Posts Tagged ‘Ron Klein’

In Florida, as in the rest of the country, Democrats “took a shellacking”

06/11/2010, 02:00:57 PM

by Dave Roberts

Now that I’m back home in cold, damp Wiltshire, the heat and humidity of Florida seem along way off, as do the frenetic last days of the US midterm elections.  My endeavour to help rescue the Democratic congressional seat of Ron Klein failed spectacularly, and the Republicans have taken firm control of Floridian politics.

Republican candidates won all the marginal congressional districts, took the governor’s mansion, the Senate seat and the top three positions in the state legislature – attorney general, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner.  The Democrats, as President Obama said “took a shellacking”.

Last Tuesday was a horrible night to be a Democrat.  I was in the Ron Klein campaign “boiler room” as results began to come in from across the country.  There were a few bright moments when extreme Tea party candidates Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware failed to win, but on the whole the mood was down beat.  Our own campaign in Florida district 22 had failed and the Tea party and Fox News favourite Republican Allen West won the seat.  The race for the Florida Senate seat was always going to be a shoe-in for the Republican favourite Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott narrowly beat Democrat Alex Sink to take the keys to the governor’s mansion. (more…)

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Another country, another campaign room: lessons from the US mid terms?

29/10/2010, 09:00:46 AM

by Dave Roberts

I spent the spring working on Jim Knight’s valiant but ultimately doomed campaign to hold Dorset South for Labour. Then summer saw me on the Ed Balls leadership campaign. Equally valiant. Equally doomed. Now, with the US mid term elections only a few days away, I’ve taken flight from grey and damp Britain for the campaign trail in sunny South Florida. I am working in the area stretching along Florida’s south east coast from Fort Lauderdale northwards, where the incumbent Democratic Congressman, Ron Klein, is facing a huge challenge from former army Colonel and Tea Party favourite, Allen West.

I want to understand how the Democrats organise on the ground, and to see if there is anything that Labour could learn. Many in the UK have written about the Obama election. Yet few have looked at how the more humdrum mid-term elections are organised. In many ways, though, it is these elections – especially at a congressional district level – that have more in common with a British general election. These elections are numerous, local and personal. They are often contested against a backdrop of national issues and questions over the national leadership, for which the candidate has little or no responsibility, but will be held accountable. (more…)

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