That's how the headlines will read in 2018 if Sen. Bill Nelson doesn't stop playing around in the Florida Democratic Party chair race.
The grassroots people don't want Stephen Bittel as the chair. Plain and simple.
The only people who want this man are the consultants who kept their pockets lined by Allison Tant, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Scott Arceneaux. Oh, and those who want to keep the status quo.
The status quo of losing.
Stephen Bittel has never stepped one foot in a DEC meeting. He has no clue of how the party actually works.
Let's be honest, he has no clue about how to raise money either, the excuse that some say is the reason they want him as chair.
What he does know how to do -- and this is what makes people like Bill Nelson all warm and tingly -- is how to SPEND money.
This is what he and his group of friends have threatened NOT to do if he is denied the party chair.
And he won't donate to the party anymore.
Well, when Rick Scott is occupying Florida's second Senate seat, I wonder if Stephen Bittel's money is going to do a whole hell of a lot for Nelson then.
What happened to Hillary Clinton should be a lesson to Bill Nelson.
It should be a lesson to all Democrats in Florida.
The people are sick and tired of the backroom deals.
The hypocrisy of condemning Donald Trump for appointing millionaires and billionaires, and then turning around and rigging the system to put Bittel in place is laughable, to say the least.
The only way what happened with Allison Tant being force-fed to the Democratic Party by Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Bill Nelson in 2013, can happen again in the form of Stephen Bittel is if we allow it.
We don't have to allow it.
This is our party.
Contrary to what the Stephen Bittels of this state think, the vote is more important than the dollar.
If Bill Nelson doesn't want that headline to become reality, he needs to reevaluate his priorities.
Does he answer to his constituents, or does he dance to Stephen Bittel?
How about it, Sen. Nelson? Do you want to remain Sen. Nelson, or do you want to be former Sen. Nelson?
The choice is yours.
Leslie Wimes is founder and president of Women on the Move and the Democratic African American Women Caucus, www.daawc.com. Follow Leslie on Twitter: @womenonthemove1.
