1st 2014 recruitment fail for Washington Democrats

January 7, 2014

We are only 7 days into 2014 but we already have our first recruitment failure for Washington Democrats. Val Demings, the 2012 FL-10 congressional candidate, announced today that she will be running for Mayor of Orange County instead of running against Rep. Dan Webster in 2014, despite efforts by Washington Democrats to get her to run again.

This is just the latest recruitment fail for Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee. Check out these other wa, wa, waaaaa moments for Dems this cycle:

FAIL: CA-21 – Michael Rubio, February 22, 2013
FAIL: IA-03 – Mike Sherzan, April 1, 2013
FAIL: CA-21- Leticia Perez, April 4, 2013
FAIL: MN-02 – Sona Mehring, April 24, 2013
FAIL: OH-16 – John Boccieri, May 23, 2013
FAIL: MN-06 – Jim Graves, May 31, 2013
FAIL: IN-02 – Brendan Mullen, July 12, 2013
FAIL: PA-08 – Mark Critz, August 14, 2013
FAIL: NE-02 – Pete Festersen, December 9, 2013
FAIL: FL-10 – Val Demings, January 7, 2014

2013 was a bad year for Washington Democrats thanks to the failure of Obamacare. It shouldn’t be shocking to Nancy Pelosi and her Washington cronies that their brand is just too toxic. The question now remains – Who will be the next recruitment failure of 2014?

In case you missed it…

Val Demings commits to Orange County mayoral race

By David Damron, Orlando Sentinel
January 7, 2014
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/blogs/political-pulse/os-val-demings-takes-on-teresa-jacobs-for-orange-county-mayor-20140107,0,342973.post

Former Orlando police Chief Val Demings plans to run against incumbent Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, she said this morning.

“I can’t count the number of people who have asked me to get into this race,” Demings told the Orlando Sentinel, citing one of the main reason she’s jumping in the race.

The Democrat, who lost a tight congressional race in 2012, said she planned to file paperwork to open her account later today, and would hold a kick-off event with supporters Thursday at 3 p.m on Lake Eola.

Demings said there are a number of people, including herself, who feel that Jacobs did not deliver on past promises to run an ethical government that was open and accessible to the public.

“It’s about giving people an opportunity to participate,” Demings said . “It’s not about representing the privileged few. It’s about representing everyone who lives and works in Orange County,” Demings said.

Jacobs, arguably the most popular politician in Central Florida, disagreed that she hasn’t run an open and ethical county government so far. And Jacobs said she looked forward to talking about what she’s done since taking office.

“It means the we’ll have a chance to have a thorough discussion of the issues facing Orange County,” Jacobs said.

If Demings follows through and qualifies in June, the race could be a bruising and costly fight that garners national attention.

While the 2014 mayoral race is technically a non-partisan contest, the Republican Jacobs can expect Demings to court Democratic voters and donors. Orange County’s political landscape has turned notably blue in the last decade, with Democrats outnumbering Republicans 42 percent to 29 percent.

Demings has spent months mulling her political options. But she’s fueled speculation that a run was in the offing with some recent high-profile appearances.

One was a fiery speech she gave to a Lake Eola gay-marriage-equality rally that was celebrating a recent favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling on that issue. Demings has also been out front in challenging Gov. Rick Scott‘s latest attempt to purge non-citizens from the voting rolls.

For many pols, Demings’ latest move snuffs out any lingering speculation that she would again take on U.S. Rep Dan Webster, the Winter Garden Republican she lost to in 2012 by a 52-48 percent margin.

Demings first publicly signaled her interest in a mayoral run in March. That’s when Demings challenged Jacobs’ characterization of a phone conversation the two had right before the 2012 elections:

“She [Demings] said that there wasn’t … I don’t remember the exact quote, but there wasn’t a chance that she would run,” Jacobs recalled. “There was absolutely no way that she would run.'”

Demings refuted that, and said she was only reaffirming her intent to run strong against Webster in 2012.

That next month Jacobs filed for re-election, and has since nabbed early endorsements from a key business and law enforcement group. Jacobs has also raised $472,431 in campaign donations, and spent only $48,860 so far, the most recent reports show.

Demings previously said she’s not daunted by a fundraising disadvantage, saying she could still tap her congressional support network, and plans on running more of a grass roots campaign.

Still, taking on Jacobs promises to be an uphill climb. The former two-term commissioner beat Democratic former Commissioner Bill Segal by a 68-32 percent margin in a 2010 runoff.

And in a poll commissioned by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association in May, 63 percent of likely voters had a favorable opinion of the mayor, while 55 percent held a positive view of Demings.