On Wednesday Hillsborough Democratic State Committeeman Alan Clendenin announced that he was dropping out of the race for the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, giving his full endorsement to the establishment favorite, former state Senator Rod Smith.
It's an about face for the South Tampa resident, who told CL two weeks ago that he wasn't convinced that Smith was committed to the hard work of trying to reverse course for a party that was decimated in the midterm elections earlier this month. But now Clendenin says, he's convinced Smith gets it.
"I think he now recognizes the type of time commitment that's going to be involved to do what needs to get done to turn this party around with redistricting, and he has assured me, and I believe him, that he's going to be 100% engaged to take on the challenge."
On Tuesday, Smith unveiled Senator Blll Nelson and a slate of other elected officials who have endorsed him. That happened to appear on the same day that 31-year-old Tallahassee City Commissioner Andrew Gillum announced that he was getting into the race.
And Gillum sounds like Clendenin did a few weeks ago: not afraid that some of the biggest Democrats in the state are backing Rod Smith.
"This race is about a fresh start for the Democratic Party, and that will require fresh leadership. We have to quite frankly get out of the habit as a party of 1) recycling leadership but 2) eating our young," Gillum said, giving praise to the state GOP for bringing in young conservatives, going back to the Jeb Bush era, "even though I vigorously disagreed with those policies and marched on and said as much" (a reference to the protest in Tallahassee against Bush's One Florida plan that aimed to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions and some state contracts).
"This isn't about Andrew Gillum, this really is about a movement to bring the Democratic party back to the basics, into investing and community and building the type of movement to take this party forward. That includes empowering the DEC's to do what they're supposed to…to get Democratic candidates elected."
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2010.