Well, does the Florida Democratic Party blow another one (through Crist?)

[Donerail]

Crist performed well above his statewide average in Palm Beach County; his statewide victory margin was higher than average in Palm Beach, Gadsden, Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Hillsborough, and Leon, and lower in counties like Holmes, Calhoun, Suwannee, Bradford, and Gilchrist. In the end, Democrats are supporting Crist, and Rich's votes largely came from Dixiecrats who are just voting against the frontrunner.

[Donerail]

Is this even a question? Of course they will. If there were a competent Democratic organization down there, they wouldn't have ended up with Crist as the nominee and the Democratic candidate would be leading Scott by 10 points.

If there was a competent Democratic organization here, we would've still ended up with Crist as the nominee. If we had had a competent Democratic organization for the past two decades, that's a different story. But the problems here are pervasive and long-term.

[Donerail]

Why exactly is the Florida Democratic Party so incompetent?

The FDP dominated state politics so long that they started thinking they were invincible, leading them to not invest in developing a bench or long-term political infrastructure. The Republicans, meanwhile, played hard, recruited well, and started to become a significant presence in the state legislature. In 1992, African-American Democrats teamed up with Republicans to redraw the maps, making a lot of solidly African-American districts but also weakening Democrats across the state. The decline of Dixiecrats sealed it in 1996, and the GOP has held the legislature ever since. The remaining Democrats are mostly liberals from South Florida, who lack statewide appeal, and Republicans have been successfully knocking out moderate Democratic House members. The way the districts are drawn accent the state's natural geographic gerrymander, dooming Democrats to being the minority in the legislature. Nobody listens to Democrats, because they're such a small minority and can't get their message out, and because they have so little influence, they're not worth influencing, and so top Democratic operatives leave the state for more fertile areas, or they just join the GOP. If Democrats could become relevant in the Senate and House, and if we could win some statewide races, we could regain some power, but Florida Republicans have a very good, well-moneyed operation, and Florida Dems just don't, and it perpetuates itself.