Newly elected Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, Rod Smith will meet with the Florida House Democratic Caucus during a luncheon session on Tuesday.
Smith, who was elected by acclimation by Florida Democrats in Orlando on Saturday, January 8, 2011, replaces former Chair Karen Thurman who led the Democratic Party to major defeat, including the loss of five seats in the state House. In the House, Republicans now have a 81-39 seat majority and in the Senate, a 28-12 majority.
Smith, a former state senator who ran for governor 4 years ago, was the Party’s recent nominee for lieutenant governor in Alex Sink’s failed bid to become Florida’s governor in the November 2010 elections. He plans to decentralize some of the party’s key staffers from Tallahassee early in his term, integrating them into communities, reports the News Service of Florida.
“We need to be on the ground in communities,” Smith said. “We don’t need to show up three months before elections. We show up as a stranger sometimes. You can’t take four months to get to know a community.”
Democrats have been heavily criticized for concentrating too much in last November’s elections on areas like Tallahassee and South Florida, at the expense of other areas, including along Interstate 75 and southeast Florida.
