A lot of Florida Democrats lost their jobs after Election 2014 -- but not Allison Tant.
The Florida Democratic Party chairwoman managed to keep hers. Somehow.
What was so surprising about Tant's ability to escape the bread line was the promises, the predictions of success she made when she was elected to the post in 2013. She won her job after a bitter campaign against Alan Clendenin of Tampa, riding in on a kind of royal decree issued by Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.
But she didn't keep those promises, didn't accomplish virtually any aspect of her mission. Instead she found a way to alienate an important part of the South Florida base by picking a fight with outspoken progressive Leslie Wimes and working unsuccessfully to strong-arm former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Nan Rich out of the primary race.
The bottom line on Tant is just this:
-- She fielded fourstatewide candidates and they all lost -- three by landslides.
-- The Democrats' small delegation in the Florida House further shrunk, giving Republicans a supermajority.
-- The party failed to recruit strong challengers to most GOP members of Congress. In fact,Tant played virtually no part in the Democrats' only two successes -- the Treasure Coast's Patrick Murphy retaining his congressional seat and North Florida's Gwen Graham taking Steve Southerland's.
-- Voter turnout in Democrat-rich South Florida was dismal.
-- The simple fact is, Democrats were unable to persuade the coalition that delivered the White House to Barack Obama -- young voters, women and minorities -- to turn out in midterms at levels seen in presidential elections.
For the far-reaching effect of the Democratic debacle that was Election 2014 and her role in party strategy, Allison Tant easily finds herself at No. 14 on our list of important political figures in the last five years.
Certainly, it's not fair to pin all the blame for the list of failures on one person. On the other hand, they did happen on Tant's watch -- in a state in which Democrats still hold a 455,000-voter edge over Republicans.
Buddy Nevins, writing in Browardbeat.com, called Election 2014 "the death of the state Democratic Party."
Here's some of what Nevins wrote the morning after the November election:
"It will be at least a decade until the Democratic Party has a statewide candidate that is viable against the formidable field of Republicans. ...
"This massive (get-out-the-vote) failure calls into question the skills, techniques and leadership of the local and state Democrats. Perhaps it is time for a real internal Democratic housecleaning.
"Now Democrats face a decade of a Republican governor and a Republican Legislature. I cant even envision a path to victory for the Ds.
"Democrats face a decade of hundreds of Republican appointments -- judicial, water board, hospital districts and others. They face a decade of a GOP agenda in Tallahassee.
"The future looks bleak for the Ds."
Allison Tant's my-way-or-the-highway style -- the thing that most hinders her effectiveness -- didn't catch Sunshine State News' eye until 2013. Until then she was a lobbyist, half of a "power couple" married to prominent Tallahassee attorney Barry Richard. Richard, though a lifelong Democrat, led the Bush-Cheney Florida legal team during the 2000 presidential recount.
Ironically, in 1999 and 2000 in a previous employ, Tant was one of only three lobbyists for a company called DBT Online. Secretary of State Sandra Mortham negotiated with DBT Online to purge the voter rolls in the 2000 election, in which Al Gore narrowly lost to George W. Bush. (Tant even donated to Mortham's campaign that year.) Many believe Gore lost the election because DBT Online successfully dumped more than 57,000 African-Americans from the voter list.
For more information on DBT's actual process of purging the voter roll, read this article by Salon.com, published about a month after the 2000 election.
The reason Tant's background is important here, as it relates to the last five years, is this: More than one political observer, after looking at her work with DBT Online -- removing the voting rights of tens of thousands of African-Amercans -- has asked, is that why in 2014 Allison Tant was so opposed to Leslie Wimes' efforts to give a voice to African-American women within the party? Is that why she doesn't want to recognize the Florida African-American Women's Caucus? Some are wondering even today if the charges of racism against Tant could actually have substance.
One of the biggest reasons Tant won the support of the Democratic establishment in 2013 is her proven ability as a fundraiser. She was a top bundler for President Obamas re-election and other Democratic causes. Oddly, she now claims the biggest factor in Charlie Crist'sloss was money -- that Gov. Rick Scott had more of it to spend the last week on his ads.
Allison Tant, with Debbie Wasserman Schultz's wind at her back, looks to be the power behind the Florida Democratic Party for at least the next two years. In the meantime, the 2016 campaign season is already under way. If the Democrats have any plan to enrich their bench, Tant is keeping it behind closed doors.
(About this series: Allison Tant is the seventh in a special anniversary series of 20 political personalities who loomed large since early 2010, when Sunshine State News set up shop in Tallahassee. To backtrack in the series, readNo. 20, Ted Yoho;No. 19, Jeff Atwater;No. 18, Adam Putnam;No. 17, Mike Fasano,No. 16, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and No. 15, Alvin Brown.)
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
