Newly elected Chairman Rod Smith of the Florida Democratic Party spoke to the House Democratic caucus on Tuesday to outline his vision of where the party is headed.
Smith, a former state senator who ran for his partys gubernatorial nomination in 2006 and as defeated Democratic gubernatorial nominee Alex Sinks running mate in November, addressed the 39 House Democrats.
While the Democrats got their clock cleaned on Election Day, losing every statewide race and losing four congressional incumbents and five House incumbents, Smith expressed optimism for the future.
Weve got nowhere to go but up, said Smith. We are going to do that.
Just as he did in remarks in Orlando on Saturday, when he was chosen to replace former U.S. Rep. Karen Thuman in leading the party, Smith said he planned to focus on three core areas -- redistricting, helping President Barack Obama carry Florida and helping U.S. Sen. Bill Nelsons re-election bid in 2012.
Smith noted that more than 60 percent of the electorate voted to back constitutional amendments aimed at changing the redistricting process, insisting this was proof that Floridians wanted the process changed.
They want the most mal-appropriated state in the South to be changed, said Smith, adding that Republicans and independents joined Democrats to pass the amendments.
Smith added that he believed the new amendments were consistent with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
With Democrats controlling 39 of the 120 House seats, Smith said he expected the judicial branch to play a key role in implementing the new amendments, and promised to always listen to House members even when he did not agree with their thoughts on redistricting.
The new chairman invoked Floridas key role in the 1876 and 2000 presidential elections and said that the Sunshine State would be a key battleground come 2012.
The road up Pennsylvania Avenue begins on I-75 and I-95, insisted Smith. Were going to be the state, in my view, that decides the presidency.
Smith noted that the Republicans picked up the U.S. House of Representatives in November but added that other presidents saw their parties fail in off-year elections before winning second terms. He pointed to Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton as presidents who were re-elected despite their parties losing seats in Congress two years before.
Pointing to the lame-duck Congress that met after the election, Smith said extending tax cuts first backed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 as well as unemployment benefits and passing the START treaty showed the president still had momentum. He also praised the federal repeal of the militarys dont ask, dont tell policy.
Smith said he believed that Floridians would think that Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled Legislature would go too far, giving the Democrats an opportunity to claim the political center -- and help Obama and Nelson in 2012.
Praising Thurman for building the partys structure and managing their finances, Smith pledged to reach out to communities across Florida. Were not going to be as Tallahassee-centered as weve been in the past.
Smith praised the returning members who survived what he called an enormously difficult election cycle.
I wish the room were way more crowded, said Smith.
One of the representatives called back, So do we.
Were going to work on that, promised Smith.
Former House Speaker T.K. Wetherell, who also served as president of Tallahassee Community College and Florida State University, was in attendance and also spoke to the House Democrats.
You can come back, there is no doubt about it, said Wetherell who served as speaker in the early 1990s. The state of Florida is in a leadership crisis.
Wetherell noted that Republicans have controlled the governorship and the Legislature for more than a decade. Theyre not fixing the liberal problems or the Democrats problems, he said. Theyre fixing their own.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
