so he could be looked at as a kingmaker. District 49 was an open seat in East Orlando, and in a redistricting year Joe didn’t actually have to live in the district to run. Since Joe was capable of raising significant money Randolph and others in party leadership got behind him. Joe was raising money and primed to be the sole Democratic candidate in House District 49.

Unfortunately for Joe and Scott, Shayan Elahi put a crimp in their plans. Elahi is a 24 year resident of the district who works as a criminal defense and civil rights attorney and at the time was the Affirmative Action Chair of OCDEC. Elahi is famous for representing Orlando Food not Bombs and many of the Occupy Orlando activists. He also works closely with the ACLU, the Florida Civil Rights Commission and other legal organizations. He did participate heavily in the Trayvon Martin discussions having been a guest on many network and cable news shows. At that point Joe’s backers including party leadership started a negative whispering campaign against Elahi implying that he and his staff are too radical, undisciplined and too unprofessional to be considered seriously. Seriously?……… Seriously!  The same party people who were in love with him two years ago and backed him 100% in his run for Circuit Court judge are now running away from him because he’s radical? What bunk! Successful attorneys have to be both disciplined and professional. That he represents supposedly fringe groups is what civil rights are all about. No. They’re against Elahi because he’s thinning out their cash cow. They also said that Shayan couldn’t raise money. They were proven wrong on that too, so they had to change tactics; they had to build a carefully crafted image of Joe. The only way to do that was to misrepresent who he is and what he does. Why not? Everyone does it. Well, no, actually they don’t. There are people like Shayan who are the real deal, and then there are interlopers like Joe who aren’t.

To hear Joe’s campaign tell the story Joe’s family has lived and worked in the district for a long, long time. As a student he constantly fought for and advocated for his issues and he has been doing that ever since. The problem with that is that Joe is from Broward County and other than the years he spent at UCF he never again lived there. He was a registered voter in Broward until recently and never connected with people there. Up until the other day he was living in the Williamsburg area with his partner, but now is sharing space with his brother near the UCF campus. He only yesterday changed his address at the SOE office and voted. So, let’s peel away the well-crafted veneer of the Joe Saunders candidacy and really examine who he is.

All of his campaign literature shows him fighting for families. One piece, well-staged even implied that he was a family man with a wife and child in a crowd of adoring relatives even if you include Jack and Margo Dixon, Democratic strategists, in the family. Sources say that the photo shoot took place outside district 49. Very misleading. His work for Equality Florida should be all consuming, yet he claims that he also works tirelessly at the Osceola Center for the Arts advocating for education, as a volunteer. The fact is that he’s only there because that’s where his (former) roommate works. His claims that he helped keep Planned Parenthood alive are way overstated. He didn’t even join their Board until a full month after he announced.  He has been taking credit for causes that he has worked on only in the periphery much the same way a football player piles on to a runner after the tackle. No one is accusing him of not doing good work, however padding the resume’ is risky business.

His relentless seeking of endorsements is also of concern. He sought the endorsement of the UCF College Professors neglecting to tell them that he had a democratic opponent. Once they found out they also endorsed Shayan. When Joe sought the endorsement of the AFL-CIO unions the Central Florida Labor Council balked and also influenced the statewide unions to withhold endorsements. Desperate for endorsements Joe went after other statewide unions including the FEA who did endorse without ever vetting his opponent. Joe now claims he has Florida’s Teachers, which again is dishonest because the local unions including the Orange County CTA and the Osceola County CTA (where he claims to work) have not endorsed him. He got Buddy Dyer’s endorsement which means little or nothing in District 49 but after Shayan embarrassed the city in the Food not Bombs case there’s no way Dyer would endorse Elahi.

When the Elahi campaign took Joe to task over his claims he cried foul and got Scott Randolph involved. Randolph and much of party leadership had been acting unethically by openly supporting Joe. There were no lies and there were no misrepresentations in Shayan’s literature; there were simply comparisons and contrasts. If Joe’s ego is that fragile he’s in the wrong business.

The Saunders campaign hit back with its most recent mailer, which is from one of Joe’s legally questionable PACs with completely misleading claims. They completely took Elahi’s FCAT remarks out of context and claimed that Elahi wanted more testing. The statements are completely untrue. Add to that the claim again that he has the support of Florida’s Teachers; it is pure fantasy. Joe or his handlers and funders should have more integrity than that, yet they are the first to cry unfair when they are caught. Is Joe’s campaign being run by the Republican Party? The Central Florida AFL-CIO upon hearing this news sent out an e-mail blast at 5:00 PM today to all member affiliates urging them to e-mail blast all of their members as to the Saunders campaign’s disrespect of their decisions and misuse of endorsements.

The final outrage came on Aug. 10 when the Political Hurricane, under the title “Is Joe Saunders vs. Shayan Elahi Really Scott Randolph vs. Doug Head?”  It is a pure and simple hit piece on Doug Head, former chair of OCDEC because of his backing of Shayan Elahi. Dave Trotter the head guy at PH is a recalcitrant Saunders supporter regardless of the facts presented to him. Doug Head is capable of fighting and winning his own battles and he laughed off the article. Doug neither wants to control nor chair the party again. He just wants Randolph to do his job properly and stop advocating for Joe in the primary along with others in party leadership.” What Scott and the others are doing is against the bylaws of the party and highly unethical” said Head. “He needs to concentrate on building the party, not tearing it apart.”

What this boils down to is winning at any cost regardless of who the candidate is. Joe Saunders the pretender whose funders and handlers have mislead everyone or the real deal, Shayan Elahi who actively fought in court and participated in the labor rallies, the civil rights rallies the March Against the War on Women Rally, The Awake the State rally, the Redistricting battles as well as the Domestic Partner Registry, and a host of others. It’s all real and all on video. Where was Joe during all of this? Missing! If the real Joe Saunders had been running in this race honestly it might have been a more interesting and less contentious race. Let’s send the real deal to Tallahassee. Vote for Shayan Elahi.

By Jerry Waxman

Prior to this year the date June 28 produced a few blips on the radar of some historical significance. Here’s a sampling:

1846   Adolph Sax patents the saxophone

1902  Congress passes the Spooner Act authorizing the building of the Panama Canal

1914  WWI begins with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

1919  WWI ends with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles

1922  The Irish Civil War begins

1942  Germany expanded the war in Russia

1969 The Stonewall Riots begin

1978  The US Supreme Court bars the college quota system

Notable birthdays on this date include:

1491  British Monarch Henry VIII

1577  Artist Peter Paul Reubens

1703  Theologian John Wesley, founder of Methodism

1712  Philosopher Jean Jaques Rousseau

1873  Nobel Prize Winner Luigi Pirandello

1902  Composer Richard Rodgers

1902  Public Enemy John Dillinger

1909  Author Eric Ambler

1920  Author A.E. Hotchner

1926  Comic Genius Mel Brooks

1931  Racing Legend Junior Johnson

1934  U.S Senator Carl Levin

1938  Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta

1941  Pitcher Al Downing, who seved up Hank Aaaron’s 715^th home run.

1946  Actress Gilda Radner

1966  Actor John Cusack

By all accounts it was an ordinary day. Events happen, some special and not so special people are born and some special and not so special people die. It would be nice to think that it was an uneventful day but history demands that things happen which affect all of us and it chose June 28, 2012. Now I can never celebrate my birthday alone again. No, I can never again have the anonymity of only sharing my birthday with my daughter and my cousin.

Three things of note happened on June 28 which will go down in history. The Supreme Court 5-4 ruling upholding the Affordable Health Care Act will have the most impact and will be debated ad infinite for years to come. This decision, which could have come anytime in the last two weeks day sucked the air out of any other news story that happened:

1.  In a heavily partisan vote the House of Representatives (including 17 Democrats) shamelessly and shamefully held Attorney General Eric Holder guilty in Contempt of Congress for doing his job properly.

1. The Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) kicked off its national voter registration campaign in the historic town of Eatonville, Florida.

Let’s not waste any time on the SCOTUS decision because everyone else is going to put their two cents in for a long time. The only benefit of this decision is that Republican states will resist so heavily that it is fuel for Sharpton’s fire in energizing minority communities to register and vote. Let’s also not waste any time on the contempt charges either because they are meaningless. Again, it could fuel the fire if properly identified and used in the voter drives. What is more important is why only a relative handful of people were there in Eatonville for something as important as a national kickoff.

Eatonville was chosen because it was the first black incorporated town in the United States. During the Reconstruction period after the Civil War in 1882, Joseph C. Clarke bought land from Josiah C. Eaton, a white man who was willing to sell his land to Blacks. Clarke began selling lots to black families from Maitland, Orlando and Winter Park. On August 15 of 1887, the residents voted to incorporate. Eatonville was a way for the black community to create its own culture and town without having to deal with being subject to the white man’s rules. Eatonville is best known for its Zora Neale Hurston Arts Festival and the Zora Neale Hurston Library, which opened in 2004. Hurston was a mainstay of the Harlem Renaissance during the early part of the 20^th Century. Much of her writing deals with her growing up in Eatonville.

NAN issued its press release on Monday, June 25, which gave people enough time to publicize the event properly. The network of churches and activists sent out their fliers yet only two local television stations and one local news organization were there to cover the event. This should have been covered by all the National news media.There were about sixty people at the invitation only luncheon and only a handful of activists showed up, some of whom were running for political office. Nobody knows more about generating publicity than Al Sharpton, so it seemed awfully strange that there wasn’t more activity generated. It also seems that an organization such as NAN travels awfully light with just a handful of people yet no media person and no advance team. NAN has been around since 1991 and they should have this down pat. Al Sharpton is a master at what he does and if you look at his exhausting schedule his time management skills are superior, but he can’t do it all. There was no one from NAN recording the event. Channels 9 and 13 were there but did not record everything. This should have been a PR Mecca for NAN. I offered to give them a disk with the complete video on it yet no one wanted to collect it before they left for Atlanta. Instead, I was told to mail it to an address in New York.

In contrast, however, Sharpton was in total control. He is a master at working the crowd and this was no exception. He stressed the importance of united action in getting people to register noting that everyone should be involved including all students, minorities and women. He recalled the civil rights battles of previous generations stating that no one gave them the right to vote; it had to be fought for and that many people gave their lives in order to get that vote. In a rebuff to today’s generations he called them selfish and lazy. He challenged them to stand up to the current voter suppression laws and help get ID’s for those who need them regardless of hardship and cost. It’s a small price to pay compared to the sacrifices of previous generations. Warning again that the conservative forces are going to fight hard to keep an estimated 5,000,000 people from voting the National Action Network is going to be fighting hard for every eligible voter to be able to vote. Citing the biblical story of King David, who had promised his crown to Solomon, his son by Bathsheba, his other son Adonijah plotted to steal the crown and become king upon David’s death. David, however did honor his agreement and Adonijah’s plans were thwarted. “Don’t let them steal your crown!” he warned. “Don’t let them steal your crown!” June 28, 2012. An ordinary day like any other, only it will never be the same.

Here’s links to the speeches:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfxp1Bjsimk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqO-LEgNHz4

as submitted to the Huffington Post

By Jerry Waxman

There is a reason that Democrats didn’t win in New Jersey or Virginia. They didn’t act like Democrats and their bases stayed home. What is it going to take to convince Democrats to be themselves and to stand up for Democratic core beliefs? Why did we spend so much time, money and energy to elect people who betray us on critical votes such as the stimulus package and health care reform? In Suzanne Kosmas’s case anything was better than Tom Feeney, but at least with Feeney we knew who we were dealing with.

Since the time change last weekend I’ve been getting up before the crack of dawn and, as a creature of habit, read my morning paper with my coffee. Right on today’s front page of the Orlando Sentinel, just below the Fort Hood Massacre story was the headline Kosmas comes out against health bill which I had expected to happen, but hoped it would not. Two weeks ago I attended a meeting at Kosmas’s Orlando office with HCAN representatives. Here’s a link to that article which also contains a video of the meeting. I have criticized Kosmas in the past and I will continue to do so as I feel she is giving her Orange County constituency short shrift. She seeks union endorsements and money and then betrays them. She shows no leadership ability and frankly, as a 65 year old freshman in congress she’s going nowhere. Let’s put her out of her misery now.

Contrast that to Alan Grayson, whose district abuts hers in Orange County, what you see is what you get. That’s refreshing because Grayson is exactly who he is in real life and anyone who has spent any time with him knows that. At the recent Florida State Democratic conference I recorded a workshop on winning elections where he was a participant and had a lot to say on being yourself. The time has come for Suzanne Kosmas to go!

This morning I received an e-mail from Jennifer Kenny of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans and with her permission I share it with you:

“Good Morning!  As most of you folks know, AFSCME President McEntee was in Port Orange yesterday for a press event at Congresswoman Kosmas office.  At that press event, we were assured by the congresswoman’s staff that Ms. Kosmas had not really decided how she planned to vote on health care reform.  Well, late yesterday I learned that Ms. Kosmas declared her intention not to support HR 3962 to an Orlando Sentinel reporter.  Ms. Kosmas and her staff have not been honest with us. 
Please come out and bring your members, friends and neighbors later today for a demonstration at Ms. Kosmas Orlando office.  Address and details included in the forwarded email below.  If you have a sign bring it.
She is not going to vote with us, it is time to take action and let her know just how disappointed you are. 
Please call me if you have any questions or concerns.  Thank you and have a wonderful day.

Jenny
— On Thu, 11/5/09, Tony <Tunin2Tony@cfl.rr.com> wrote:
From: Tony <Tunin2Tony@cfl.rr.com>
Subject: Help Change Rep. Kosmas’ Vote Against Healthcare
To: Undisclosed-Recipient@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, November 5, 2009, 11:05 PM

Dear Fellow Activist,

I have heard from many of you that you are upset and disappointed that Rep. Kosmas appears ready to vote against the Health Care bill on Saturday.

I share that frustration!

Rather than complain amongst ourselves, a group of activists has decided to instead rally and/or protest at the congresswoman’s Orlando office on Friday, November 6th.  Many I have heard from agreed that 4:30 works best for them and their allies, so 4:30 it is.  Please join us!  Please spread the word to like minded activists.

THIS IS OUR LAST CHANCE!  LET’S BE HONEST – FOR MOST OF US, IT’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING ELSE WE MIGHT HAVE GOING ON, SO PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO BE THERE!

Orlando Office:

12424 Research Parkway

Orlando, Florida 32826

Research Parkway is off Alafaya Trail (S.R. 434) between S.R. 50 (Colonial Drive) and University Boulevard (by U.C.F.).  Simply turn east onto Research Parkway, and the office is past Technology Parkway on the right hand side.

Tony Scelzo”

I can’t speak for her Volusia or Brevard County constituencies, but here in Orange County she’s toast, and burnt toast at that. Let’s get rid of her before she does any more harm. By the way take a little time and read HR 3962. It’s not everything we’d like it to be but it’s a promising start. The best I can say about it is the old expression “it’s not half-bad.”

By Jerry Waxman

as submitted to the Huffington Post

 

“We must have lunch real soon…….Your luggage is checked through………..We’ve got inflation licked……I’ll get right back to you…….. It’s just a standard form……..Tomorrow without fail.  ……..Pleased to meet you……Thanks a lot……….Your check is in the mail.

Marooned………Marooned…..….Marooned in a blizzard of lies!   Marooned..……Marooned……..Marooned in a blizzard of lies!            Your toes and knees aren’t all you’ll freeze when you’re in it up to your thighs……………It looks like snow, but you never know, when you’re marooned in a blizzard of lies.”

Songwriter Dave Frishberg’s witty and satirical lyric from 1983 is spot on when you’re talking about all of the myths and distortions being offered up by Health Care Reform’s opponents. Will Rogers classic allusion that all he knows is what he reads in the paper is, unfortunately, the case for many Floridians, and no attempt is made to clarify or get at the truth or supply background information by the Orlando Sentinel’s editors. Case in point: conservative radio host Neal Boortz was a prime reason that there was a protesting crowd at Congressman Alan Grayson’s Aug. 17^th town hall meeting. Boortz and other talk hosts continued to advertise the meeting site and time. The Sentinel reporters covered the event, but there was no mention of radio station WDBO’s involvement. Opinion columnist Scott Maxwell, who seems to be pretty fair in his assessments, never mentioned the radio rabble rousing either. There is no way that those protest crowds would have been there in such numbers without the publicity yet the local press makes no mention of it. Deliberately withholding this kind of information gives the protests more weight than they deserve, and it certainly flies in the face of certain journalistic basics such as who, what, when, where and why.

Each Sunday the Sentinel features a section called New Voices, where anyone (I’ll repeat that) anyone can write a 600 word op-ed on any subject. On September 5 a contributor named Kristen Soltis wrote a very carefully worded column that derided Alan Grayson’s August 17 town hall meeting labeled The Health Care Debate Deserves an Honest Forum. At the end of her letter the Sentinel disclosed that she is Director of Policy Research at The Winston Group. Once you Google search this firm you discover that it is a very right leaning polling and strategy organization. Another simple Google search revealed more than we need to know about Ms. Soltis. If you want to know who and what her connections are here is a link to her Muckety Relationship Map, which as you click on all of her relationships will reveal that she is extremely well connected in Republican and other right wing circles, having spent time at the RNCC and the Heritage Foundation. Here’s an example of one of her blogs. She has published scores of articles including one about getting the youthful voter to vote Republican in The Huffington Post. She is hardly a new voice, and she has her facts wrong about Grayson’s meeting.

Florida State Rep. Scott Randolph was incensed at the Sentinel’s lack of fact checking. I talked with him at the AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic. Randolph asserts that Ms. Soltis is a paid staffer whose job is to write these articles in newspapers around the country. “I was at three of Grayson’s Town Hall meetings, and she doesn’t know anything about how they turned out. The Sentinel allowed itself to be fooled. She’s not even a registered voter in Orange County.”

Another Democratic activist took it even further. Douglas DeClue, in an angry letter to the editor (copied to me) let his feelings be known. Here are some excerpts:

To the Editors of the Sentinel:

 

Give me a break.

The only reason the right wing Republican teabagger crowd is complaining now about Alan Grayson is simply because they got beat at their own game.  

 

They were out organized by local grassroots Democratic activists in turning out a crowd for Alan Grayson’s town hall event and now that they got beat they want a do-over.

 

The teabaggers who have been crashing town halls around the country and harassing and intimidating elected officials have clearly been organized by right wing radio talking heads who in turn have apparently gotten their marching orders and talking points from the Republican Party and the Health Insurance lobby.

 

In this particular case, for all of her whining about the event being “preloaded” with Democrats, she utterly fails to point out in “Honest Forum” that nationally syndicated right wing radio talk show host Neal Boortz had tried to do its own “preloading” by using his national radio program to whip up a lynch mob to storm a local town hall meeting with his ill informed radical right wing shouters. 

 

In this Neal Boortz failed miserably of course because the City of Orlando and Orange County overall is overwhelmingly Democratic, by over 80,000 registered voters (272,923 to 192,419 as of March of this year) and by 19% in the last election (Obama 59%, McCain 40%).

 

Perhaps it is time for the newspaper publications that are still around to start practicing the journalistic standards and display the integrity that we expect of them. Ideology aside, a free and independent press is necessary to the functioning of a free society. A paid for press is nothing but an expensive ad. An incurious press is an insult to everyone’s intelligence.

                            “Walk on, Walk on with hope in your heart and you’re in for a big surprise,                                              

              when you’re marooned, marooned, marooned, marooned, marooned in a blizzard of lies!”