The Fight for Florida: Presidential Politics in the Sunshine Economy

So far, Floridians have been spared, but not for too much longer. On March 15, registered Republicans and Democrats in Florida will make their preference known for president. (Early voting actually begins, well, earlier.) The candidates, their campaigns and the political advertising are coming to Florida.

By the time Republican and Democratic Floridians vote in their presidential primary it will be the second biggest lot of delegates up for grabs after Texas and probably the most contested. The Florida Republican primary is winner-take-all. All of Florida’s 99 Republican delegates go to the victor. Anyone else in the race gets nothing. Texas, which has more total delegates up for grabs two weeks before Florida, awards the delegates on a proportional basis. Second and third place GOP finishers in Texas could get something. Not in Florida on March 15.

The Florida Democratic primary delegation process is more complex. It awards delegates proportionally based on the primary results.

We spoke with two party bosses -- Chair of the Democratic National Committee Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Republican Party of Florida Chairman Blaise Ingoglia -- about their candidates, the issues, the primary process and the debate over debates.

How close will the race be in Florida? 

Wasserman Schultz: The primary contest in 2008 went to June and ultimately President Obama was elected president. That was a very contentious primary, one that that the candidate engaged in a lot of intense back-and-forth. This one has not been quite like that and I don't expect it to get as intense as that one did.

Ingoglia: The trend from what you've seen in Iowa and now you're starting to see in New Hampshire is a tightening. I do not see anything decisive. I think it's going to be a relatively close race.

Lessons from Iowa Caucus for Florida  

Credit courtesy: U.S. House of Representatives

  Wasserman Schultz: The way the caucus works on the Democratic side in Iowa is that in a precinct in the site where the caucus occurs there are groupings of voters that gather in different parts of the room in support of and intend to vote for their candidate. We don't have ballots. We don't have raw votes. There's no record practical way to 'audit' process. I have confidence that the Iowa Democratic Party carried off a successful but particularly razor thin result in the Iowa Democratic Caucus.

Ingoglia: I think the lesson isdon't take the polls as gospel. We know that these polls change. The pollstighten as you get closer to Election Day. We've seen that in Iowa. We're starting to see that in New Hampshire. And when New Hampshire is over my guess is probably a couple more people drop out of the race. Florida is going to be competitive.

Lessons from 2012 election

Credit courtesy: Florida House

  Ingoglia: The Republican Party of Florida and me personally, took what was in [the 2012 Republican National Committee]autopsy report very, very seriously. We have made tremendous strides in the state in taking some of those criticisms and change the way we've engaged with grassroots leaders. We've changed a lot of our data and digital infrastructure. We are matching up the field staff and the volunteers with the communities. Down in Miami-Dadewe are having a Cuban-American field staff and Cuban American volunteers match upwith that community. InOrange County we're having people of Puerto Rican descent matching up with that communities. Before just because you had a Hispanic last name didn't necessarily you mean that you were matching up with those communities. Theother thing that we did is in the past duringpresidential elections, we wouldhave these people start engaging with these communities four or five months before Election Day. After the last election in 2014, westarted engaging those communities right after the election. We started talking to community leaders and faith leaders and Chambers of Commerce and started showing up at their churches and their meetings and we started engagingin their communities. Quite frankly, showing up four months before an election is offensive. They know whywe would be there was just to get their vote. But a commitment to the community means we care about their success. We're notjust there for their vote, We're there because we want them to be successful.

The debate over debates

Florida GOP:

DNC:

Did DNC initially schedule too few debates?

Wasserman Schultz:  I decidedultimately on a schedule of debates that allowed for our candidates to have the opportunity, particularly during the early state primary window for voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, to get up close and personal with voters. There were varying opinions among the campaigns on how many was the right number. Ultimately, I had to decide what that correct number was that I could get agreement on. Thankfully, just in the past week, we had the campaigns approach us and ask us to consider sanctioning additional debates.

The format and quality of the debates?

Wasserman Schultz: I absolutely support the continued use of Presidential primary debates in front of live audiences questioned by journalists whoare serving as moderators.

Ingoglia: As chairman of the Republican Party in the thirdlargest state in the nation Iwish we would stop with the personal attacks. I wish that we would involve morepolicy discussions because when we start attacking each other all we really do is just tear each other down.

Differences between GOP and Democratic debates?

Wasserman Schultz:  [The Republicans have] certainly gotten entertained by their reality TV star who's leading their pack. Sadly you have the rest of the dwarfs in thefield who've been willing to roll pell-melldown the hill into the muck with him.

Ingoglia: I believe that [the Republican] debates are much more substantive than the Democratic debates. When you look at the Democratic debates compared to the Republican debates there's a lot more debate about policy than you do [on the] Democratic side and you see a lot more diversity from our candidates.