FLORIDA IN PLAY, DEMOCRATS SAY
PBC TKJ DINNER DRIVES HOME THE MESSAGE
By PAUL BLYTHE
“Can you feel the enthusiasm?” master of ceremonies Dave Aronberg asked the Democratic crowd in opening the Saturday night event that was supposed to do exactly that (and, frankly, a little bit more): Make them feel the enthusiasm but also the urgency of the moment we are all in.
“You want me to prove we have enthusiasm?” Palm Beach County’s soon-to-be departing State Attorney asked. “Can you see the hallway? See those tables in the hallway? We’re back, baby! We got those tables in the hallway for overflow!”
He was referring to the fact that this year’s Truman-Kennedy-Johnson Gala – the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s biggest fund-raising event each year – drew the largest crowd that it has ever drawn in its 20 years. The crowd of about 440 diehard Democrats was more than the 42-table ballroom at the West Palm Beach Marriott could hold, so two tables had to be added to hallway outside the room.
The audience of elected officials, candidates, members of the 31 Democratic clubs and caucuses in the county, and other volunteers were served up a couple of appetizers of why Democrats really have to win in 2024, a healthy entre of what the state party and the Vote Yes on 4 movement have done to make 2024 more promising than the heavy losses of 2022, along with a couple of sides of the new-gen candidates getting our local base so excited, and a dessert of sweet predictions from the state party chairwoman.
“Welcome to the free state of Florida, where we have the freedom of speech, but watch what you say,” Aronberg said to start the meal off. “Welcome to the free state of Florida, where we have the freedom to love who we love, as long as we don’t talk about it in our schools. Welcome to the free state of Florida, where we have the freedom still to join a union, unless it’s a public sector union. Welcome to the free state of Florida, where the people have the power to change the laws through referendum, but if you sign a petition, you may get a knock on the door from a law enforcement officer.
“If you cherish liberty and freedom, then we have 37 more days to help free our state from those fake policies and those fake politicians that want to be a part of your personal poison.”
MOM ON A MISSION
If that didn’t start you salivating for change in Florida, the story of the keynote speaker, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, reminded everyone in the room why we need laws to prevent, not promote, gun violence. And it helped us, as McBath explained it was intended to do, to see what becomes “possible when ordinary people stand up to demand more.”
U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach introduced McBath as a “special friend” and a “mom on a mission,” but said she’d leave it to McBath to tell us more about herself. And her story was shocker, at least for me, when it came – because I remember well the incident she described, but I had no idea it had anything to do with her.
“Some of you may remember my story,” McBath said. “Some of you may remember the loud-music shooting here in Florida just over a decade ago in Jacksonville, when my son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed that night all these years ago. He was simply playing loud music in a car. He was only 17 years old and killed in a senseless act of gun violence played out by bigotry and hatred.”
In mesmerizing detail, she told the story of how Jordan and friends had stopped at a gas station on Nov. 23, 2012, “the worst day of my life,” to get some chewing gum, and while her son waited in the car with music playing, a man named Michael Dunn pulled in for gas and told Jordan and his friends to turn down what he called “the thug music.” When they didn’t within a few minutes, he came away from his car with a gun and fired 10 bullets into the car where Jordan sat, hitting Jordan with three.
“My son’s killer felt emboldened by the same flawed laws that fail to keep our children safe,” she said. “Florida’s ‘Stand your Ground” law allowed this man to shoot first and ask questions later.”
She fell into a “pit of grief after Jordan was killed,” but committed herself to telling her son’s story to everyone so that his death would not be in vain. Using the lessons she had learned by watching her parents, who were civil rights activists in the 1960s and ‘70s, she became an anti-gun violence activist.
Then in 2018, she and the world watched in horror as the shootings in Parkland, Fla. unfolded. She decided she needed to do more.
So, she ran for Congress in her home district in an Atlanta suburb against a candidate backed by the NRA. She won the district, which had once been held by Newt Gingrich and was a Republican stronghold for decades. And she has won twice again despite the district having been gerrymandered twice by the Georgia Legislature to try to prevent her winning.
“And I have been able to pass legislation with the Biden-Harris administration to make meaningful change in people’s lives,” she said.
She takes pride in having passed 11 laws in six years and said that just two days before the county’s TKJ Dinner, she “was honored to stand on the platform at the White House with so many of this country’s heros and ‘she-ros’ for gun violence prevention as President Biden signed executive orders for more sweeping measures to keep Americans safe from unnecessary gun violence.”
DISHING ON THE OPPOSITION
Other presentations for or by Democratic candidates similarly contrasted the promise of the Democratic hopefuls with the Republican failures they would replace.
Speaking for U.S. Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, District 26 state Sen. Lori Berman dished on Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, of Florida.
“So we have just been through a hurricane (Category 4 Hurricane Helene in the Panhandle) that has been absolutely catastrophic not only for the state of Florida, but for the states of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee,” Berman said. “And the candidate that Debbie (Mucarsel-Powell) is running against, otherwise known as Voldemort, has, when he was the governor of our state, refused to allow the words ‘climate change’ to even be uttered in this state by any state employee. And then the other day, if some of you saw him on CNN …he said, ‘well there is some change in the climate.’
“We’re not going to be gaslighted by that. We know he is a climate change denier, and that he is responsible for the fact that we are not prepared for what is happening to this country. People like him who refuse to acknowledge climate change are the reason we are not getting ahead on this issue and instead are always on the defense.”
Berman explained her stand-in appearance for Mucarsel-Powell, saying, “Debbie couldn’t be here tonight because she is with her son at his ‘College Days,’ and we all know we are the party that supports family, and that is exactly what Debbie is doing tonight.”
Berman also reminded the audience of Scott’s vows to cut Social Security and Medicare, his two votes against in-vitro fertilization and his comment that he would have voted for Florida’s 6-week abortion ban.
In contrast, Berman said, Democrats have a candidate in Mucarsel-Powell, who supports Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, immigrants, a return to Roe v. Wade, and action to prevent unnecessary gun violence.
“Here in the state of Florida we have more people that are elderly, more people who are dependent on (Social Security) and … he has said he is going to cut that, because we know he is for big business and we know he is not for you. … But we have a candidate who instead came from Ecuador, who understands what it’s like to be an immigrant, who has a father who was shot down at the age of 24 and who understands how important it is to have gun control and who is strong and cares for us, while the other guy is not there for you.”
PUTTING MAST IN THE PAST
Some south county Democrats also got what might have been their first taste of another fresh hope for the party in 2024 -- although he’s become a staple for us in north county.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our next congressman – who is going to put Mast in the past,” state Sen. Bobby Powell, of West Palm Beach, introduced Thomas Witkop, who at 26 is this election’s youngest candidate running for Congress.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Thomas Witkop and I’m running to take down Brian Mast,” Witkop told the crowd. “This is the year that we take back Florida’s 21st congressional district. This is the year where we have…everything right on the ballot. We have the environment on the ballot. We have democracy on the ballot. So it’s critical that we get out and volunteer, we donate, we vote, and we make sure all of our friends vote, for Witkop!
“Vote Witkop for women, Vote Witkop for waterways, and vote Witkop for a working democracy!”
But it was Anna Hochkammer, executive director of the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, and Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, who delivered the meat of the night.
Hochkammer, a council member for the Village of Pinecrest in Miami-Dade Country, outlined what it took to get Amendment 4 on the ballot and how it should help Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.
THE INFLUENCE OF AMENDMENT 4
Alluding to Kamala Harris supporters’ battle cry, “We’re not going back, Hochkammer said, “We have gone back. We have lost rights that we once had, and we are less free than we once were. Doctors cannot see patients, and women are hurt, maimed and in pain. Mothers die…
“So we did something…. We gathered 1.45 million petitions, 10 percent of the voter rolls in the state of Florida in less than six months; we survived … an incredibly hostile Florida Supreme Court; and we raised over $100 million to get this passed.
“The opportunity now stands for every candidate who supports abortion access, up and down the ballot, to talk to voters about something that almost everyone in Florida agrees about, that this abortion ban is cruel and inhumane and cannot be allowed to stand. There has not been a better time for our candidates on the ground to find common ground with Florida voters. So the question now before us is who will have the courage to do something with this opportunity?
“The work to pass Amendment 4 will shape every single election in this state, and now is the time for people to understand that if they want good policy to come to the law of the land, they need to elect good candidates who intend to support those policies, so it is time for voters to do something too.”
Fried started her appearance with a symbolic action that spoke as loudly as any of the words of the night.
As she arrived on stage, she said she needed to do something before she started her speech, and she lifted the life-sized cutout of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and moved it from where it stood alone on the left side of the stage to a position on the right side where it could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the cutouts of the presidents for whom the dinner is named: Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
SOME REALLY GOOD NEWS
“In 38 days,” she then said, “we have a chance to do all this: Elect more Democrats up and down the ballot – to make sure we stay in power in the (U.S.) Senate. To make sure we are out of the minority in the (U.S.) House. And to bring more Democrats to Tallahassee. We have an opportunity in 38 days to finally fire Rick Scott and bring in Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, and we are going to make history by electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
“And now, I have some really good news. Yesterday the DNC announced its latest funding for building campaign infrastructure. And out of 38 states, both traditionally red and blue states, Florida received the largest allocation of funding with over $400,000… For over a year, we have been telling all of our national partners, don’t count Florida out, and building infrastructure is necessary, not just to win in 2024, but in 2026, 2028 and beyond. And I’d like to thank (DNC) Chairman Jaime Harris for showing the party’s commitment to fighting for Florida. Florida is worth fighting for…
“All of the hard work we’ve put in the last few years is finally paying off. The money is coming. The people are on the ground, and we will carry our message of optimism and a plan for the future all the way to the polls Nov. 5.”
However, Fried, Hochkammer and all of the speakers Saturday night emphasized that the hard work is not over for Democrats. As Palm Beach County Democratic Party Chair Jennifer Hudson said, “We’ve reached out to almost 350,000 voters of Palm Beach County, including 7,000 doors knocked, almost 40,000 phone conversations, 230,000 text messages, and similar numbers of postcards.
“But there’s a lot more to do.”
Every day for the next five weeks to Election Day, all of us must continue knocking on more doors, making more phone calls, sending more texts, and continuing to urge our neighbors, friends and family to vote Democratic up and down the ballot.
If we do, Fried predicted, “Florida will shock the nation.”
“I want to put two images in your head,” she said. “First image is on Nov. 5. We know the polls close here at 7 o’clock and (an hour later in the Panhandle because of Central Time). We’re all watching MSNBC at home, and I have Steve Kornacki at the big board …. He’s got his ear piece in, and he talks for a second and then he’s got his finger up to his ear and he says, ‘Oh? Are you sure? We sure?’
“Then, ‘I have a projection. The state of Florida has gone for Kamala Harris.’
And the crowd at Saturday's gala went wild. Biggest cheer and most applause of the night.
“Not only have will we have gone for Kamala Harris,” Fried projected. “But we will have ended Donald Trump and MAGA extremism for the whole country.”
Another big round of applause.
“Next image,” she said. “We’ll be at Jan. 20 and we’ll be watching in Washington, D.C., and some of us will be watching at home, as the first female president is being sworn in by one of our own from here in the state of Florida, the first black female U.S. Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“At that moment. At that moment, we will have regained freedom and democracy. We will have returned the season of light and hope, not just for our state but for our country and the entire world. And the state of Florida and Palm Beach County will have delivered that on Nov. 5!”
So, let’s do something, Democrats. Let’s work like hell to make this real.
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