2004 election season a crossroads for Florida's faltering Democrats

[Freddie Stubbs]

Once the dominant force in state politics, Florida's Democratic Party this year may find itself on the brink of revival -- or irrelevance.

While Democrats remain statistically dominant in voter registration, the party that once controlled everything from city hall to the governor's mansion finds itself struggling to hold on to what little it's got left.

During the past two decades, Florida Republicans -- buoyed by a big bankroll and voter registration numbers that soared from 1.5 million in 1982 to 3.6 million this June -- have taken control of a broad cross-section of local and state offices.

By the mid-1990s, the GOP dominated the state Legislature and Florida's congressional delegation. It took over the governor's mansion with the election of Jeb Bush in 1998 and in 2002 made a clean sweep of the state's elected three-member Cabinet.

more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-fdemocrats09aug09,0,2956416.story?coll=sfla-news-florida