Royse 2015-2016 Political Almanac of Florida

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4835-5125-8
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 816 Seiten

Who lives where in Florida? What do they care about? How do they vote?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Royse, David

Leseproben

HOUSE DISTRICT 7 FORGOTTEN COAST, BIG BEND COUNTIES: Calhoun, Franklin, Gulf, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Taylor, Wakulla RATING: Leans Republican ONCE YELLOW DOG, THEN BLUE DOG DEMOCRAT, NOW REPUBLICAN Rural North Florida voters for generations elected conservative Democrats to the Legislature, but the GOP over the last decade or so has made in-roads, convincing more and more Blue Dog Dixiecrats who have long voted for Republicans on the national ticket to choose the Grand Old Party down the ballot, too. The massive House District 7, from Gulf County to Madison County, is a poster child district for this phenomenon. Some of the area before redistricting was represented by Democrat Leonard Bembry, who often voted with Republicans, but the new district was won by a Republican, Monticello nurseryman Halsey Beshears. One of the candidates who lost to Beshears in the GOP primary is another example of the area's political transition in the 1990s and 2000s: Jamey Westbrook, a former peanut farmer, used to be a Democrat when he was in the Legislature in the 1990s, but ran in 2012 as a Republican. And another former representative of part of the area was Will Kendrick, who also switched from Democrat to Republican. It's difficult to compare the area to former districts, pre-redistricting, however. The current HD 7, which includes all or parts of nine counties, covers at least a share of what used to be six different House seats. WHO LIVES HERE? The district is mostly rural, with some areas that have become Tallahassee bedroom communities thrown in - but is hard to pigeon hole. That's because it's such a big district - stretching from seafood industry towns like Port St. Joe, Apalachicola and East Point in the southwest of the district and the heavily forested timber lands of Calhoun and Liberty counties in the northwest to the fast-growing Tallahassee suburb of Wakulla County, and the horse farms around Monticello in the middle, to the farming area around Madison in the east. Jefferson County is home to many state workers who commute to Tallahassee, but otherwise is mostly farm land, including a number of horse farms. Ted Turner has a plantation home in Jefferson County. While much of Jefferson County has a genteel feel, Madison County – also very rural – is more historically hardscrabble. It was in the "Jellyroll" community on the outskirts of tiny Greenville in Madison County where R&B legend Ray Charles was raised. The district also curves around the Big Bend of Florida, south through the paper mill town of Perry in Taylor County, and down to the town of Steinhatchee, a little coastal hamlet that's literally at the end of the road tucked away from just about everywhere else. Many of these towns are home to people whose families have lived there for generations. Wakulla County, just south of Tallahassee, has been one of the fastest growing counties in the state, with newcomers arriving in the last couple decades to take advantage of cheap real estate near the Gulf but just outside the capital city. The county, however, still has many residents whose families have been on the "Forgotten Coast" for a century or more. Drive through Crawfordville or Sopchoppy and you'll notice one of a few surnames seem to be on just about every third mailbox or business, the names of families who settled the area and whose descendants still live here: Posey, Walker, Roddenberry, Barwick, Crum, and a few others. Apalachicola, likewise, has undergone some demographic change, though looking at the historic homes there you may not guess it. Once almost entirely a fishing and oystering village, the town, while still retaining a working seafood industry, has transformed itself into a touristy beach, bed and breakfast town that's now home to far more artists than would seem probable in such a small community. Gulf County has also seen a massive change in the last quarter century. Its principal city, Port St. Joe, was once a paper mill town. The mill closed in the late 1990s, forcing the town to remake itself, with tourism also on its agenda. POLITICAL ISSUES AND TRENDS Because of the size of the district, there's a pretty broad range of interests for anyone trying to court voters here - but a couple stand out. The first is anything affecting state workers and other government employees. According to the Census Bureau, the district has the third-lowest percentage among all House seats of people working for private businesses. That means, lots of people here work for the government, from those working for state agencies in Tallahassee to forestry workers and lots of prison guards, and that means protecting state workers is a primary concern. Privatization of prisons in the area - an idea that was pushed by Republicans - has been opposed by Beshears, who ran ads when he ran for the seat promising to look out for government workers, a contrast with the government-bashing typical of state GOP candidates. He also said that if prisons are going to be closed, they should be closed elsewhere, where there are more job opportunities. State lockups are the only large employer in some towns in the district. Prisons in the area include Calhoun, Franklin, Gulf, Jefferson, Liberty, Madison, Mayo, Taylor, and Wakulla Correctional Institutions. While the district does take in a large swath of western Leon County, which includes the capital city, it's a lightly populated area compared to the two neighboring districts in the county. Still, plenty of state workers who toil in the government buildings of Tallahassee also commute from Wakulla and Jefferson counties, which are included in HD 7, and a few even drive in from Liberty and Taylor counties - also in the district. Another major concern here in the district is the water flow and health of the Apalachicola River and the bay of the same name, an issue that aligns seafood workers with environmentalists and is probably the top concern of those in Franklin County. The river has its start as the Chattahoochee River north of Atlanta in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and flows right through the Atlanta metropolis - where it provides much of the drinking water. That has drawn consternation in north Florida, where river flows downstream in the Florida Panhandle have been reduced because of increasing use of water as Atlanta has sprawled. Lower water flows have devastated the Apalachicola Bay area's oyster industry, a problem compounded by drought. Oysters depend on the flow of fresh water into the bay and the mix of fresh and salt water it produces. The dispute has resulted in lawsuits and efforts in Congress to solve the problem of how the water is best apportioned. The aforementioned shift from a bastion of the old Democratic Party, the pre-Civil Rights era party of the poor South, to a solid Republican stronghold is another ongoing trend here, though it merely mirrors what's happened politically in most of the Southeast over the last four decades or so. Most of the counties in the district show the trend – with the exception of the liberal island of Leon County. The district remains majority Democrat by registration – 61 percent to 27 percent for Republicans - but votes for Republican candidates at the presidential level, while splitting lower down the ballot. Wakulla County, just south of Tallahassee, is a good example of this ticket splitting from election to election, or even in the same year. It's a demographically changing place, adding more Democratic outsiders. But it still is a place where national Republicans can now take votes for granted, though Democrats still have a chance if they're conservative or the Republican isn't well-liked. In 2010, Mitt Romney easily won Wakulla, getting 63 percent of the vote, Republican Marco Rubio had no trouble winning the U.S. Senate race in the county, getting 49 percent of the vote to about 30 percent for no party candidate (and then-Gov.) Charlie Crist, with Democrat Kendrick Meek getting just 20 percent. And Republican Steve Southerland won Wakulla in the local congressional race for District 2, where he unseated Democratic incumbent Allen Boyd. But Republican Rick Scott – who ran for governor in 2010 on a platform of shrinking government and with a theme of bashing it – barely bested Democrat Alex Sink in the county, beating her by just 318 votes, likely because of the large number of government employees here. And Democrat Loranne Ausley, running unsuccessfully for state Chief Financial Officer, and in her earlier stint in the Legislature one of the most ardent supporters of state workers, eked out a 0.1 percentage point win over Republican Jeff Atwater in Wakulla, the only county Scott won in 2010 in which a Democrat Cabinet candidate won. Conservative Democrats – like Sen. Bill Montford of Tallahassee and Bembry, have also been able to win in Wakulla. The district's House member, Beshears, is solidly conservative on most issues, but has broken with the GOP on a number of matters related to the government workforce - which includes a huge number of his constituents. He has opposed privatizing prisons, fearing layoffs, and has criticized efforts to make changes to the pensions of already-hired government workers. "Government must find ways to cut wasteful spending and abuse but it shouldn't be done at the expense of our state employees," he says on his campaign web site. "We must find the right balance that produces a result that is respectful to both the taxpayer and the employees who serve them." He also is at odds with his party as an opponent of school vouchers, saying poor rural districts need more help, rather than to lose good students, and he crossed the aisle to vote...