Working the margins

Fabulous People,

I’ll try to be brief. The election is Tuesday. As I type, the person I want to be elected Florida’s Attorney General, Dan Gelber, is behind in the polls by 2 points. Now, that might not be a big deal IF the alternative was someone who was fair on our issues. Pam Bonbi is no friend of the GBLT community as best I can tell. Dan Gelber is a proven friend of the GLBT community and an awesome candidate for the job. The same scenario goes for the Governor race and house and senate races up and down the ticket, up and down the state. Kelly Skidmore, who has been a fighter for the cause of equality, is in a tough race. Her opponent Bogdanoff is no friend of the GLBT community. Scott Maddox is running for Agriculture commissioner, which might not seem to be a big deal, but it’s a cabinet position and that position sits right next to the Governor. If we lose too many house seats, the democrats may as well just stay home because the republicans will be able to run right over them. If we win the Governors’ race, we will have veto power over bad legislation. Without enough seats in the house, that veto power can be run right over.

Ted Deutch, Mark Pafford, Jeff Clemens and Hava Holzhauer all supporters of equality. Alcee Hastings, ALWAYS strong on our issues. Ron Klein, well not really sure but Allen West is a tea bagging train wreck. Joe Abruzzo, who the hell could not love Joe Abruzzo? Seriously, his opponent opposes repealing the adoption ban and supports the ultra sound bill. Kevin Rader, well he seems enthusiastic on marriage equality AND has co sponsored everything EQFL has brought to him. His opponent? Yea, not so much. His opponent DOES support the ultra sound bill. Alex Sink supports the repeal of the adoption ban, Rick Scott does not. Go and look it up yourselves. Goggle Christian Coalition of Florida or Florida Family Policy Council and check THEIR endorsements.

ALL of these races are tight. That means the margins count. Know where the margin is, us. If you’re mad about DADT, lets fight that battle later. If we don’t get out and rally the vote for these races it will just make the work we do that much harder. The redistricting that is to be done will be a train wreck. The wealthy will see that they can buy elections.

What more do I have to tell you? If we don’t get out the vote, we will pay a dear price.

I propose you all call your friends and give them this message (edited of course). I propose we work with whomever we can for the next 6 days to push these candidates into the win column.
Get your voters guide online at http://eqfl.blogspot.com Send your friends an email. I will be posting events every day from the Facebook group. We may plan a quick meeting for this Friday, just to give out a reduced size voters guide and discuss the races and candidates. Plan on giving some time Tuesday to polling place action in your neighborhood. It’s a weird mid term. Perhaps they are all weird and I’m just paying more attention. However, they are ours to win or lose. We (Equality Florida) put in great effort to make change in Tallahassee and if we don’t win some of the afore mentioned races, man is it going to be a rough haul.