Orange County DEC Politics 101: A Beginning Class For Black Folk In Central Florida
- Details
- Category: Politics
- Published: Saturday, 21 December 2013 18:30
- Written by Jim Callahan
Editor: Required reading especially, by Black people in Central Florida. This beginners class is to get you caught up with what the Orange County DEC is really all about. There should be more education on the real issues of the Orange County DEC. At this point, this group will be a non-productive factor if the goals are not clearly defined and the group is not on the same page. I don't know whether to congratulate the new chair on the win or not. There appear to be hidden agendas with the folks that are pulling the strings.
by Jim Callahan
The DEC is made up of individual people, but the party gets its resources (votes and money) from a wide array of constituencies and organizations. Orange County is further complicated by having a large geographic area (larger than Rhode Island) and large population (twice the population of Utah) and the population is the result of hypergrowth in the last few decades and has outstipped existing political institutions -- the place still has a small backwater mentality. It is still a small town mentality boasting it is world class while ignoring that it is a medium sized city in its own right.
To get an idea of the small town mentality, suggest adding some seats to the Orange County Commission. All of a sudden people will gasp at the staggering cost. The State of Utah funds a Governor and State legislature on half our population. The Country of Iceland funds a national government and parliament, but Orange County has a small town mentality.
Historically, the southern Democratic Party was an institution dominated by white males. Through the 1950s, the Ku Klux Klan reigned unchecked in Orange County (the murder of Harry T. Moore was never solved, but believed to involve Orange County KKK).
The Civil Rights Movement and Civil Rights legislation destroyed the old Democratic Party Coalition, segregationists moved first to George Wallace(D, AIP), then to Nixon(R) ("Southern Strategy") and then to Reagan/Bush(R). The segregationists purport to have an anti-government ideology developed during their opposition to integration and continuing with their opposition to Obamacare. The purported opposition to government spending evaporates when it involves, military, police or prison spending.
African American votes became the new best friend of the Democratic Party, but the votes were often used to maintain white control in gerrymandered districts. Examples of white male politicians benefiting from black votes include, Dick Batchelor, Bob Sindler, Buddy Dyer and Scott Randolph.
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The frustration of black voters and black politicians with continued white domination using black votes (and failure to observe the mandates of the Voting Rights Act) led black politicans to cut a deal with Republicans for Black majority seats. The Republicans delivered not only the Black majority seats asked for, but super-majority seats that bleached the surrounding districts into white majority Republican strongholds. Using this foundation the Republicans cut more deals to seize control of the state legislature in a Democratic majority state.
The Democratic Party of the early 1990s was in crisis (actually its always in crisis) from the point of view of the old guard the rich white lawyers had deserted the party and all that was left was a bunch of misfits: union activists, unruly Blacks, unfathomable Hispanics and radical white liberal losers and ne'er do well young white lawyers.
Into the crisis of the early 1990s stepped a civic minded white waiter. He tried to energize the black community while trying to repair relations with the white establishment. The white establishment was hostile and cynical. The cynicism would show through in redistricting when white male politicians would demand just enough black votes to ward off a conservative challenger, but not so much that they would have a challenge from the left (from a white liberal, let alone an African American leader). I remember conversations of that ilk involving Rep. Bob Sindler and a staff member of Congressman Jim Bachus.
It was heartbreaking to see the naked cynicism of redistricting. During this period the DEC Chair became a Life Member of the NAACP, used the DEC powers to charter the Rainbow Democratic Club and began the outreach to the Hispanic Community.
In terms of funding, the party's base expenses (phone bill, internet) were funded by member donations. The campaign was funded by the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, candidate filing fees, donations from ambitious young attorneys and pooling of resources from the campaigns of individual candidates. Labor Union money was used to fund special projects that would improve the capacity of the party to campaign.
During the great recession which began in 2008, labor union members lost jobs and there was less labor money available. The comparatively more affluent Gay community filled the gap as their influence was rising (notice that the City of Orlando and Orange County passed Domestic Partnership registries). During 2013 the party was more dependent on the financial contributions of elected officials including Scott Randolph, Alan Grayson and Mayor Dyer.
The task of the new chair will be to maintain donor relationships with elected officials while rekindling donor relationships with the Gay community and labor unions while seeking monthly donations from a financially strapped DEC membership that was hit hard by the great recession. The new Chair has to also nurture another generation of struggling, ambitious young lawyers into making medium sized donations because they will be the big donors of the future.
Obamacare may also open up donor possibilities in the health care sector. Hospitals that want to get paid for all their patients cannot rely on the Republican rejectionists. This is a fundamental realignment that needs to be seized.
My impression is that the new Chair Carlos Smith gets its, but he is daunted by so many challenges on so many fronts. He needs to prioritize the challenges and figure out the very few essential things he can accomplish himself while trying to delegate and nurture initiatives to address the many challenges.