While a lot of people were taking a few days off and spending time at family gatherings over the holidays, Lisa King was back on the campaign trail.
She’s traveling from one end of the state to the other seeking election as chair of the Florida Democratic Party.
“I didn’t really appreciate what it is to campaign statewide,” she said Friday as she and her husband, John Parker, were on the road between Lake Placid and Miami.
It was the end of a week that took her campaign from Jacksonville to Tallahassee to Pensacola to South Florida.
King is no stranger to campaigning. She ran in 2015 for the City Council District 2 seat and was defeated by Al Ferraro.
But this is different.
Not only is there a lot more ground to cover, but the number of voters who will decide the election is far smaller, with the new leader of the state party to be decided by county party officials.
“This time it’s only about 300 voters instead of 40,000,” she said.
That may be, but King said her 10-member volunteer campaign staff is larger than the one she had when running for council in East Arlington.
King is up against four others who are seeking the post:
• State party First Vice Chair Alan Clendenin from Bradford County
• Leah Carrius, a state committeewoman from Osceola County
• Stephen Bittel, a wealthy developer from Miami
• Dwight Bullard, a former state senator who was defeated for Miami-Broward County’s candidate position by Bittel and then moved to Gadsden County near Tallahassee so he could get into the state race.
The campaign became wide open when party chair Allison Tant decided not to seek another four-year term.
King, senior vice president with the real estate firm Langton Associates, said she got into the race because she wasn’t hearing the message she thinks needs to be embraced by state and national Democrats.
After failing to unseat Gov. Rick Scott in his run for a second term and then Florida going for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election, King says it’s time for a new direction.
“Like a lot of Democrats, I was very surprised about the last election,” King said. “I think things can be done better and I want to be part of the solution.
“It’s important that my point of view be represented,” she added.
That point of view includes dissatisfaction over what King called the party’s taking on a “very top-down management style” with little effort to involve county party leaders in planning and budget matters.
“There are just a few people controlling strategic decisions and the budget, even though we have diverse issues and needs,” she said. “I’ve felt like a potted plant on the state committee for the past few years.”
She also sees a need to change the public’s image of the party after the recent presidential election.
“We have to acknowledge the perception is the Democratic National Committee doesn’t play by the rules. People don’t trust us,” King said, referring to the party being accused of sabotaging Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ primary campaign in favor of ensuring Clinton was the party’s nominee.
“We have to follow the rules. Not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law,” King said.
She also feels the party is divided within itself, which must change if it is to have a chance to put a Democrat in the governor’s office in 2018, with Scott leaving office due to term limits. And then there’s the next presidential election in 2020.
“If we’re going to win elections, we have to bring everybody together,” she said.
King admits she got into the race for state Democratic chair late, but sees it as an opportunity to make a difference in the party.
“I think this is the best time to run the party. It can’t get any worse,” she said. “We have a great opportunity for the state party to right the ship.”
King plans to continue the nonstop pace of her statewide campaign all the way to the Jan. 14 election.
She said she plans to traverse the state three more times for one-on-one meetings with local party ballot holders before the election.
“I’m realistic about my campaign. I realize I’m not well-known. But I’m going to run hard and work hard and I think people appreciate my message,” she said.
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