Come one, come all and bear witness to the suspense, intrigue and the bitter battle to become the Florida Democratic Party’s next chair. The party’s five candidates will descend upon Pompano Beach in for a forum discussing their qualifications before the party's election next month.
Among the contenders for the FDP job are multimillionaire and megadonor Stephen Bittel, former state Sen. Dwight Bullard, Osceola Democratic chair Leah Carius, Hillsborough County Democratic activist Alan Clendenin and Duval County Democratic State Committeewoman Lisa King.
All five candidates will speak to Democratic activists in Broward County about how they’ll turn the Democratic Party around after a series of embarrassing defeats on Election Day.
The candidates will need to make their message loud and clear to their fellow party members, but they’ll especially need to win over Broward state committeeman Ken Evans and state committeewoman Grace Carrington, who will vote in the chair election next month.
This year’s race has been full of intrigue and fierce competition to take the helm of the FDP, despite the party being on the losing end of Florida politics for nearly two decades.
This years’ contenders want to take over as chair so badly that three of them have actually packed up and moved to entirely different counties -- even to small trailers -- all so they could throw their names in the ring to become the next FDP chair.
Last month, Clendenin’s hopes to become FDP chair seemed extinguished after he lost his re-election bid to be Hillsborough County state committeeman. Defeated, Clendenin was out of the race to head the state party.
Or so we thought.
The loss in Hillsborough didn’t get Clendenin down. Instead, he bought a trailer in Bradford County and ran for state committeeman there. He won, putting himself back in the running for the FDP chairmanship.
Clendenin wasn’t the only one who decided a new district was the answer. Bullard lost out to Bittel for the Miami-Dade committeeman seat earlier this month. Bittel, too, had Juan Cuba resign so he could take over his post.
Like Clendenin, Bullard wasn’t fazed by the loss. He also opted to move more than 300 miles away to Gadsden County, where he could run for state committeeman. The former state senator handily won that election, putting himself back in the running for the party’s top job.
Game on.
Bullard had said previously he opposed "county shopping" in order to run legally for a party office. But some in the party claim he was "manipulated" and "maneuvered" out of the assistant party chair spot he had hoped to qualify for.
In fact, they claim he was tipping his hand he was ready to play hard ball when he told the Tampa Bay Times two weeks ago, "I have seen a lot of speculative articles pointing to (U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson) wanting Mr. Bittel," Bullard said. "Again, I'm just a firm believer in this crazy concept of democracy and allowing people the freedom to choose who is right."
Now, all five candidates will ready for a showdown guaranteed to bring the drama.
Nothing is for certain in the FDP election -- South Florida carries significant weight in the election, since votes are based on the number of registered Democrats in each county. That means Miami-Dade and Broward counties will have the highest number of votes.
The chairman election will be held Jan. 14 in Orlando.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
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