POLITICS
Florida political party leaders to keep jobs
With no change in leadership expected, Florida's Democratic and Republican activists will meet soon to determine their agendas.
BY BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
The only potential for drama at the upcoming elections of Florida's political party leaders: Republican Chairman Jim Greer belting out one of his trademark Elvis impersonations.
Despite some grumbling about their leadership, both of Florida's party bosses appear headed toward easy reelections.
Florida Democratic Chairwoman Karen Thurman is unopposed in Saturday's vote, now that her lone challenger has gotten behind her. Backed by the top Republican officials in the state, Greer faces only a little-known Martin County political activist.
Though the party leaders are not household names, they oversee recruiting candidates, allocating campaign donations and setting the political agenda.
Their performance is judged by a tally of wins and losses, even if individual candidates are most responsible for the score.
Under Thurman's watch since 2005, Democrats have racked up more victories than they have in two decades. Most recently, the party delivered Florida to Barack Obama and netted one state House seat and one congressional seat.
Thurman's only opponent, former Miami-Dade Democratic Chairman Bret Berlin, argued that the party should have gained more ground on Obama's coattails. But Berlin dropped his bid last week when it was clear Thurman had the votes.
''I would suggest the biggest thing we ought to be doing is delivering 27 electoral votes to the next president -- and guess what, we did,'' Thurman said. ``I think there will be a lot of opportunities in the future to keep Obama supporters engaged.''
BROKE RULES
Thurman also faced criticism for embracing the state's earliest presidential primary in history, which broke national party rules and led the major candidates to boycott the state before the Jan. 29 vote. The national party has formed a commission to reexamine the presidential primary process.
Greer, picked by Gov. Charlie Crist after he won election in 2006, boasts of the party fending off strong challenges to the three Republicans members of Congress representing South Florida. After two election cycles in which Hispanic voters favored the top of the Democratic ticket, Greer recently hired a new Hispanic outreach director.
VOTE EDGE
Greer said he also wants to start chipping away at the Democratic Party's 650,000-vote edge in registration.
''We're going to start right out of the chute,'' he said.
Greer's only challenger in the party's Jan. 10 election is Eric Miller of Stuart, who worked on California U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter's presidential primary campaign. He distributed a brochure on his political philosophies, which diverge from Florida's Republican Party establishment on two issues: global warming and immigration.
Miller contends science has not proven that humans have caused climate change, and he described global warming as a ''get-rich-quick scheme.'' He also says the children of illegal immigrants should not be allowed in public schools.
''I do not believe that they are entitled to one red cent of any tax dollar, other than those used for deportation,'' Miller wrote.
Asked how that position squares with the party's efforts to recapture the Hispanic vote, he said, ``The question becomes: Do we compromise our principles to obtain votes or hold fast to our beliefs and do what is right?''
Miller also criticized Greer's spending practices. The Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau reported that Greer charged personal expenses to the party during a fundraiser last summer at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach County.
Greer would not comment Tuesday except to point to a memo written by the party's treasurers that said ``the allegations are completely inaccurate or entirely false.''
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