DNC scandal, serious opponent make for hard race for Wasserman Schultz

[cali]

For the first time in her 24 years in politics, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is running scared.

Even before her tenure as leader of the Democratic National Committee unraveled dramatically at the beginning of last week’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia, Wasserman Schultz knew that for the first time in her political career, she was facing a serious primary challenger. Tim Canova, a Nova Southeastern University law professor and campaign novice, has become something of a regular on national television and an expert fundraiser.

<snip>

▪ Her campaign spokesman had no public events to announce Monday — four weeks from Election Day — and said that Wasserman Schultz wouldn’t appear at the Miramar Pembroke Pines Regional Chamber of Commerce candidate forum on Tuesday night, which Canova attended. That’s the type of organization she has spoken to in the past. The only campaign events her campaign revealed were private: a fundraiser with Biden on Aug. 5 and a meeting with the Miami Herald editorial board. The first announcement about an upcoming public event in her district came from her congressional office on Wednesday afternoon, when it announced that she will hold a town hall on Thursday evening at the Faith Center in Sunrise related to police-community relations along with other public officials and community leaders.

<snip>


read:http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article93583247.html

No doubt DWS has the upper hand. Polls favor her. The makeup of voters in the district favor her. And she has support from the VP and other dems.

But Canova's attacks on her history of favoring the pay day loan industry and big sugar may be having some effect- and they've been rated as true by Politifact.

<snip>

In 2003, while in the state Senate, Wasserman Schultz was part of a unanimous vote for a seven-year delay to clean up the Everglades. Canova omits that two days later she changed her vote, but the vote had no practical effect and the measure passed anyway.

Canova also said Wasserman Schultz voted to subsidize the sugar industry when she voted for the farm bill in 2008 and 2014. The farm bills didn’t contain actual cash subsidies, but they clearly contained lucrative benefits for the industry. The farm bill is a sweeping bill that benefits a long list of programs -- not just sugar.

Wasserman Schultz has taken other steps to support Everglades cleanup. But Canova’s point about her specific actions is largely accurate.

We rate this claim Mostly True.

<snip>
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2016/jul/25/tim-canova/tim-canova-attacks-debbie-wasserman-schultzs-recor/

For a novice, he seems to be running a decent campaign, and saying the right things:

<snip>

Here’s more of our conversation with Tim Canova, Democratic candidate in Florida’s 23rd Congressional District.

How are you using all the money you have raised?

In so many different ways. We built up a great field operation. We have four field offices, which I don’t know if there are any other house races in the country that have so many. So were knocking on a lot of doors, doing a lot of phone backing, direct mail pieces. We have been on TV and radio for the last three weeks. We are communicating to voters in a lot of different ways.

What was your reaction to the convention and Wasserman Schultz’s resignation?

I thought it was sad, but not surprising. I think she brought it all on herself. I think it has shown her to be exactly what I have been saying — an incredibly divisive DNC chair.

[Bernie Sanders] could have blown up the party, and a lot of folks wanted him to. A lot of folks felt he would have been justified just to walk away from things the way they were, but he acted very much like a statesman, a party leader and a patriot, and he did what was in the best interest of pulling the party together.

And you contrast that with the legacy of Wasserman Schultz at the DNC, and it is like night and day.

Your own polls still have you trailing by 8 points. How do you make that up before the primary?

Oh, I don’t think it is going to be that tough to make it up in a month. [Wasserman Schultz's] approval rating has nosedived in the past week or two, and we made a lot of gains in the past couple of weeks. The reality is our ad campaign and the free media we are getting — all of that is helping, and I see the energy coming our way every day. This race is tightening quickly.

<snip>

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dnc-chairs-primary-opponent-talks-future-democratic-party/story?id=41115106

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. Tim Canova went on right wing nut Joyce Kaufman's show and gladly took her praise.

Tim Canova can go to hell, irrespective of DWS's record.

[cali]

2. I have no idea who Joyce Kaufman is. perhaps you have a link to the interview?

Debbie's record on such things as payday loan sharks is shameful, not to mention her support for throwing medical marijuana users in prison and that corporate donations have influenced her votes.

Her record is the issue.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. I tried to get an archieve but couldn't find it. I did happen to hear it when flipping through.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12512303761

Some of Kaufman's "wisdom" over the years:

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/best-object-of-political-hatred-joyce-kaufman-6472234

In August 2007, when discussing illegal immigrants, she said on her show, "If you commit a crime while you're here, we should hang you and send your body back to where you came from, and your family should pay for it."
She became infuriated at illegal immigration after she called Comcast and the recording said, "Press 2 for Spanish."
She said at a rally, with West standing by, "Calling illegal immigrants 'undocumented workers' is like calling a drug dealer a pharmacist without a license." She was furious that children of illegal immigrants were educated in public schools and received health care at emergency rooms. "There are people who want to change your way of life, and some of them may be your gardeners," she said.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/conservative-radio-host-orlando-club-targeted-because-patrons-were-unarmed-not-because-they-

Conservative South Florida radio host Joyce Kaufman, who briefly served as chief of staff to former Republican Rep. Allen West, said today that she did not believe that the terrorist who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando this weekend targeted the location out of animosity toward gay people, but instead because he knew that club-goers would be unarmed.

“How long does he have to be the president before he figures out that what we had happen in Orlando was a terrorist act?” Kaufman asked of President Obama, who called the massacre an “act of terror and an act of hate.”

“I don’t care if the guy was gay, I don’t care if his wife took him there, he launched an attack of terror against the patrons of the Pulse nightclub,” Kaufman said. “I don’t look at them as gay patrons, they are the patrons, they are fellow human beings. It could have been any nightclub in anywhere in any country. When you’re crazy like that, the last thing I think you’re concerned about is the gender preference of your victims. I just don’t believe it. I don’t think this was a hate crime, I think this was an act of terrorism, I think he knew he had a group of people who were in a gun-free zone and who don’t carry guns for the most part anyway … I don’t know any gay men who carry.”

http://winningdemocrats.com/florida-tea-partiers-viciously-harass-sheriff-for-hiring-muslim-deputy/

A group of Florida Islamaphobes, encouraged by a bigoted radio show host, are demanding the resignation of Broward County Sheriff, Scott Israel, for the hiring of Deputy Nezar Hamze, who is a (Gasp!) Muslim.

****

Rosenthal is not alone in his hatred. He says a rally he held earlier this year in front of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office drew a crowd of approximately 50 people; including congressional candidate Joe Kaufman and Danita Kilcullen, founder of the Fort Lauderdale Tea Party.

Joyce Kaufman, the racist radio host whose hateful rhetoric has helped to embolden those who oppose the employment of Hamze, also composed a vicious post on LeoAffairs.com that has been viewed over 70,000 times and is one of the “most clicked” posts to ever appear on the forum.

http://www.crowleypoliticalreport.com/2010/11/allen-west-chief-of-staff-if-ballots-dont-work-bullets-will.html

The Palm Beach Post is reporting that newly-minted Republican Congressman- elect Allen West has hired South Florida's most rabid talk show host - Joyce Kaufman - to be his chief of staff.

Her qualifications? Apparently none.

She did give West loads of free air time during the campaign. And Kaufman makes Sarah Palin sound like a RINO.

Crowley Political Report found a video from this past July where a little more than six minutes in, Kaufman says - "If ballots don't work bullets will."

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. Didn't he have some questionable views about Iran too?

n/t

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Yeah.

I just don't trust the guy the more I look into him.

I know he's fashionable at the moment for people upset at DWS, but I don't know if he's the guy they really want to embrace.

Joyce Kaufman seemed to embrace him, though.

[think]

11. In 2008 DWS refused to endorse 3 other Democrats in her area due to personal relations with the GOP

candidates.

Why she was ever chosen to be head of the DNC is beyond me.

Democrats torn between party, GOP friends

By Lesley Clark - McClatchy Newspapers - MARCH 9, 2008 2:23 PM

Democratic party leaders have tapped Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to raise money and coach candidates in a high-stakes, aggressive bid to expand the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

But as three Miami Democrats look to unseat three of her South Florida Republican colleagues, Wasserman Schultz is staying on the sidelines. So is Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Miami Democrat and loyal ally to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

That wasn't the case just two years ago when the pair flouted a long-standing Florida delegation agreement to not campaign against colleagues and vigorously backed Ron Klein in his winning bid to oust veteran Republican Rep. Clay Shaw.

This time around, Wasserman Schultz and Meek say their relationships with the Republican incumbents, Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, leave them little choice but to sit out the three races....


Read more:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24478039.html

[Iggo]

7. I sent him another three bucks yesterday.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. If the worst GOPer can lose his primary,

So can the worst Democratic congresswoman.

[lapucelle]

9. Hillary wanted DWS replaced as DNC chair last December,

and Obama's advisors had been telling him to replace her since last fall. I wish he had listened.

Now that DWS was forced to resign her DNC post and the three people who engaged in the email communication concerning the stupidly biased talking point (that was never used) have also lost their jobs, I think it's time to move on, just like we did in February with the data breach.


Polls have certainly tightened in Florida, and Canova has filed an FEC complaint based on the Wikileaks emails. But to be frank, I'm more concerned over what Julian Assange actually did to the Democratic Party than what DWS may have done.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/debbie-wasserman-schultz-dnc-226100

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/289974-wasserman-schultz-leads-challenger-by-8-points

http://freebeacon.com/politics/wasserman-schultz-primary-challenger-filing-fec-complaint/

[Iggo]

10. That's like being more concerned about the person who turned on the lights....

...than all of the cockroaches caught running around in the kitchen.

[clarice]

12. lol.....cockroaches. nt

[lapucelle]

15. I don't think your analogy is on point.

I don't see the three people involved in the one horrible email and their boss who was not a party to it as cockroaches, any more than I would call those involved in the data breach cockroaches.

I wouldn't equate what Assange did with "turning on the lights." I see it more as doing his best to game an American election. And to be perfectly honest, although I don't particularly like DWS, I trust her more than I trust Julian.

In my world, Assange is the cockroach.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

13. Welcome back, cali! nt

[cali]

14. thanks, doc.