Rooney (FL-16) has a great opponent Ed Tautiva.

[John N Morgan]

I met Ed last night at the "Friday Fest" in Ft Pierce. I was at the Democrats stand and he came up with his campaign manager. Ed is a good man for the seat, and we need to be rid of Rooney.

Basically, Ed is a veteran and a school teacher in Palm Beach County. He teaches Civics in a middle school. Still holds his military straight posture. We talked for quite a bit and I like him.

He's still getting his campaign together so when he shows up give him some DU love.

[madfloridian]

1. I hope he escapes Dave Lutrin's fate at the hands of his own party.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1487

He decided not to run this time at the request of his wife...I read that at Down with Tyranny the other day.

He was treated brutally so a Republican Tim Mahoney could run as a Democrat with Rahm and Karen Thurman's blessings.

[John N Morgan]

2. I gave him the full story of FL-16. The Martin County Democrats is a blue dog organization

(actually more like Republicans that took over) and they will not do anything to promote a real Democrat. In fact the problem with Martin county is not the Republicans ... it's the DNC member Martin County Democrats.

I'm in the same boat, but at least Ed knows the cavalry isn't coming. I bought the voter data from the SOEs, imported the data into my own database and wrote software to create phone, walking and mailing lists.

My strategy (since I'm down ticket) is to promote the team as they emerge from the primaries. I like Sink, Meek, and Tautiva. Since my state district is nearly a subset of FL-16, I can make some difference now that we have a full ticket.

[madfloridian]

3. Our area is the same way. FL Dems too often try to be like Republicans.

They were one of the first states to embrace the DLC policies, and they still campaign so as not to upset any of them.

We have had so many candidates we supported shoved out of races, it gets discouraging. I see Jan Schneider is running as an independent, not sure of the term exactly.

You have a great website. Best of luck to you and to Ed.

[movonne]

4. Well you still got Grayson...and he makes up for the other dlc dems...

[madfloridian]

5. He does, doesn't he?

We need more like him.