It's been Christmas in March for the young folks in the Florida Democratic Party communications shop this week.That crew has been firing off multiple press releases/emails this week, enjoying every moment of Rick Scott's worst week as a candidate — ever. He never encountered anything like this in 2010.
Miami-Dade Expressway Authority board member Gonzalo Sanabria resigned yesterday in protest over the Scott campaign's treatment of former finance co-chair Mike Fernandez, who resigned last week. Fernandez is the South Florida Cuban-American billionaire healthcare executive who had donated large chunks of cash to Scott's re-election campaign before leaving the campaign late last week in a blaze of anger, citing, among other issues, that Scott's re-election team does not understand the Latino culture that he needs to beat Charlie Crist this fall.
Sanabria wrote to Scott that his resignation was “mostly due to your perceived insensitivity to loyal supporters and our Hispanic community in Florida.”
After Sanabria quit his gig at the expressway (and his post with the Miami-Dade County Republican Party), Scott Campaign Communications Director Frank Collins issued a statement essentially branding the former MDX board member a “liar” who misstated the reasons for his departure. They also blasted him for voting for a toll increase on that expressway.
But then the Florida Democrats released a statement later last night stating that Sanabria’s seat on the MDX board expired over 400 days ago, and "Rick Scott has been content to let him continue serving until today." Futher, "Mr. Sanabria cast the vote that supposedly so appalls Rick Scott over a year ago — 373 days ago, to be exact."
Upshot? Not good at all for Scott. The Hispanic vote grows bigger in Florida each election cycle, and the Scott campaign team hasn't really stopped the bleeding that began a week ago. Both Sanabria and Fernandez are Republicans, for heaven's sake. Hispanic Republicans, who are fed up with Governor Scott's re-election team.
Meanwhile, Charlie Crist appears ready to be as nasty as he wants to be. In the wake of Scott's new ad blasting Crist for saying that the Affordable Care Act "has been great," Team Crist responded with a digital ad that won't be seen by nearly as many people, in which he basically touts how great he thinks Obamacare has been. But he never mentions that word, or "the affordable care act," or even "The ACA." He also takes Scott to task for not doing anything to help the uninsured in Florida.
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner announced yesterday that he's giving up the idea of scheduling a purge of non-U.S. citizens from the voting rolls.
The People's Budget Review, Pinellas County's collection of mostly progressive groups , says it's not certain if it's in favor of the Greenlight Pinellas initiative, and will continue to survey members before deciding. But let's face it: If they end up supporting the plan, nobody will be surprised.
And Guido Maniscalco really wantst to become a member of Tampa City Council again.