Charlie Crist and Allison Tant presided over a disaster for Florida Democrats, even if Crist did come close to beating Rick Scott.
Tant and the Florida Democratic Party let it all ride on Crist -- and it didnt pay off. Tant and the Democrats didnt even bother to field major candidates to take on Jeff Atwater and Adam Putnam. Whatever his qualifications for the position, attorney general candidate George Sheldon had not won an election in decades. Sheldon was easily dispatched by Pam Bondi on Tuesday night.
Nor did Democrats do any better on the legislative level. At least in the state Senate, Democrats lost no ground as Maria Sachs barely held on against Ellyn Bogdanoff. But Judithanne McLauchlan came up way short against Jeff Brandes and no other Democrat challenger was close to picking off a Republican senator. Just as they did against Atwater and Putnam, Democrats didnt even try here, not bothering to field enough candidates to have even a chance of winning the Senate.
Things were even worse in the state House. Republicans picked up a supermajority as Democrats like Mike Clelland, Mark Danish, Joe Saunders, Linda Stewart and Carl Zimmerman all lost their seats. Earlier this year, Karen Castor Dentel was considered a potential running mate for Crist. Now shes out of a job, another House Democrat who went down to defeat.
There were, of course, a few rays of hope for Democrats. Gwen Graham squeaked out a narrow win over Steve Southerland. Patrick Murphy utterly crushed Carl Domino despite a GOP edge in the district. Graham, Murphy and Ted Deutch are all potential candidates for state office down the road, at least giving Democrats hope for the future.
But the short run looks bleak for Florida Democrats. With Scotts numbers in the tank, Democrats had a prime opportunity to end their losing streak in Florida gubernatorial elections. They cleared the decks as much as possible for former Republican Crist, ignoring Nan Richs calls for a primary debate. But even with some major mistakes from Scott, Crist ended up losing the election, by a larger margin than Alex Sink did only four years earlier.
Crist lost in the GOP when Marco Rubio chased him out of the party back in 2010. Later that year, when he was running with no party affiliation, Crist lost to Rubio again. Now Crist has lost as a Democrat. His future is not over by any means -- its easy to see Crist running for Congress down the road or being appointed to a post in the Obama administration -- but he is done as a candidate for statewide office. He had his chance to beat Scott and simply blew it.
Annette Taddeo did not shine as Crists running mate and doesnt offer the party much for the future. Taddeo had never won any of her attempts for elected office but she was supposed to boost Crist in South Florida. That simply did not happen as Democratic turnout simply sputtered in Miami and Broward County. Despite having been the boss of Miami-Dade Democrats, Taddeo failed in her own backyard. Crist made a miscalculation in adding her to the ticket. While nobody votes for whoever the lieutenant governor candidate is, running mates are supposed to at least deliver their home turf. Taddeo did not accomplish that while other Democrats could have done better.
Tant put all her chips on Crist and the bet did not pay off. After this debacle, Democrats need to blow it all up and rebuild their party. That means building up a bench slowly, winning local elections and not rushing candidates to statewide races too quickly. Keeping Alvin Brown as mayor of Jacksonville early next year would be a nice start. So would slowly building up the likes of Murphy, Graham and Deutch across the state.
It also means building up a new team in Tallahassee. Tant needs to go and Democrats could use fresh blood instead of relying on the usual assortment of consultants, strategists and communications people who blew it on Tuesday and have been guiding the party down the wrong path for years.
Tallahassee political writer Jeff Henderson wrote this analysis exclusively for Sunshine State News.
