Tag: Florida Democratic Party

The following are items of political interest from the past week: The campaign of Republican Ron DeSantis is going after Democrat Andrew Gillum over comments made by his running mate nearly two decades ago. Some voters this week got text messages that noted inflammatory comments made by lieutenant governor nominee Chris King back in 1999. King came in fifth in the election won by Gillum. The Gillum campaign sharply criticized the text messages as a "smear tactic" by the DeSantis campaign. It only took a few days for the Ring campaign to launch a rival website called JimmyPatronis.info that bashed some of Patronis campaign donors for their past legal run-ins. Patronis got a ticket while driving the SUV because he had an accident while traveling to his political consultant's office to pick up thank-you cards. Hillary Clinton may have lost Florida in the 2016 presidential election, but she's coming back to the state to help campaign for Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. Gillum's campaign announced that Clinton will join Gillum on Oct. 23 in South Florida. Clinton made several visits to the Sunshine State ahead of the 2016 election, but the Democratic nominee lost the state to President Donald Trump by nearly 113,000 votes.

Going back to last summer, Tallahassee Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum has been critical of some of the votes made by opponent Gwen Graham during her single term in Congress. Specifically referring to her response to a question during the debate on her support on the SAFE Act which would block Syrian refugees from the U.S., a King spokesman said the biggest debate on Wednesday “was between Gwen Graham and herself.” Gillum also continues to attack. Referring to some of her votes that were against the interests of President Barack Obama, Gillum said on Saturday that he voted for Graham when she ran for Congress in 2014 “to help uplift and support the presidents’ agenda. I did not expect Democrats to also stand in the president’s way.” The fourth Democrat in the race, former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, has refrained from making much of Graham’s voting record in Congress, and his rise in the polls indicate that he hasn’t found it necessary to go there in the early going. More importantly, his ability self-fund his campaign has allowed him to blanket the state with television advertisements introducing him up and down the state. Levine’s resources have also allowed him to put boots on the ground, and on Sunday he was on hand for the announcement of a new campaign office in Tampa’s Seminole Heights. Coffee has been working for the Florida Democratic Party, and was considered a crucial asset in helping Rick Kriseman win his reelection bid as St. Petersburg mayor last year. Sometimes, I’d say many times, we’ve voted the wrong way. Here is our journey of redemption.” Before the candidates spoke in Tampa on Saturday night, they participated in a forum sponsored by the Florida Democratic Black Caucus. After that event, Gillum called out Levine for his lack of participation with the Black Caucus.