I have some very exciting news: We beat Mario Diaz-Balart, a three-term Republican career politician, this quarter by over $100,000.

The totals:

Joe Garcia - $513,000

Mario Diaz-Balart - $392,000

Here's the best part: we beat our opponent's individual contributions by over $300,000.

We couldn't have done it without you. You are the driving force behind this campaign.

Just donated to counter Florida Repug redneck bill board idiocy. So-called "businessman" Mike Meehan put up billboards in the Orange County, Fl area displaying the burning WTC and requesting that people not vote for democrats.

Max Linn, a democratic candidate for Congress in FL-10, is in trouble once again for portraying his association with Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency. FL-10 has put forth some suspect candidates for the Dem. nomination in the past (See Samm Simpson, pro-life, Ron Paul supporter) But Max Linn truly takes the cake.  With the polls for the Florida democratic primary set to close on the night of August 26th, lets hope that its not Max Linn or Samm Simpson as the last man or woman standing.

By Jwilkes from Eyes on Obama:

After falling behind by as many as 16 points, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has significantly closed the gap between himself and GOP nominee John McCain in their battle for Florida.  With the lead ping-ponging back and forth between the two candidates in each successive poll, the RCP Average shows McCain leading by just 2.2%.

It's well known around these parts that the past few years have seen me change form a frequent critic of the DCCC to one of its biggest supporters. Chris Van Hollen has proven himself to be an aggressive chairman and he is not satisfied to sit back and defend the majority we already have and is working to expand it. They have raised a lot of money and recuited strong candidates all over the country, even ib some of the more Republican parts of South Florida. The only problem is that Red-to-Blue Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz continues to undercut challengers to three right wing Republicans, epsecially Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

UPDATED --
So I just had a revelation.  I can't vote for Barack Obama in November.  This amazing, completely true song I heard on the interweb opened my eyes to him and to all Democrats.  It's called, "The Republican Song," which I clicked on because "Money (That's What I Want)" is super fun, but this song is metered truth:

Now we're trying to win a war and wipe out the terrorists,
We're not fightin for oil we got plenty if we drill it.
But the liberals and the media are spreading their lies,
Get the hell out of our way and let our soldiers fight.

I mean, c'mon, right?  It's like he's writing an Op-Ed in The New York Times.

Jesus, not this bullshit again:

A billboard on display in Orange County, Florida shows the World Trade Center towers burning while telling passers-by: "Please Don’t Vote for a Democrat." The local ABC News affiliate reports that the person responsible is a local musician "trying to help Republicans" but that "officials with both political parties are calling the billboard inappropriate."

This is already making the rounds across the Internets, but I thought it prudent to put up an action alert here, as the sponsor of this billboard is quite happy to advertise both his Web site and contact information for you to spend five bucks on his shitty CD (and EVEN have him perform at your next social event!). The excitement never ends.

More at the jump.

In our fundraising efforts to attend the Democratic Convention in August, we've decided to focus on a small donor campaign.  We figured out that it'll take us 240 people contributing $25 each for us to reach what we need to go to Denver and provide you with the best convention coverage in America.  So far, we have the equivalent of 42 ($1050), leaving us 198 to go.  Anyone reading this should be able to donate $25 to help us get there.

Go to PayPal and donate through our Florida Progressive Coalition account (quinnelk@gmail.com), or you can write a check to Florida Progressive Coalition and send it to me:

This diary goes out to those of you who haven't donated or done any volunteer work to support Obama's campaign.  It's for those of you who are disappointed in his FISA vote or other things.  It's for people who feel they're back to choosing between the lesser of two evils.

Wow!!!

I can't beleive the stupidity of George Bush and John McCain.  

The right wing talking points on Flat Earth radio today was the GOP trying to lay the blame on gasoline prices on the shoulders of the environmentalists.  So our Genius and chief symbollically lifted the offshore ban his father put there when he was President.. and the right wing noise machine (who doesn't want to talk about the economy today) once again pointed the finger at the Democrats for all of the woes on gas prices...

Give me a Fuc!$%* break!!!

Why didn't they push harder pre 2006 when they controlled Congress and the Executive Branch?

By Nathan Henderson-James and cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters.

A Sunday news story by Catherine Dolinsky in the Tampa Tribune highlights Florida’s failure to comply with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and talks extensively about the joint efforts of Project Vote, Demos, and ACORN to force Florida to follow this federal law. Dolinksy quotes ACORN’s Florida Head Organizer Brian Kettering on the civil rights implications of Florida’s failure,

"Hispanic and African-American communities are being deprived of the opportunity to register to vote at a higher rate than anybody else," Kettenring said. "So this is a fairness issue, but it's also a civil rights issue."

For most Americans (and Floridians), members of Congress are these distant things that aren't human and don't connect to regular human beings.  They don't have lives and they don't have emotions.  Sometimes these feelings are true.

And then you have the Robert Wexler's of the world.

For those of you who don’t know me my name is Bob Hackworth.  I am the current Mayor of the City of Dunedin, Florida and a candidate for the United States House of Representatives in Florida's 10th Congressional District.  I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss one of my top priorities, the economy.  

Facing the news that voter registration for Democrats is "way up" in Florida, Republicans are trying, again, to spin their way out of it.  

Democrats should not count on Florida.  Democrats should not count on Florida.  Democrats should not count on Florida.  Democrats should not count on Florida.

Too much heartache is associated with counting on Florida.  This diary does not advocate that the Democratic Party count on winning any elections in Florida this fall, be they for president, congress, or dogcatcher.  That said, there is reason to believe Florida may be the site of happier news for Democrats this year.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Jacob saw his first real fireworks display and loved it at first. We were watching from the 12th floor of a building right on the waterfront, so it was spectacular. Unfortunately, he was coming down with a fever and by the end was pretty unhappy. He is fine again now.

This was a big week, both locally where my friend qualified for the ballot for NYC's Sept. 9th primary election, and nationally where Obama's surge continued even as the Democrats once again showed less spine than we would like them to. More below.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns and Nathan Henderson-James

Massive voter registration drives, recent passionate immigration debates, and the contested presidential primaries are finally bringing one of the nation's fastest growing populations into the democratic process, despite decades of low voter participation rates and recent voting rights attacks based on anti-immigrant rhetoric. Recognizing their rapidly increasing voting power - which is catching up with their "raw demographic power," particularly in the closely contested states of Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada - both presidential candidates are actively pursuing Latino voters. However, advocates caution a powerful lesson must be learned from voter suppression schemes executed in recent elections in order to ensure this former "sleeping giant" of electoral participation will have access to the polls in November, and most importantly, have their votes counted.

The Florida Republican Party (and some Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz) are kept afloat by the corrupt south-Florida Cuban-American mafia. Now, their three south-Florida reps are facing the challenges of their lives, and at least two are already in serious trouble.

Bendixen & Associates. 6/6-22. MoE 5% in each district. (No trend lines)

Joe Garcia, up against Mario Diaz-Balart, is an Orange to Blue candidate. Martinez is going up against Lincoln Diaz-Balart. These numbers are nothing short of stunning. I've thought these races were quite competitive for some time, but I wouldn't have expected the Diaz-Balart brothers to be in this much trouble. And given that both Garcia and Martinez are raising great money, we have the makings of a series of dramatic upsets in South Florida this year.  

Annette Taddeo in FL-18 still lags, both in money and in this poll, but if she can keep it close, hers is one of those districts (like NH-01 and Carol Shea-Porter in 2006) that can get swept in by the force of larger trends (in this case, a strong Latino turnout for Obama and the entry of a large percentage of new voters, along with the collapse of the GOP brand). But she's got a ways to go before we can say she's "keeping it close".

But that is a lone bright spot for Florida Republicans (and their hard-right Cuban exile allies), who should otherwise be on "panic" mode given the Martinez and Garcia numbers.

On the web:
Orange to Blue ActBlue page
Raul Martinez for Congress
Joe Garcia for Congress
Annette Taddeo for Congress

Race tracker wiki: FL-21 FL-18 FL-25