Rick Scott's Finance Chair Resigns Citing Frustration with Racist Comments
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Friday, March 21, 2014
Contact: Rachel Johnson, 305.771.2167
Email: [email protected]
Rick Scott's Finance Chair Resigns Citing Frustration with Racist Comments
Yesterday, Mike Fernandez — Rick Scott's finance chair — resigned. The resignation was fueled in part, according to the Miami Herald's Marc Caputo, by Fernandez's frustrations with "two campaign aides who had joked around in a cartoon-style Mexican accent en route to a Mexican restaurant."
"Rick Scott should call for the immediate resignation of the campaign staffers involved. It would be shameful if Scott were to condone such behavior," said Miami-Dade Democratic Party Executive Director Juan Cuba. "These insensitive remarks perpetuate a pattern of continued disrespect Rick Scott and the Republican Party have shown toward Hispanics in Florida."
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Election-Year Pandering Won't Change Rick Scott's Anti-Immigrant Record
Press Advisory from Florida For All
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: March 18, 2014
Contact: Rachel Johnson, [email protected]
Election-Year Pandering Won't Change Rick Scott's Anti-Immigrant Record
Hispanic leaders blast Governor's flip-flop on in-state tuition for DREAMers
Miami – Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, Chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, and former Republican State House Representative Ana Rivas Logan will hold a press conferenceWednesday, March 19th to warn voters that Rick Scott’s 180-degree support for in-state tuition for DREAMers is nothing more than crass election-year pandering.
Rick Scott campaigned aggressively on an anti-Hispanic agenda in 2010. He vowed to bring a “common sense” Arizona-style immigration law to Florida, to "placate hard-liners demanding stricter border security,” and supported the idea of police checking immigration status. His campaign even bragged about its support of this extreme anti-Hispanic law in radio commercials and on its website.
Read moreCarlos Curbelo Willing to Allow Guns in Public Schools
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Thursday, March 13, 2014
Contact: Rachel Johnson, 305.771.2167
Email: [email protected]
Carlos Curbelo Willing to Allow Guns in Public Schools
Yesterday, the Miami-Dade School Board voted 8-to-1 to oppose state legislation allowing teachers to carry concealed firearms in public schools. School Board Member Carlos Curbelo was the sole dissenting vote.
Curbelo, who is running for Congress in Florida’s 26th district, said the School Board should not take a position on the issue, describing the effort as a “waste of political capital.”
"As the mother of a child in public school, it’s sad that a school board member and wannabe Congressman thinks safeguarding our children is a ‘waste of political capital’,” said Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, “rather than an urgent priority. Curbelo is clearly more concerned with protecting himself from the gun lobby than protecting our children.”
Blue Breakfast Changing Venues Following Employee Allegations Against Versailles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Contact: Rachel Johnson, 305.771.2167
Email: [email protected]
Blue Breakfast Changing Venues After Employee Allegations Against Versailles Surface
This Saturday, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party is hosting its first-ever Blue Breakfast: The Dollars and Sense of Minimum Wage, co-hosted by the South Florida AFL-CIO and Unite Here Local 355.
Originally scheduled to take place at Versailles, the event was moved today to La Casita following the filing of a lawsuit alleging that Versailles fired two employees for reporting illegal activities at the restaurant, including sexual-orientation harassment, wage and hour violations, and more. Read about the lawsuit here.
Miami Dems Phonebank for Alex Sink
It's election week in Alex Sink's special election in Pinellas — and the Miami Dems are doing their part to send her to Congress!
Check out photos from the phone bank after the jump and email Rachel at [email protected] for phone-banking instructions if you can help make calls today!
Read moreTime for Miami-Dade to Take Action on Long Voting Wait Times
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Contact: Rachel Johnson, 305.771.2167
Email: [email protected]
Time for Miami-Dade County to Take Action on Long Voting Wait Times
Tomorrow, the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners will meet to consider whether the county will re-draw its voting precinct lines in 2014, a process each Florida county typically follows after each census and one that has been put off in Miami-Dade for four years. Failure to re-precinct is viewed as one of the driving factors behind marathon voting wait times in 2012 — over seven hours in some precincts — which were some of the longest anywhere in the country and cast national media attention on voting problems in Miami-Dade.
"After his initial announcement, we pressured the Mayor to reconsider his earlier decision to delay re-precincting for yet another year," said Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Annette Taddeo-Goldstein. "Since then we have been very impressed by the county's willingness to re-evaluate whether that was the best course of action. We had a productive meeting with the elections office earlier this month, and we feel that county leadership is committed to taking necessary steps to reduce voting wait times in as many precincts as possible before the November election."
"We want to ensure that the county follows the standard set by the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration — that no voter should wait more than 30 minutes to cast his or her ballot," she added. "This is what we should strive for and nothing less."
A review of 2012 elections data conducted by the Miami-Dade Democratic Party found that in precincts where the last voter cast their ballot by 8 pm, turnout averaged 69%, whereas in precincts where the last voter voted after midnight turnout was only 60%. If voters in all precincts had been able to vote by 8 pm, nearly 26,000 more ballots would have been cast, our review shows. Click here for more facts and figures.
The meeting begins at 9:30 am in county commission chambers at Stephen P. Clark Government Center, 111 NW 1st Street, Miami 33128.
Full facts & figures after the flip.
Read moreAna Rivas Logan Officially Registers as a Democrat
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Contact: Rachel Johnson, 305.771.2167
Email: [email protected]
Ana Rivas Logan Leaves GOP, Joins Democratic Party
Yesterday, former Republican State House representative and former schoolboard member Ana Rivas Logan left the GOP and officially registered as a Democrat.
"The Republican Party has lost it way," said Rivas Logan at a press conference outside the Miami-Dade elections office. "I'm so proud to be joining a party that welcomes all people and doesn't alienate women, minorities, and immigrants or attack people on the basis of sexual orientation."