Did Alex Sink run on austerity and cutting SS in Florida?

[Autumn]

Last edited Fri Mar 14, 2014, 07:21 PM - Edit history (1)

I haven't paid any attention to that race but if Daily Kos is right I could see why the turnout for her would be low.

"And in this case, I don't blame our base voters. When Democrats like Alex Sink run on austerity, cutting Social Security and bringing back the Simpson-Bowles Catfood Commission, well, no one is inspired." Snippet from this article:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/12/1284086/-Florida-special-election-We-didn-t-turn-out-we-didn-t-win


Edited to add this from madfloridian which answered my question.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024665042

[TreasonousBastard]

1. In a heavily Republican district, she might have thought...

that was the way to go.

But, in the end, the voters who want a Republican in office will usually go for the real one.

[Autumn]

5. There are a lot of seniors in Florida. Republican and Democrat. As a

Democrat who has never missed an election I think I would have sat on this one if a democrat I had to vote for campaigned on that nonsense.

[former9thward]

21. It is not heavily Republican.

The district is 37 percent Republican, 35 percent Democrat and 24 percent independent.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/03/11/everything-you-need-to-know-about-todays-special-election-in-florida/

[bullwinkle428]

2. The absolute worst state in the nation to use this campaign strategy in.

[Catherina]

3. +1 n/t

[Autumn]

6. I can't wrap my mind around that.

What democrat will run on that? A ten year old would know that's a bad strategy.

[Catherina]

4. People won't vote in this Austerity Theft, not in the US, Europe, Latin America or (gasp) Ukraine

Take heed Democratic Party.

[Autumn]

7. Bad strategy there, unless one wants to lose.

If the article is true, where does the blame on this loss belong?

[Catherina]

8. I'd say on the party for pushing this from the top

because they're addicted to corporate money and that trumps what the voters want every time.

And corporate money doesn't really car which team wins as long as they invested in both so they can stack admin and poltical positions. I think the results of where our country is in 2014 speak for themselves.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. See! See! I toldja it's the Left's fault!!

They just don't understand "pragmatic" politics and the necessity of winning the "middle" by turning right!

[Autumn]

10. I would think any politician, Republican or Democrat would stop

and think maybe cutting SS in a state where there are a lot of seniors would think that just might be a bad idea.

[Savannahmann]

11. The big issue was the ACA

Alex Sink outspent the Rethug about three to one. Outside spending narrowed the margin, but we still spent more on the Democratic Campaign than the Rethugs did.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20140312/DACFR78G0.html

In an attempt to deflect criticism over the law, Sink and Democrats painted Jolly as a Washington lobbyist who backs efforts to privatize Social Security and gut Medicare. The attack put Jolly on the defensive in recent weeks, and some voters cited concern about GOP cuts to programs for the elderly. More than one in four registered voters in the district is older than 65.

"The Republican Party thinks they are hurting President Obama," said George Nassif, an 82-year-old Republican who voted for Sink. "They are not. They are hurting the people."

So it sounds like someone is trying to re-write history a bit to pretend the loss wasn't what it was.

Read the article, it's a good overview from people in the area.

[Autumn]

12. Interesting. It's easy to see where Jolly stands in that article.

Was she on the same side as he is on SS or did the Kos article lie about that?

Bob Barker is such a creep.

[PM Martin]

13. Considering his "engagements" with women, Barker is your typical teabagger.

[Savannahmann]

14. The KOS article doesn't jibe with any other material.

There are times when KOS is a great source of information you're not getting elsewhere. There are also times when KOS is the loudest of the propaganda sites spinning things to make Democrats and Liberals look better.

I prefer to deal in the reality of the situation. I am a firm believer of the idea that you can't fix a problem, until you know what is broken.

The first thing broken is the Democratic Party's apathy towards the long term unemployed in this country. Many on our side of the issues have started to sing the "New normal" song that is completely unacceptable. The argument that manufacturing will never return to the US because it's not profitable is bunk utterly disproven by Toyota, Volkswagen, Kia, and many other auto companies. They set up factories in the US, and those factories are profitable, and provide good jobs for the workers at good if not awesome wages.

Germany which has on average much higher wages than the US manages to operate factories profitably, and is considered a place where quality products are manufactured. We used to have that designation, and we could do so again, but it would take work.

So IMO, the KOS article is closer to propaganda than information in this instance. That is not always the case, and it is dissapointing when it is. That is why I tend to read several articles from many different sources to determine what the truth actually is. The quotes from the voters in the AP story is especially telling. The Rethugs who voted for Sink did so out of disgust with the Rethug brand, but not because they were especially enamored with Sink.

First, find out what issues matter to the voters. Economy and Jobs tops the list. Then address those problems. Even if it is long term solutions that require a major paradigm shift don't just ignore the problems. Otherwise the voters feel you don't give a shit.

Notice how the Rethugs approach every issue. The Job Killing Obamacare. The Job Killing Minimum wage hike. The Job Killing cuts to the Defense industry. The Rethugs are smart enough to see the polls and know that Jobs and Economy are important. We appear to recognize that when we keep pushing the deadlines out past elections for parts of the ACA. When President Obama did that it looked like he acknowledged that the ACA was going to slaughter jobs. At least that is the spin coming from the RW and we have no answer for it. NONE. We allow the Job Killer tag to be hanged upon us and have no response other than the Rethugs are worse than we are.

So what do we do? Do we go out and tell people that we are aware that 55 million people are unemployed and uncounted by the BLS because they have stopped "actively seeking employment" or in other words given into despair? No. If anything we ignore those 55 million people in an even more determined fashion. We don't offer long term jobs programs, because we are too busy celebrating the low unemployment numbers driven primarily by studiously ignoring the depressed out of seeking jobs.

Rethugs are assholes, everyone knows that. But if Rethugs are seen as fighting for jobs, while the other party is seen fighting for programs that kill jobs, who do you think is going to win?

[Autumn]

15. Very good analysis.

Democrats do seem to have a problem with their message.

[RobertEarl]

16. That district?

It was owned by one of the biggest spending congressman ever: Young.

He owned that seat even before the time Gore invented the internet.

Young dished out more defense department funding than anybody ever in congress.

And we expected that the republicans would allow a democrat to be elected to that seat? Bwahahahaa....

[jwirr]

17. In other words she did not run as a real Democrat.

[Segami]

25. +1

Another spineless campaign strategy.

Will they EVER learn?

[onethatcares]

18. problem is,

she never came out and stated what she stood for IMHO. Jeeez, 150 days of mud slinging and not once did I hear, "Hi I'm Alex Sink and I stand for these principles and programs that will help the middle class and the working poor".

Jolly had the audacity to skirt the teabagger opinion and talk like he would be another Bill Young (sheesh, I truly hope not) but we shall see if he's really a lobbiest now.

Another big part of it, the district is gerrymandered all to hell and back, along with the entire state of Floriduh.

I just heard someone talk of Alex Sink running again in November. What is she going to say? "I lost twice and I think I have as good a chance now"?????????

Sadly, this little peninsula is not really a puke bastion, there are many, many lefties but we are left out of the discussion.

[Autumn]

19. You think the pot issue will help there in November?

[onethatcares]

23. I would say

it will bring out the voters on both sides. I collected signatures to get it on the ballot and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of
people over 70 that signed for it. Those are true voters anyway so they'll be there. The ones that bothered me were those 60-65 that
had all these stories of Reefer Madness which I knew weren't true but those guys are scary. The younger folk, eh, what does it take to get them to the polls? They already see their parents being screwed by the system but I don't think they realize what they can do to change things.

It's going to take more than medical marijuana to motivate them. They need jobs and people that actually know how to create those jobs.

So, in summary. The issue may help a bit but for all the wrong reasons (we are not going full legal)they may not understand that.

Frankly, I'm gonna think the other side is going to flat out run hard on this issue, more than the dems will. (wow, I guess that makes it a no to your question)

[LittleBlue]

20. We ran a Third Way candidate and lost

How can this be possible?

[mcar]

22. Her ads were all about attacking Jolly

"fixing" Obamacare, protecting SS and being bipartisan. I never once heard her talk about cutting or austerity.

IMO, she struck the right tone for this middle of the road senior-heavy district. I think Kos is wrong here.

[Aerows]

24. Alex Sink "Can you hold my foot for a second?"

"I need to shoot it."

[MindMover]

26. she is certainly not a progressive democrat ...