Posted on 08/20/2005 6:26:20 PM PDT by dukeman
For the third time in two years, Manatee County Democrats are looking for someone to lead them.
The county's party is struggling to find candidates, raise money and keep from falling further behind the Republicans at a time when other Democrats in the region are building momentum and hoping to gain power in offices across the region.
While the leadership vacuum is frustrating for the small cadre of Manatee Democrats, it actually has a much greater regional impact: It's killing the chances of any Democratic candidate for the 13th Congressional District. Most of the seat's constituents are in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
There's been so little progress and organization in Manatee that independent political watchers, including Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report, say Democrats don't have a shot at winning the seat.
Rothenberg said there's a temptation to list the race as competitive because Republican Katherine Harris polled just 55 percent of the vote in 2004 -- low for an incumbent. But those numbers are misleading, he said, partly because Democrats can't close the gap in Manatee County. In the last election both President George W. Bush and Harris won Manatee County by about 20,000 votes.
"It's not that close," Rothenberg said.
Voter registration numbers show the challenge. Of Manatee County's 180,000 registered voters, about 83,000 are registered Republicans, compared with 57,000 registered Democrats. About 38,000 registered voters are listed as having no party affiliation.
Manatee County's stronghold keeps national Republicans from being concerned about losing the 13th Congressional District. A spokesman for the Republican National Congressional Committee said Democrats can't overcome 20,000 Republican votes in Manatee.
While Republicans still rule most elective offices in Sarasota County, Democrats have begun to make gains. The party is still celebrating taking the majority of seats on the Sarasota City Commission in April. That came just a few months after U.S. Senate candidate Betty Castor, a Democrat, surprisingly won 48 percent of the vote in Sarasota County against Republican Mel Martinez, a far better percentage than most political insiders expected.
The party has also reversed years of financial trouble and now has more than $25,000 available to support candidates, something party leaders say will help it attract more candidates for office.
Democrats Christine Jennings and Jan Schneider both say they have a message that can appeal to Manatee Republicans. Jennings, who once lived in Manatee, said she still has friends there who can help her win.
Schneider said she just has to work more independently of the party and focus on Democratic-type issues, such as protecting Social Security and improving veterans' benefits, that also appeal to Republican voters.
But even a campaign strategy designed to appeal to moderate Republicans won't solve the Manatee party's problems.
It doesn't have cash or candidates, giving Republicans a free pass in the November elections. The party has less than $3,000 in the bank and fielded just one candidate for the nine county positions up for re-election last year. The lone Democratic challenger, Kevin Murphy, ran for sheriff against incumbent Charlie Wells. Murphy got just 28 percent of the vote.
Nearly every county office and every state Legislature seat based in Manatee belongs to Republicans. Registered Republicans also dominate city councils and the School Board.
Manatee Republicans are more concerned about independent candidates than Democrats.
Mitch Mallett, a radio talk show host and lifelong Democrat, is running for the Democratic chairmanship post in Manatee. He says he's tired of hearing that his party is without money, leadership and candidates.
"I want to change every one of those categories," Mallett said.
C.J. Czaia, a Palmetto Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for Congress last year, is also bidding to take over the chairmanship. He's convinced he can provide much-needed leadership.
"They don't function like they ought to," Czaia said.
and vote...again.
LVM
Actually, even with the snowbirds here the Dems are a pack of losers. In Sarasota County to the south of Manatee (also part of Harris' district), the only Dem elected to county-wide office is the Tax Collector!
Yea, those clowns.
Pretty much with the exception of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade the rats in Florida are in the world of hurt. I would love to see Charlie Crist as the next Governor. I think Harris can win the state. I know she'll easily win the Panhandle outside of Tallahassee.
I would love to see the Post Office check all absentee ballots going into Florida against voter registers for one year. You will see the Rats would scream bloody murder, both in Florida and in their Home states.
There needs to be interstate check and balances on voter registration.
Aren't the Manatees an endangered species? I guess the Democrats are showing solidarity...
as of 2006 all the seperate 67 counties are to have a central voter registration database.
Interesting to see which are cross county!
Jesse will be down there in 2006 to make sure it is fair but you know when some Ratfink is denied to vote outside of their county, Jesse and posse will scream voter intimidation
I think the one on horseback is better....
I live in Manatee County. When I moved here, 2003, I read the papers and I was really worried that GWB was in big trouble.
Then the election. I quickly realized that the Democratz are a very shrill and vocal minority without a lot of power.
We're lucky for all of that.
You must mean this one...
Yeah, I'd vote for her if I lived in FL too.
ROFL! If the trouble of the county democrats is making the papers - that's BAD.
Well, I haven't decided who I want as the republican candidate, but it isn't Charlie Crist.
Up until now, I have refused to cast my vote on the basis of a single issue. However, with increasing government confiscation of private property under the guise of eminent domain, I am making an exception. Private property is just about our most important right. Crist's words say he doesn't feel that way. He sees no problem or need for further protections in Florida; even while this theft of property is taking place here and now.
Sorry Charlie. I don't trust you. Period.
I've lived in Sarasota just about all my life, except for attending college. Sarasota used to be as one-sided to the Republicans as Manatee is now, but the Dems have been making some gains here in the last few years. The Sarasota City Commission is majority Dems now and their registration numbers are up. Harris' Dem opponent in the last election got about 45% of the vote in Sarasota (pretty much an all-time high). Hopefully, they're at their peak here in Sarasota.
Out of curiosity, when voting was restricted to property holders, were people restricted to voting from one place? Or did ownership of property in multiple locations entitle one to vote in those different locations' elections (in the way that ownership of stock in multiple corporations entitles one to vote in elections associated with all of them)?
The rule of flash the pic of a lady with too much eye shadow? No, we don't know the rule. :-)
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