What a world/society, where she even has to say that.
If Democrats want to claw back power in Florida, it will be an incremental process. The party will need to find the right message, reach persuadable voters, become better organized, and raise a lot more money. But it can start with investments in registration and organizing, Shaw said.
“We had a turnout problem,” Shaw said. “You have got to go in these communities and organize and hold these coalitions together and talk to people and knock on the doors. And once we get some other money, do some other things.”
What you have is a gerrymandering problem.
“What went wrong for Democrats?” Well, you literally just said the state was gerrymandered, but apparently that doesn’t need to be part of your narrative that it’s all about messaging…
as true as that is today, with gov and repug supermajority in both houses of the lege, i continue to believe it can be turned around. call me pollyanna, but those in my small community of dems will keep fighting.
no time to cry in my beer today.
eta: would help if we could find a candidate to get excited about. i thought Demmings was one. gerrymander did her in, though.
Gerrymandering is no doubt a problem in Florida in House races, but that’s not a direct cause of heavy losses in statewide races where district boundaries don’t play a role. At last count DeSantis got 4,610,998 votes compared to Crist’s 3,103,222 votes. It’s a real challenge by any measure but we still shouldn’t write off the state as a lost cause.
But other places like North Carolina aren’t. A look at what are the current battleground states with an eye towards registration and turnout starting now is in order. And where money might be better spent for 2024.
And a voter suppression problem. With RonRon’s stunt arresting voters for voting, and the legislature not respecting the felon voting ballot measure (how many of the 1.5M former felons who should be voting, did?). Florida is a blueberry that would ripen if federal voting rights acts pass.
ETA:
Gerrymandering enables voter suppression on a scale that local voter suppression cannot achieve. See also: Wisconsin.
And, TBF, New York.
and also this:
And, TBF, Maryland. But Maryland was specifically gerrymandered as a demonstration to Republicans of just why it is bad, and that Dems could counter by doing the same. Since they didn’t get the hint, I would count NY as an escalation of that message.
We’ll see about Oregon. If Dems take 5 out of 6 seats, that could be called gerrymandering. But that map was a result of Republicans refusing to participate in the process unless they were handed the state on a silver platter. Dems could have easily produced a much worse map for repubs. And everywhere, Dems bend over backward to increase voter access, not decrease it. So saying Dems use gerrymandering to suppress voters doesn’t hold up.
Well, there’s “suppressing voters,” and then there’s “increasing your own voters,” no?
Wisconsin is an extreme case of gerrymandering that gives Republicans a huge advantage in the house races but the Democrat still won the Governor’s race. So I wouldn’t say that gerrymandering succeeded in suppressing the vote there, at least in terms of the Governor’s race.
Damn, what a nail-biter!
Not necessarily. That just means the Gov would have won with a larger margin if they didn’t selectively purge Milwaukie voter registrations by the hundred thousands. And it certainly worked for Ron Johnson, didn’t it?
Though in Oregon, automatic registration and vote-by-mail increase participation across the board. It’s just that there are more Dems than Repubs here, so higher participation favors Dems. And democracy, too.
Purging voters isn’t the same thing as gerrymandering, other than the fact that they’re both bad things related to making elections unfair.
Why is this dickhead still a thing?
They are very much related. If Wisconsin had proportional representation in it’s legislature, it would be 52% Dem. Those Dems would probably not select a Wisconsin Voting Commission that has repeatedly purged 200,000 to 400,000 registered voters selectively from Milwaukie-area districts.
And the thing it, even when the Wisconsin Supreme Court rules it illegal, it still has it’s effect on the subsequent election. Only 30,000 of the 206,000 registrations that were purged were reinstated under court order.
"The Red Wave that’s coming is going to be like the elevator doors opening up in ‘The Shining.’”
so entirely a work of fiction then? a shock that quickly fades upon stepping out into the light of day?
very clever, joe. very clever.
Joe Rogan: “The Red Wave that’s coming is going to be like the elevator doors opening up in ‘The Shining.’”
One in five Black Tennesseans are like Scott: barred from voting because of a prior felony conviction. Indeed, Tennessee appears to disenfranchise a far higher proportion of its Black residents — 21% — than any other state.
I’m guessing that the people who were elected the day this article was published have no plans to ameliorate the situation.