A self-identified “nonpartisan” political group has it in for House Republicans opposed to Medicaid expansion, but the group has deep ties to Democratic heavy-hitters despite saying it’s not affiliated with any specific political ideology.
Last week, FloridaStrong sent out a round of mailers aimed at House Republicans in swing districts. The fliers accuse state representatives like Rep. Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa, of being “failures” to Florida families and also individually accuses Republican state representatives of violating the Florida Constitution for adjourning three days early during this year’s regular legislative session, despite the orders coming from House leadership.
The group says its mission is simple: it aims to be an “independent voice” for Florida dedicated to “empowering and educating the public on the policies that impact our quality of life.”
But a deeper look at the group shows it has clear ties to liberal organizations which have specifically targeted Republicans in the past.
State records show FloridaStrong is owned by Florida Watch Action. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because FWA was responsible for attacking Gov. Rick Scott with its 2011 “Pink Slip Rick” campaign which accused the governor of losing hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Supporters of the Pink Slip Rick campaign would wave hot pink signs, taunting Scott, at some of Tallahassee’s biggest events like the annual springtime parade. They would protest around town, saying Scott needed to be held responsible for costing the state jobs.
After the group was finished attacking Scott, it then moved on to bigger political fish like former presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a campaign similar to the one waged against Scott.
It’s been a quiet two years for FWA, but now they’ve broken the silence with their latest venture in Florida politics.
FloridaStrong didn’t hit the social media scene until last week when the group made both a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Both have few followers and only a handful of posts, most of which are reposts of news stories classifying the Legislature’s impasse on Medicaid as a catastrophe.
FloridaStrong hasn’t seemed to pull from Florida-grown opposition, either. Its spokeswoman, Charly Norton, seems to have appeared on the scene out of left field -- she’s most well-known for her involvement in the failed campaign of Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, who made headlines for refusing to reveal whether or not she had voted for President Obama in 2012.
Judging from her Twitter, Norton didn’t seem to develop an interest in Florida’s battle over Medicaid until the end of April when it became clearer and clearer the Legislature wasn’t going to reach an agreement on the issue.
Sunshine State News asked Norton how she was pulled into the group -- or if she was living in Florida at all -- but Norton did not return phone calls or respond to emails from SSN.
More puzzling is the group’s return address: it’s from a P.O. box in Palm Beach, an affluent town where tthe median household income is nearly $123,000. To put that in perspective, the median household income for the entire Miami-Dade-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area was only $47,000 in 2014.
The P.O. box is in a quiet plaza just down the road from the 55-room mansion formerly owned by oil tycoon Henry Flagler.
As a 501c(4), FloridaStrong isn’t required to disclose who’s donating to the group, but if its political targets are any indicator, it doesn’t appear to be as nonpartisan as it purports to be.
Reach Tampa-based reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen
