Y’know who’s REALLY excited about Gillum’s win tonight?
Bill Nelson. You put Gillum on the top of the ticket, and that’s going to turn out the vote in south Florida (both persons of color and dissatisfied progressives who’ve been sick of seeing guys like Charlie Crist nominated for governor) that Nelson will need to have a chance against Rick Scott.
But this is the Gillum issue:
That is a drumbeat the GOP will be pounding for the next two months.
Timex
4273
Jesus, that’s a freaking mess.
They couldn’t find someone without all that crap going on?
One of the best things the Democrats can run in this round is anti corruption, but you can’t do that if you reek of corruption.
Gwen Graham. 7 point favorite in most polls heading into tonight. Dull as dishwater. As exciting as toasted bread.
Regardless of Gillum’s baggage (and to be clear, he’s never been subpoenaed), he’s a dynamic and exciting candidate with a progressive platform who turned out massive vote in this primary, especially in the southern half of he state. If he can do it again in 9 weeks…look out.
Timex
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I just hope that crap doesn’t end up sticking to him.
Of course, Trump showed that he could overcome a seemingly infinite pile of garbage, so maybe this guy can get past it with his charisma.
My friend in Florida who is quite progressive, voted for Gwen, because of her education emphasis and also sex, and lack of scandal. I guess this will be a good test to see how best to win a purple states, a moderate or an exciting progressive.
They’ve run moderates against Rick Scott, twice. Didn’t work out. That’s another factor in Gillum’s favor: he represents a different approach. Hard to get Broward County to turn out big for Charlie Crist. And Graham ran THIRD there, which points up her lack of catching fire.
I do think the guy who’s really ecstatic after all this is Nelson. If Gillum creates energy, that creates coattails for Nelson to ride.
Timex
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I just heard him on tv, and he talks a good game.
Re: Nelson… What is he doing? His campaign seems awful
That only works when your voters are evil. Evil people vote Republican, so…
Getting swamped in an avalanche of Rick Scott spending his own fortune to win the seat.
Quaro
4282
When I hear about a candidate from left field I worry we’re getting the leftwing equivalent of a Roy Moore or Joe Arpaio.
Googled a bunch of older Andrew Gillum interviews and he seems pretty great. He certainly hits a bunch of electability checkboxes: charismatic, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and the ever so important person-i’d-like-to-have-a-beer with.
Compare any “far left” Democrat and their policy positions to even just mainstream Republicans - I fail to see what’s extreme about them (i.e. the Democrats.) But feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Edit: This is interesting and possibly hopeful.
Matt_W
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What would this even be? A dual ticket of Harvey Weinstein and Julian Assange? Can you even imagine that being remotely possible on the left?
Alstein
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A majority of Republicans support single-payer, so socialist ideas can work among Republicans- just gotta get them.
Just wait till ya see the shirt we’re designing!
Good op-ed by Greg Sargent at WaPo:
In other words, Gillum presented Florida’s challenges as rooted in current distributional choices and priorities that are misguided and bad for the state in pragmatic terms. He treated hot button issues such as health care and sentencing reform not as turf on which great ideological battles are settled, but rather as systems in need of reform because they are producing terrible outcomes for real people.
