We can argue over the good sense of Annette Taddeo playing up her connection to Charlie Crist. She was his choice for lieutenent governor after all. But allowing her first fundraising email to go out with a bogus Charlie Crist disclaimer?
Yes, that's exactly what happened.
Clear as day, left over from Crist's gubernatorial campaign, just under Taddeo's email are the words "Paid for by Charlie Crist." (See the attachment below.)
And now here it is Tuesday morning -- which happens to be Taddeo's 49th birthday -- and she sends out a second emailed appeal. Same thing. Bogus Crist disclaimer. (See the second attachment below.)
Money raised for a state race can't be used in a federal race. That's still the law as far as I know. And the Crist money didn't come from any leftover U.S. Senate election cash from 2010. Charlie closed his federal account April 29, 2011.
This looks like a violation, sure, but who cares really? It's not a particularly egregious one. It seems as if she used a template from one of Crist's 2014 email appeals, but whether through ignorance or inattention, never cleaned it up by removing what she may only think will be taken as his personal endorsement.
The point here is, three times trying for office -- three losses -- and here Taddeo is again, straight out of the gate, looking to be on her way to a fourth. She's already screwing up -- releasing emails is hardly rocket science.
Annette Taddeo still isn't ready for prime time.
I'm sorry to keep picking on the Dems -- I swear, I really am. But where on earth do they get these people? They have Dwight Bullard, a good man, not a loser -- still in his 30s, a winning tradition behind him, good name recognition. If the Dems are going to run somebody who doesn't live in the 26th District, why not Bullard?
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which Monday jumped all over Taddeo for running in a district where she doesn't live (but promises to soon), on Tuesday came back and spiked her like a Misty May service return for claiming on MSNBC Monday night that she's middle class -- like the folks she wants to represent.
"If you were a multimillionaire worth $5.7 million, would you consider yourself to be middle class?" asks Chris Pack on his NRCC blog. "If you're Annette Taddeo you do, and you tell the entire country on national television."
Says Pack, "Unfortunately, the South Florida Business Journal says the average annual salary of Floridians is $40,750. Alas, they probably won't be moving into a 6,500-square-foot mansion like Taddeo's anytime soon."
Taddeo wants a job, I get that. She's been trying to find something since Nov. 5 -- even tried to land a gig at MSNBC. But, like Charlie Crist, she wants elected office. She's an outstanding fundraiser, and no doubt that's part of her mystique with the party.
But she ran for Congress in 2008 against U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and lost. Nevertheless, last year the Crist team boasted, In 2008, she was the Democratic nominee for Congress in South Florida's 18th District, receiving more votes than any other Democrat who's run in that district." But, hold on. Taddeo managed to get 41 percent in a good year for Democrats. Barack Obama pulled 51 percent in that district in the same election.
She ran for County Commission in District 8 and lost in the primary, coming in third -- third -- behind former Homestead Mayor Lynda Bell and former Palmetto Bay Mayor Eugene Flinn.
And now she lost with Crist. The most telling fact in the Crist-Taddeo loss is that she failed to do the one thing a lieutenant governor pick is supposed to do -- enhance the ticket in her own district. Win her own district. OK, the Republicans didn't win Miami-Dade County, Crist and Taddeo did. But, as political writer Jeff Henderson said here in Sunshine State News, "... She was supposed to boost Crist in South Florida. That simply did not happen as Democratic turnout 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."
The question still is, are the stories about Taddeo correct? Is this a woman voters, even the members of her own party who know her best, want to vote for? Do they even feel a connection to her? Some have said no, that Taddeo doesn't know the value of a dollar, spends "like the doctor's wife she is," prefers the life of a socialite to talking with, or identifying with, the concerns of voters.
Now there are the "Paid for by Charlie Crist" money hustles in who-knows-how-many inboxes. Of course, there's alway the possibility that Charlie's paying for Taddeo's congressional ride out of his own pocket.But I'm going out on a limb here to say ... nah.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: Nancy LBSmith
