Apparently Annette Taddeo didn't announce her candidacy on May 9 in the Senate District 40 special election after all. Never mind that virtually every media outlet in Tallahassee and Miami carried it at the time. She announced it Tuesday. That's today. Apparently.
In case we missed it last week? Or maybe because she wasn't really sure the first time?
According to an afternoon email asking for a donation, biennial Democratic candidate Taddeo felt the need to splash it out there again -- she will pursue the seat held by Frank Artiles until he resigned in April following a public outburst of racially charged and other inappropriate language. We can do this thing together, people.
"Shortly after (Artiles') resignation, my phone started ringing and it hasn’t stopped since," wrote Taddeo to recipients on her last year's campaign emailing list, "often from folks like you, calling on me to replace the disgraced former Senator Artiles. Today, I’m answering that call, and announcing that I’m running for the Florida Senate."
"Well, I'm glad she cleared that up," an amused Ray Gonzales, one of Taddeo's former volunteers, told Sunshine State News. "I guess it's like the commercial, 'Can you hear me now?'"
Taddeo, who lost to former U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia in last year’s primary and was unsuccessful former Gov. Charlie Crist’s running mate on the Democratic ticket against Gov. Rick Scott in 2014, also failed when she ran for Congress against U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and for a seat on the Miami Dade County Commission. During her tenure as chairwoman of the Miami Dade Democrats, Taddeo made a bid to lead the Florida Democratic Party, and that, too, came up short.
If Taddeo's phone has been ringing off the hook, the calls didn't come from Democratic gubernatorial candidates Andrew Gillum or Gwen Graham. They endorsed state Rep. Daisy Baez, D-Coral Gables, who launched her bid for the District 40 seat ahead of Taddeo's first announcement. On the Republican side, former state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla and state Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami are "in."
"Together, we’re going to create a campaign that will shock the Republican establishment, and prove to the state and nation that we are not going to let them take away our values," Taddeo wrote in her Tuesday email. "We are not going to let their hate win."
Replied Gonzales, "God bless her, if Annette wins, she's going to shock more than the Republican establishment."
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
