No one would have believed in the late1980s that in less than two decades, the Democratic Party in Hillsborough would be an also-ran.After all, Democrats held a majority on the County Commission in 1988. Democrats had retaken the Tampa mayor's office from Republicans (after Bob Martinez left to run for governor). Democrats passed progressive laws to provide health care for the working poor and to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Democrats had a lock on the courthouse, holding all of the constitutional offices such as clerk of the courts and supervisor of elections.
But by the 2004 elections, the continuing rout of Democrats from public offices in Hillsborough was clear.
Today, eight months after President Bush carried Hillsborough by a 6.5 percent margin and two more County Commission seats switched over to the GOP (giving Republicans a strong majority), Hillsborough Democrats – like their counterparts elsewhere in the state, and by extension, the nation – are out of power in a huge way.
On voter registration rolls, at least, Democrats still outnumber Republicans by approximately 38,000 in the county, with Independents now making up almost 20 percent of the electorate. But Hillsborough has been trending Republican in performance for years, and the results in the November 2004 races were devastating for the faithful. The question remains: How do they recover?
Since the 2004 Election, there has been an onslaught of position papers written and think tank discussions covered on C-SPAN on why the Democrats have seemingly lost touch with the American public. There have been discussions about ideas – or the perceived lack of them – that might be the cause for the party not capturing the majority of the electorate.
This story is not about the idea gap, real or imaginary.
Instead, Hillsborough Democrats suffer a more fundamental problem. It's about political party organization, and how badly it's broken down locally in Hillsborough County. It is a story that is shrouded by personal machinations that have become the obsession of some local party activists.
As the Planet reported last week, dissension within the ranks of the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee escalated to a higher level when the committee's vice chairman, Bob Keenan, sent a letter to new Florida Democratic State Chairwoman Karen Thurman alleging a series of problems with the Hillsborough DEC Chairwoman, Janee Murphy. The allegations of fiscal mismanagement include a charge that she used a party debit card for personal needs.
Murphy denies any wrongdoing, and despite the controversy still enjoys support on the DEC. On the evening that news broke about the fiscal complaint, Murphy made a last-minute entrance to a Democrat gathering at Viva La Frida restaurant in Seminole Heights.
She got a standing ovation.
BUCKHORN AND THE BURBS
The recent County Commission 5-1 vote to ban gay pride displays in government-owned facilities illustrates the growing ideological split between outlying areas of the county and the city of Tampa, which remains the citadel of Democratic strength in Hillsborough. (It also shows the Democrats with less than a united front; only Kathy Castor voted against the ban, while Thomas Scott voted with his Republican colleagues, as he has done on many other occasions.) Ronda Storms, the Republican from Valrico who introduced the measure, clearly finds strong political support for it in eastern and southern Hillsborough.
University of South Florida-St. Petersburg political science professor Daryl Paulson says what's happening in those unincorporated areas of the county is a reflection of what's happening nationwide. "There is this suburbanization in which you get primarily
upper-middle-class individuals that tend to be Republican – and these communities are being formed outside the old urban core," Paulson said.
Pinellas County Democratic political consultant Kevin King says it's not that complex a problem to figure out. "In places like Valrico and Riverview you have a very conservative, rigid mindset."
The demographic disadvantage clearly showed itself in the Democrats' failure to retain the Hillsborough County Commission seat that party icon Jan Platt vacated in 2004 after being term-limited. Former Tampa City Councilman Bob Buckhorn ended up narrowly losing to Republican Brian Blair, previously best known as a member of the Killer B's professional wrestling tag team, complete with bumblebee-inspired black-and-yellow striped tights.
The growing power of Hillsborough County's GOP machine had already been made clear by Blair's surprisingly good showing in a 2002 race for County Commission. A political novice who will never be accused of speaking above the heads of voters, Blair came close to beating longtime Hillsborough elected official Pat Frank by frequently invoking her perceived liberal political philosophy in rural and suburban areas of the county.
But Buckhorn is arguably as conservative as many mainstream Republicans on some issues. And his name surely could not be unknown to those who follow Tampa politics, where the centrist-oriented Buckhorn became most famous for sponsoring an ordinance that kept nude dancers at least six feet away from their customers in 1999. The so-called six-foot rule or lap-dance law made national headlines for Buckhorn.
But Buckhorn said it was his party affiliation that doomed him outside of Tampa.
"Blair had very little organization, very little capacity for the job, no preparation," Buckhorn said. "He was elected only because he was a Republican, and President Bush had strong coattails."
Buckhorn concedes it's becoming harder for a Democrat to win countywide in Hillsborough. "Nobody's going to out-'values' me. But having the 'D' next to my name taints me."
WORKING IN THE RED
The question then begs itself: Are Democrats doing enough in the so-called Red Precincts outside Tampa to be competitive?
Rob McKenna doesn't think so.
The 33-year-old computer analyst lost to Republican and Jeb Bush appointee Buddy Johnson in the race for Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections last year. McKenna then was recruited by dissatisfied local Democrats to run for the chairmanship of the local party's executive committee (the DEC) earlier this year against incumbent Murphy. Unlike many other Democrats who are critical of her leadership, McKenna said he had nothing personal against Murphy but felt that his own experience running countywide last year informed him that the local party needs to make changes.
"We had organized our campaign based on demographics from 10 years ago rather than today," McKenna said. "And we ignored huge areas of the county which quite frankly ended
up going heavily Republican. Could we have prevented that? I don't know. But we could have blunted some of the damage."
McKenna sees what's happening in Hillsborough as a microcosm for Democrats nationally. Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean has made high-profile appearances in the Deep South this year, trying at least to show that Democrats haven't conceded those areas which in the last two presidential races have become a sea of Red on election night.
McKenna says local Dems need to do the same thing. "We can't just give up eastern Hillsborough and Brandon, but we have nothing out there," he said.
MURPHY VS. THE 537 club
Along with losing the demographic fight, Hillsborough Democrats are vexed by internecine battles revolving around the leadership of the local Democratic Executive Committee, centered on Murphy.
The 34-year-old Murphy has run the DEC for a little more than two years. She was elected in 2003, and re-elected late last year. But many prominent Hillsborough Democrats left the DEC shortly after her victory in 2003, alienated by what they describe as her abusive treatment of others on the Executive Committee.
One such person was Phyllis Busansky, the charismatic, talented Democrat who was instrumental in creating Hillsborough County's indigent health care program back in the early 1990s when she served on the County Commission. Busansky (still a Tampa resident but now a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health) initially supported Murphy in her bid to become DEC chairwoman. But a month after Murphy's victory, clashes between the two women led Busansky to leave the group.
Busansky and several other disaffected Democrats then took their energy, and in some cases, their money, and formed the 537 Club, an adjunct group created to help get John Kerry and other Democrats elected. (It took its name from the vote margin that George W. Bush won by in Florida over Al Gore in 2000.)
There are two schools of thought about the split: It either hurt Democrats by splitting resources and volunteers or had no impact at all, since both the county party and the 537 were pulling basically in the same direction.
Murphy takes the second view.
"If you're pushing our agenda, I don't care," Murphy said. "I don't care if it's thru the DEC, the Sierra Club, MoveOn, ACT," Murphy continued, "if you can get the job done, that's all that matters."
Busansky bristles at the suggestion that the 537 Club hurt Kerry or any local Democrats in Hillsborough County in 2004, pointing to the fact that in precincts where the 537 had a particularly strong presence, Democrats actually performed better than elsewhere in the county.
The split, however, has diluted Democratic clout in at least one recent local race. Buckhorn, generally supported by the local party leaders, ended up running for the District 6 County Commission seat against another strong Democratic candidate, former Rowdies soccer player Ed Austin, who was personally backed by Busansky and the 537 Club.
Favored by older partisans and centrists, Buckhorn ended up spending tens of thousands of dollars to defeat Austin, the choice of more liberal Democratic voters. Bloodied but victorious, Buckhorn had that much less in the financial tank against the well-heeled Blair and narrowly lost in the general election. And the Democrats ended up with a weaker candidate seeking Frank's district, in the end losing the seat to Republican Mark Sharpe.
THE RACE FACTOR
To answer her critics, Murphy met with a writer for the Planet over lunch at the country club in Avila, the exclusive neighborhood in North Tampa. Critics have used her residency in the area's most famously posh development as another arrow in their quiver as to why she's not the right person to lead the party "of the working class." Perhaps the fact that the leader of the local Democrats lives in such luxurious settings is ironic, but others see the criticism as an example of the pettiness Murphy is having to deal with.
"Personally, of course that stuff bothers me," Murphy said. "But I don't have the time for that. I don't have the time to worry about what so-and-so said about me."
Murphy is aware that even some of the people who attend the DEC meetings are out to get her. The man she defeated in her first campaign for the volunteer position, former Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joe Bohren, attends such meetings. Bohren calls Murphy two-faced, saying "Her window on the world is a mirror."
When asked about Bohren, Murphy remains stoic and tries to find the silver lining.
"Our battles need to be against the Republicans, not each other, …" Murphy said. "We don't need to air our dirty laundry. Let's stop whining and complaining about the Kerry campaign or about databases or about Janee. Because Janee was elected. You want me to be a better chair, then make me a better chair. Work with me."
But the recent allegations sent by her vice chairman likely won't make that kind of peace any easier to achieve. The Keenan letter puts one critic on the record, but others keep private their assessments of her as arrogant, imperious and duplicitous. These Democrats declined to say anything on the record to the Planet, saying they fear they'll be judged racist (Murphy is black).
One former DEC member who will speak on the record, USF professor of Library and Information Services, Kathleen McCook, bemoaned the party's performance in eastern and southern Hillsborough. She dismisses those who defend Murphy's shortcomings as the product of her relative youthfulness, saying "She's young, but she's not that young. … She's 34, not 12."
Murphy says that the diversity that she's brought to the Hillsborough group may make some fearful. Whether it's fear of a younger, more racially diverse party, or something else, the intensely personal attacks clearly go beyond what's best for Hillsborough Democrats.
Jackie Beiro, a House district Leader with the DEC, said racism and sexism are definitely part of the mix used against Janee. "None of this would matter if the chairperson was a guy," Beiro said. Some of Murphy's arch critics, she said, are the same people who during the Kerry campaign refused to canvass in certain (black) neighborhoods.
Other supporters agree that Murphy is being unfairly targeted.
"Janee represented a breath of fresh air and an alternative to the 'old gang' who insisted that only they could do things rights, in spite of their repeated failures," said another Murphy supporter, former USF professor Jack Sandler. In an e-mail message, he wrote, "Naturally, they resented her brash refusal to acknowledge their control and there has been a vendetta against her from day one. We are dealing with just another example of the Democratic Party's 'strong suit' – self-destruction. But this time, there are many of us who won't let it happen. When I look at what has been accomplished under Janee's leadership, in spite of the backstabbing and the personal attacks, I find it amazing that she can still function."
Murphy points to a list of accomplishments for her first two years in office, including:
• Increasing the active membership in the DEC from about 50 people to 120-130 volunteers.
• Involving a more diverse demographic in the DEC by age, race and religion.
• Creating a "Farm Team" of future candidates and party activists by working with college students and getting them involved with the party.
• Raising money for local races (for Buckhorn, Pat Frank and Denise Layne) and state House races, something Murphy said the local party has never done. She said the DEC provided informational brochures called palm cards in some races and printed slate cards that listed all Democratic candidates and could be handed out while canvassing or at voting locations. Some of her critics, however, dispute her claims of success at fundraising.
Accomplishments aside, Murphy faces tough challenges beyond those to her leadership style. At a recent DEC meeting, the party's treasurer said it had more bills than cash on hand. Murphy later acknowledged the party is struggling financially but denied that it is broke. She cited $12,000 in a certificate of deposit that the local party has in the bank but is loath to spend.
SHALL THE PARTY OVERCOME?
Many Hillsborough Democrats accept that their message must be honed in a certain fashion to capture part of the Red precincts. Reacting to the savage child abductions that have taken place in Florida this year, the Hillsborough DEC is sending a support-the-family message by sponsoring a Safety Fair in late July.
Democratic Party consultant Vic DiMaio says figuring out what has gone wrong for Democrats isn't that difficult. "The Republican Party had the money to do mail-outs," he says, referring to slate cards listing GOP candidates on all the local races. Democrats did not.
DiMaio subscribes to the theory that the Democrats' message isn't off base to the persuadables in the county – it's just how it's presented. "The Republicans have been more effective in framing the issue," he said.
Ah yes, the F-word. Framing. It's what makes Berkeley, Calif.-based linguist George Lakoff essential reading in Democratic Party circles these days. Lakoff is the author of Moral Politics, and most recently, the best-selling, Don't Think of an Elephant!, in which he posits that Republicans have been more successful winning elections in recent times because the political center has responded to the values the GOP represents. He also works to show progressives how to think in terms of values instead of programs.
It's something McKenna believes strongly in. "We need to counter the GOP spin," he said. He's joined forces with the Howard Dean-inspired Democracy for America (which was originally Dean For America) and has given presentations to the DEC and the Hernando County Dems in recent months on framing.
Busansky chimes in on framing as well, referring to Hillary Clinton's much-discussed speech regarding abortion, contraception and abstinence this past January as an exemplary use of changing the conversation. "I think what you say, and how you say it, is really important," she said. "In the end, no child should be left unwanted. That's framing a message, and I think that's a very important thing."
Framing language might help. Getting better organized and stopping the infighting would probably go even further.
After revelations about Democrats' financial problems at the state level surfaced last month, Governor Jeb Bush enjoyed rubbing it in a bit by calling state Dems "pathetic."
It was a harsh, partisan remark. But with 15 months until the next major election, Democrats in Hillsborough and throughout Florida are in the unenviable position of having to prove him wrong, needing to work harder to have the final word on the state of their party – and their relevance.
Mitch E. Perry is assistant news director at community radio station WMNF 88.5 FM.
This article appears in Jul 20-26, 2005.