With less than one month until another Presidential election hits Central Florida, the results on the ground locally have definitely been a mixed bag for outgoing state representative Scott Randolph. Randolph, one of the area’s leading Democrats, is also chair of the Orange County Democrats who has his sights on a run for state party chair. But the year has proven to be challenging for his party in a “blue” county despite an impressive fundraising haul of close to $140,000.
First, Randolph decided not to run for re-election because redistricting drew him into a tougher race than he was used to. Fearing a loss or at least more of a struggle than he would prefer, Randolph decided to wait until close to qualifying before publicly announcing his plans not to seek re-election and instead launch his state party run. Linda Stewart stepped up to take his place and was recently endorsed by the Orlando Sentinel and her campaign continues to gain steam on the ground.
Randolph had also built a local name for himself through the campaigns of Congressman Alan Grayson. Randolph helped run the 2008 campaign that elected Grayson to Congress, and his wife Susannah, managed Grayson’s re-election loss in 2010 to Dan Webster. Even though Mr. Randolph started the year with Grayson, he left the campaign and parted ways with the former Congressman.
From there, Randolph attempted to flex his party muscle by endorsing several local Democrats in local elections. That led to three straight losses for Orange County Democratic Party endorsed candidates. Vienna Avelares, who challenged Tony Ortiz on the Orlando City Council, received little party support outside of the endorsement. Gina Duncan, who challenged Ted Edwards on the Orange County Commission, received a lot of local party support including sponsored canvasses, phone bank efforts and fundraising help. Finally, Mike Aviles, who ran for the open County Commission District 3 race, received little help until members of the Hispanic community threatened Randolph not to leave them behind again or face a revolt. That led to the local party hiring a staffer for Aviles and an increase in phone banking, but very close to the election. All three candidates lost handily to their Republican opponents.
So, as chair of local Democratic Party, Randolph is officially 0-3 in endorsed races. Beyond that, there are more red flags. Democratic turnout was trumped in the August 14th primaries by the Republicans, despite the large voter registration advantage by Democrats in Orange County. The results show limited impact on Democratic turnout by local party, especially in key races and endorsed races. He also had a blunder by printing and distributing absentee request forms to voters that included “Sarasota County” not Orange County.
Branching outside of direct party politics, Scott Randolph started caring about Earned Sick Time when he joined the payroll of the $250,000+ effort to put a local citizen initiative on the ballot. Currently the lawyer for the Sick Time effort, the campaign suffered numerous setbacks on timing, deadlines, language questions, and technicalities. First, judges said the legal team was suing the wrong person. Then Randolph did not ask the judge to recuse himself despite the judge’s wife working with Chamber interests. Court documents are riddled with basic errors like referring to Orange County Mayor as “Jenkins” instead of Jacobs. Ultimately, Earned Sick Time has been left off the November ballot.
Republican Party Chair Lew Oliver even credited the Earned Sick Time legal team with coming up with what ultimately derailed the sick time measure. “I’d like to take the credit for this and say I came up with it,” Oliver told the Orlando Sentinel. “But I didn’t. They did.” He is referring to comments made in court by the sick time legal team saying the Commission was responsible for crafting the title and language. Marlon Washington of Citizens for a Greater Orange County even proposed two different sets of language to the Commission for some reason, giving them more ammo to claim confusion and delay.
Yes, Scott Randolph has been successful in raising funds for the local party, but there are still questions as to where the money is being spent and what results it is generating. Like many leaders in town, he also has his sights set higher – the state party chairmanship – but at least unlike others he’s been open about his plans to move up. However, if you’re outside the “Randolph club” don’t expect much attention, help or praise – candidates from all walks of life and backgrounds still complain about the lack of access to their chair.
The results are what really matter and the results are still missing. Time is running out.
This article has been updated to reflect new information provided to WONO.
Why is it that every time some supposed “juicy” “news” comes from the west orlando times it is attributed to “sources”. Come out from behind the shadows. This lends very little to the credibility of this “news outlet”. More and more it appears to me that the folks that write for the WOT have no integrity.
Sorry, West Orlando News.
Scott Randolph is up against Orlando Country Club. The Good Old Boys are often the same people that were here for the Old South. They now have millions from Corporations to stop all and hate all. Any equality is not their Buddy. I’d hate to think that we may have to wait until they all die out. But one person is going to have an uphill battled against the entrenched.
Compared to who? The Orange County Democratic Party has not had sustained competent leadership since Doug Head. Under Doug Head’s leadership the party took the lead in voter registration, won Presidential elections in Orange County, FL and won the Mayor of Orlando. Rep. Scott Randolph has had a learning curve, but in his run in with the County Commission over Earned Sick Time he has learned a lot about the dysfunction of the County Commission, the impact of redistricting on the local level and the influence of the tourism industry hidden behind law firms and the Chamber of Commerce. Had the Orange County Commission created a majority Hispanic district as required under the Voting Rights Act, Tiffany Moore would have had an ally on the Commission and only one Republican Commissioner (in addition to the Chair) would have had to been swayed. A majority Hispanic district would have attracted the brightest and wealthiest candidates in the Hispanic community in a vigorously contested election instead of Republican and Democratic Hispanic candidates in District 3 coming in 4th and 5th place. Chairman Randolph has attempted to steer resources to campaigns (but for strategic reasons, I can’t be more specific). The proof will be in the pudding (election results), but I believe the Orange County Democrats under Chair Scott Randolph will perform better in the General Election than they did in the primaries.
Half of this information is dead wrong and can be confirmed by several sources as exactly that – WRONG. There is actual libel going on in this article. I wouldn’t be surprised if this publication gets sued.
If someone would have paid attention to the budget we passed out to the DEC membership at the last meeting, maybe “sources” would know where funds are being directed.. Or maybe that wouldn’t be such a good thing because I’m sure that budget would just be displayed here for everyone to see internal docs and strategy. Poor form.
Once again, West Orlando News- you are a joke.
Well, I would say that Scott has done a lot better than the last seven Chairs (whatever you wnat to say about me or my predicessor Irby Pugh). The problem is that it takes time to form a strong Party structure. Since I left, in the last eight years, there have been SEVEN Chairs. Three were caretakers and four wanted the job for reasons which now seem quesitonable or ran into conflicts. I had the benefit of serving an apprenticeship of seven years and Prior to Irby, there were several rapid turnovers preceded by a long reign. The Republicans, locally, have had the same lobbyist/lawyer/activist for the last decade.
Post above is from Doug Head
I just really think the editor needs to stop allowing so many stories from “sources”. Having worked for both the Grayson campaign and EST, I would have to say this article is not 100% accurate. So I have no individual to point out the inaccuracies to.
For something to be libel it needs to be mostly false.
Point out inaccuracies here.
Party leadership, discipline and true minority Inclusion plus respect of these minorities whom when COMBINED make up for the majority of the voters in OC but who seem to vote in very LOW PERCENTAGES ( I wonder WHY) is needed to succeed in any election endeavor.
Some of the current appointees have their OWN personal AGENDAS and that is self evident at the expense of entire communities and the local DEC has become the Party of a few! Whomever is writing for the WONO should be thanked for making this illness evident…now lets find the CURE!
Well…..at least it was updated to take out some of the inaccuracies.
There will be very many Diverse and Fair-minded Candidates for the
Democratic Party of Florida Chairmanship! With Scott Randolph’s Elitist,
Racially Didcriminative Record as Oranfe County Chairman; we will see
That his blunder of Refusing to list The Democrats who are long – time
Democratic Executive Members, Campaigner for Alan Grayson before
Scott even noticed Congressman Frayson, and United States Military
Veterans; we will have to show Scott that his Decidion to secretly help
The Republicans, by refusing to list the Democrats on the Slate Cards
That was paid fir by Party Money is misappropriation, and Missapplication
Of Democratic Zpartt Funds, therefore, he is in the same category of
Rubio and Greer, whose party Scott us helping by that Prejudiced and
Racially Disparate Decision to Exclude Two Democrats from the
Party’s Slate cards. The money raised by all of our Democrats efforts
Was NOT raised by Scott, but by all of our efforts to make our party
Strong, and Scott has Actually made us weaker, by Dividing us,
Scott Randolph’s most Famous remark was in 2008 at Church Street and Lee
When he said in front of two hundred B. Obama Supporters; that
When Barak Obama BEAT Hillary Clinton, Scott randolph said:
That loss to Zobsma made him; ” mad as He’ll!!!”. In political Circles, Scott;
You have gotten even with Those of us who are true Democrats and
Obama supporters; We are now in your own words;
“Mad” with your Racist Decisions against Minority and U S Veteran
Voters, especially those who have won More Votes than you have,
Such as when I wonmore than 131, 100 votes to my Rep. Challenger,
In 2004, which was morethan twice your vote total, in a county-wide
Election. Bravely Signed:
Dr. Tim Adams, Th D a Brave, Strong Vote generator, for a True
Party Chairman !, SM
Yet again, more gossip and hearsay from “Sources”, West Orlando News is losing its credibility fast by allowing anonymous reporting that cite anonymous statements by anonymous references, way to go.
Obviously, there were lies in here as the article has been corrected by the chicken sh*t who doesn’t even have the political courage to put his name to this article. Oh, but WHOEVER this person is THEY SHOULD RUN FOR MAYOR OF ORLANDO!!!!!!!
Hey Trini,
Explain to us how much you love Mike Aviles again?
Also libelous is Randolph’s handling of the EST court case. Randolph was not the lead attorney and even though he is a public figure, the comments are about his role as an attorney, not a state representative. So WONO is still in the territory of committing libel.
It is not possible for a non-member of the local party to write stuff like this without help from the merry band of malcontents, a select few who have been incredibly effective at scaring the general public away from DEC meetings by their behavior in years past. They should be ashamed of themselves and be glad that the new adults in the room have decided to focus on raising funds and winning elections. Politics is about choosing your battles, building coalitions, and working with people towards a common goal. The ‘choosing your battles’ part is a big one with this group because they’ve decided to go to war over everything; coalitions and relationships be damned. As a result, they’ve rightfully been iced out of the process and the level heads keep their distance so they don’t accidentally get sucked into the madness. Many good people in between are now keeping their distance for fear they’ll be dragged down too. Now the malcontents must resort to political tabloids like WON to get their toxic message out, because the DEC leadership has snatched the megaphones out of their hands in an attempt to end the freak show once and for all. Sound accurate?
……oh yeah and ‘sources’ has been quick to identify the Chairman as leading the DEC for personal gain. While it’s true he may personally gain from the positive reputation that will follow him after his successful tenure, his detractors are up to something much more sinister. They operate under the delusion that by constantly undermining and obstructing the Chairman (and the party) they will be able to say ‘I told you so’ and ask the membership to hand them the keys instead. I ask which is better? Building the party for personal gain or destroying it? That’s what I thought.
MIKE “CANTWIN” CANTONE = SOURCES! HEY YOU UGLY A-HOLE, F YOU!
Anonymous October 8, 2012 at 11:44 am
Hey Trini,
Explain to us how much you love Mike Aviles again?
—————————————————————————————-
whatever your name happens to be….I love traitors as much as I love you and the others in the paid CABAL!
Happy now?
[…] the “Obama bounce” with Democratic victories in November throughout Orange County. However, his track record before November was questionable, and he flirted with running for many offices before taking the Tax Collector […]