Category Archives: Politics

Election Aftermaths, Primary 2020

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

A few takeaways from yesterday’s local elections, in which many of my favored candidates lost:

  • KFR wins again and will continue on as State Attorney; Melba Peterson’s campaign was hamstrung by COVID limits on campaigning, and by a huge fundraising disadvantage that couldn’t overcome the name recognition deficit. One can only hope that our State Attorney feels a little bit more pressure to do something about abuses by police and Corrections, and–this is really too much to hope for–rampant campaign finance abuse in local politics.
  • The judicial elections once again provided ample support for the claim that women with Hispanic names tend to beat candidates who lack them. It used to be they beat Anglo men, now maybe they beat everyone non-Hispanic?
    • Unfortunately, this trend extended to the election of the utterly unqualified Rosy Aponte over the capable and experienced Dava Tunis.  It’s enough to make you question the divinity of the vox populi.
  • Another trend I’ve noticed is that judicial candidates with unusual names often do poorly.  (We lost Fleur Lobree that way a few years ago.) That can’t have helped Olanike “Nike” Adebayo, although Joe Perkins ran a well-funded and very very energetic campaign. He, at least, has the skills and smarts to be a judge; we’ll see about the temperament.
  • The November runoffs for County Mayor, and for the District 7 Commission seat will be the most partisan in recent memory and might well depend on how the headline Presidential election drives turnout.  The Mayoral candidates will be Bovo, who ran explicitly as a Trumpist, and Cava, who may not have explicitly run as a Democrat, but did implicitly and clearly was the Democratic Party’s favorite. Bovo’s strategy was well-calculated to get him into the runoff, but are there enough pro-Trump voters, or Cuban voters who’ll look past that, in Miami-Dade to carry him to the finish? I hope not.  He’d be awful. Similarly, in District 7, Cindy Lerner is endorsed by Democrats, and Rachel Regalado by Republicans — but Regalado didn’t wrap herself around Trump like Bovo did, which has to give her a better chance of winning.
Posted in 2020 Election, Miami | 2 Comments

Powerful USPS-Related Video

Posted on August 16, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

You have to wonder what the Trump people were thinking — if anything — when they took on the Post Office. Are Mom and Apple Pie next? (Could be, they already threw grandparents under the bus.)

I’m guessing they figured no one could stop them, and then stopped thinking about the problem.

Anyway, looks like they were wrong about that. This ought to hurt:

From VoteVets.

Posted in 2020 Election, The Scandals | 1 Comment

I Voted

Posted on August 12, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

By mail, and the ballot was received. Allegedly it has been counted too. That doesn’t prove it actually will be counted, nor counted correctly, but then the same is true of an in-person ballot, alas.

If you registered for an absentee ballot, or have sent one in, you can check the status of you ballot at Checkmyballot.miami, which incidentally is the best use of the .miami TLD I’ve seen yet.

Posted in 2020 Election, Miami | Comments Off on I Voted

The Most Important Election on the Aug 18 Miami-Dade Ballot

Posted on August 7, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

It’s not the Mayor’s race — it’s the State Attorney’s race.  And I think it’s essential to vote for change. Vote Melba Pearson. And here’s a reminder as to why:

I also have some other recommendations in my Miami-Dade Ballot Guide: Summary of Recommendations – Aug 18, 2020.

Note — If you are voting by mail, I’m told it would be a good idea to get that ballot in the mail no later than tomorrow due to the issues the Postal Service is having.

Posted in 2020 Election, Miami | Comments Off on The Most Important Election on the Aug 18 Miami-Dade Ballot

Miami-Herald Endorsements in Local Judicial Races

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

The Herald is out with its endorsements in the local judicial races, and they sound almost exactly like mine, sometimes with the same reasoning.

The only interesting thing to me is that they pick Roderick Vereen over Carmen Cabarga in Group 57:

It’s that breadth of state and federal experience that makes him [Vereen] the more-solid candidate in this race. He ran for Congress in 2010 and for Miami-Dade State Attorney in 2012.

In his candidate interview, he spoke with a deeper knowledge of how judges can be unfair to defendants — in ways he would not. He says that he appreciates judges who ask lawyers from both the State Attorney and Public Defender offices to “get together before court and decide what will move forward, what will not, what’s continued. That way, Vereen says, they don’t have to give the judge a long explanation of their positions. It helps move things along, Vereen said. Otherwise, he said, “Families are waiting all day.”

We find him the more-seasoned candidate in this race.

Posted in 2020 Election, Miami, The Media | Comments Off on Miami-Herald Endorsements in Local Judicial Races

Watch Them Run Away

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

WashPost columnist Jennifer Rubin offers this good list of questions that people should be asking GOP Senators running for re-election:

  • Are you supporting the lawsuit to take away all Obamacare protections for people with preexisting conditions? If not, what have you done about it?
  • Couldn’t we have avoided Trump’s bungling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 150,000 people in the United States, if you voted to impeach him?
  • Isn’t refusal to confront Russia on bounties for killing U.S. troops a betrayal of our men and women serving overseas? If you had removed the president for betraying our national security regarding Ukraine, he wouldn’t be repeating that pattern now, would he? Do you regret your vote?
  • You voted for a $2 trillion tax cut on the promise it would pay for itself. It didn’t come close. Should we reverse it? How can you then oppose spending a similar amount on support for unemployed Americans, state and local governments, and voting by mail?
  • Will you denounce attempts to undermine mail-in voting? Will you pledge to recognize the results of the election and rebut efforts to delegitimize it?
  • Has the administration “succeeded” in fighting the coronavirus? Why haven’t you insisted on a national testing and tracing program?
  • Was it appropriate to send without the permission of the governor unidentified federal forces to gas and attack protesters in Portland, Ore.? What did you do about it?
  • Why did you vote to confirm Cabinet officials such as Scott Pruitt for the Environmental Protection Agency (only Collins voted against him), Tom Price for the Department of Health and Human Services, Ryan Zinke for the Interior Department and Alexander Acosta for the Labor Department — all of whom left office under the cloud of ethics violations (including Acosta, for his participation in Jeffrey Epstein’s plea deal)?
  • Is the economy in better or worse shape in January 2015, when your term began?
  • When have you condemned Trump’s racist rhetoric?
  • Have we “won” the trade war against China? If not, why haven’t you reclaimed Congress’s power over tariffs?
  • What reason do voters have to believe you would stand up to Trump if he is reelected?

Pretty good list. I doubt very many of the GOP Senate candidates would sit still for the whole list, much less answer any of them. More likely they’d run away.

Posted in 2020 Election | Comments Off on Watch Them Run Away