BOYNTON BEACH: Florida Democrats made bold claims last week about their chances in a state that has steadily grown more conservative in recent years. But so far they have not matched their words with the kind of money it will take to win there.
“Florida is in play,” proclaimed Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former representative from Miami, at the start of a bus tour in defense of women’s reproductive rights in Boynton Beach. Mucarsel-Powell is the choice of Florida Democrats to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Scott for one of a handful of Senate seats the GOP is defending this election cycle.
According to data from AdImpact, which tracks spending on advertising by political campaigns and their surrogates, Republicans have outspent Democrats on Florida’s US Senate race by roughly a 4-to-1 margin through Sept. 11, $12.7 million to $3.2 million. Based on ad spots currently reserved through the general election, that margin is expected to grow.
The dynamics of the Senate race mirror what has happened in the presidential race in a state that used to be hotly contested by both parties’ top-of-the-ticket candidates. Vice President Kamala Harris did not attend the launch of the bus tour and has not been to Florida as a candidate since she replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president in the race against Republican former President Donald Trump.
The Republicans’ massive spending advantage may help to explain why Scott scoffs at the claims coming from Democrats about Florida being competitive.
“They are so far from what Florida voters believe in, that they don’t have a chance in the world of winning Florida,” he said in an interview last week. “They don’t have a chance of beating Trump, and they don’t have a chance of beating me.”
Mucarsel-Powell says her side is more in touch with voters on issues such as reproductive rights. She says ballot amendments on both abortion rights and legalizing marijuana will help Democrats turn out voters. She also said the switch from Biden to Harris gave Florida Democrats a burst of fresh momentum.
“This is momentum that has been building for quite some time, and her announcement just was like the tip of the iceberg on the momentum and the energy that was building here around the state of Florida,” Mucarsel-Powell said in an interview.
A national AP-NORC survey conducted in July showed that about 8 in 10 Democrats said they’d be satisfied with Harris as the party’s nominee for president, versus 4 in 10 Democrats in March saying they’d be satisfied with Biden as the nominee.
But Mucarsel-Powell’s task remains formidable. Although some polling shows Scott leading narrowly in the Senate race, national Democrats have yet to invest heavily in Florida’s expensive media markets. Harris, who has proven to be a prolific fundraiser since she became the Democratic nominee, recently allocated $25 million of her own campaign funds to help down-ballot Democrats in November — with only $10 million of those funds going to US Senate candidates. Harris’ campaign did not respond to questions on how these funds were being allocated.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said it has spent money on staffing and digital advertising on the race but didn’t specify how much. In a statement, they did not address plans for spending going forward but said: “Scott’s unpopularity coupled with the strength of Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign makes Florida one of Senate Democrats top offensive opportunities.”
Scott, who has his eye on a Senate leadership position if he wins, said he would welcome a bigger effort from national Democrats.
“I hope they spend a bunch of money and waste it, because they don’t have a chance of winning the Senate in Florida,” he said.
Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said national Democrats showed their support by starting their bus tour in Florida and sending campaign representatives there to support Democratic candidates. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who is in a strong enough position in her own reelection bid to work on behalf of other Democrats around the country, was one of several Democrats who joined Mucarsel-Powell at the start of the bus tour.
“They could have started anywhere else in the country. They started here in Palm Beach County, in Donald Trump’s backyard,” Fried said. “That shows how important Florida is, and that they are going to continue to watch what is happening on the ground, send surrogates here and making sure that we are in play for November.”
About 150 people attended the bus tour event.
Fried acknowledged that Democrats have been outspent on advertising in Florida, but she said they’re putting their energy into campaigning at the grassroots level. She said 40,000 new volunteers signed up after Harris entered the race and were making an all-out effort to knock on doors and reach out to Florida voters by phone.
This year’s Florida ballot looks different from the one voters saw two years ago, where US Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Ron DeSantis led the top of Florida’s ticket. The governor had hoped to ride a wave of momentum from his emphatic 19-point victory to national prominence but was unable to loosen Trump’s grip on the Republican Party nationally.
Trump, now a Florida resident, defeated Biden in Florida by 3.3 percentage points in 2020, further diminishing its status as a swing state.
Brian Ballard, a Republican political strategist who was a top fundraiser for Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, said the lackluster spending effort by Democrats will make it harder for Mucarsel-Powell to introduce herself to people across the state who don’t recognize her — as opposed to Scott, who was Florida’s governor from 2010 to 2018 and has since then been serving in the Senate.
The lack of spending from the national party, Ballard said, is “usually a sign of a losing campaign.”
“Florida is not in play,” Ballard said. “I hope the Democrats commit and spend a lot of money in Florida on the presidential race. It’ll move the needle not at all. If she’s relying on Democrats spending on top of the ticket, she’s relying on fool’s gold.”
The Florida contest has not drawn much attention from national Democrats, who are trying to hold onto far more Senate seats than Republicans this year. Instead, they have focused much of their energy and resources on defending seats they already hold, including in the red states of Ohio and Montana. Still, the Florida US Senate race was close in late July, just before the Florida Senate primaries, according to a poll of Florida voters conducted by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab.
Scott said in the interview that he isn’t “taking a chance” by treating his own race lightly. And yet he has spent at least some of his time campaigning for other Republicans, including a trip across state lines to battleground Georgia last week for a town hall in Braselton, northeast of Atlanta.
“This is a team sport,” Scott said of his efforts on behalf of other GOP candidates.
Tiffany Lanier, 36, attended the bus tour Tuesday morning in Boynton Beach. Lanier, a Lake Worth civic engagement public speaker, said that although Biden ran on a similar platform to Harris, she thinks Harris’ position and emphasis on abortion rights really excites and motivates people to turn out to vote.
“I think it was more like in my wilder dreams that Florida would be in play for this November,” Lanier said. “I know that we are so very tight in the polls, but I do see that there is an energetic shift. And so, I do see a lot of possibility here.”
Democrats claiming Florida Senate seat is in play haven’t put money behind the effort to make it so
https://arab.news/jggtc
Democrats claiming Florida Senate seat is in play haven’t put money behind the effort to make it so
- Democrats hope ballot amendments on abortion rights and marijuana legalization will help boost turnout on their side
Israel’s defense minister cancels visit to Washington, Pentagon says
- Biden said on Friday he thought Israel had not yet concluded how to respond to Iran and added that he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes
WASHINGTON: Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has canceled a Wednesday visit to the Pentagon, the Pentagon said, as Israeli media reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted first to speak with US President Joe Biden.
The surprise cancelation on Tuesday comes amid soaring tensions between Israel and Iran as Israel weighs options to respond to Tehran’s missile attack last week, its second this year against Israel.
The Pentagon declined to say why Gallant canceled his visit, and referred reporters to Israel’s ministry of defense. Offices for Netanyahu and Gallant did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “We were just informed that Minister Gallant will be postponing his trip to Washington,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told a news briefing. Israel’s Ynet news outlet reported that Gallant had hoped his US visit would strengthen coordination on Iran but hours before departure, Netanyahu set two preconditions: the call with Biden and cabinet approval of the response to Iran.
The White House referred questions about the Gallant visit to the Israeli government. Biden and his aides have spoken of a possible call with Netanyahu since the end of September. But the White House did not immediately respond to a query on whether such a call had now been scheduled.
Biden said on Friday he thought Israel had not yet concluded how to respond to Iran and added that he would think about alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields if he were in Israel’s shoes.
Iran on Tuesday warned Israel not to follow through on threats of retaliation.
Its foreign minister said any attack on Iran’s infrastructure would be avenged while a senior Iranian official told Gulf states it would be “unacceptable” and would draw a response if they allowed their airspace to be used against Iran.
Western powers are seeking a diplomatic solution, fearing the conflict could roil the wider, oil-producing Middle East.
Milton returns to Category 5 as Florida braces for next hurricane
TAMPA: Storm-battered Florida braced for a direct hit from Hurricane Milton which restrengthened to a Category 5 storm Tuesday, as President Joe Biden begged residents to flee what he warned could be the worst natural disaster to hit the US state in a century.
As the second huge hurricane in as many weeks rumbled toward Florida’s west coast, a sense of looming catastrophe spread as people raced to board up homes and flee.
“It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole,” Biden said from the White House, urging those under orders to leave to “evacuate now, now, now.”
Biden’s warning came amid a bitter pre-election quarrel, with his Democratic vice president Kamala Harris castigating her rival Donald Trump for peddling false claims that recovery efforts after the first storm, Hurricane Helene, were diverted away from Republicans.
As of Tuesday, Milton restrengthened to the maximum Category 5 designation, generating maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (270 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.
“Fluctuations in intensity are likely while Milton moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but Milton is expected to be a dangerous major hurricane when it reaches the west-central coast of Florida Wednesday night,” the NHC said.
Governor Ron DeSantis, at a news conference, ticked off town after town and county after county that are in danger.
“Basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning,” he said.
Airlines put on extra flights out of Tampa, Orlando, Fort Myers and Sarasota, as highways clogged up with escaping traffic and gas stations sold out of fuel.
Hurricane expert Michael Lowry warned that in the Tampa area, home to some three million people, Milton’s storm surge “could double the storm surge levels observed two weeks ago during Helene,” which brought massive flooding.
Biden postponed a major trip to Germany and Angola to oversee the federal response, as storm relief efforts have emerged as a political battleground ahead of the presidential election on November 5.
Trump has tapped into frustration about the emergency response after Hurricane Helene and fueled it with disinformation, falsely claiming that disaster money had been spent instead on migrants.
Biden on Tuesday slammed Trump’s comments as “un-American,” while presidential hopeful Harris called the claims the “height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness.”
“I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level,” she said.
In a scene of frantic preparation repeated all over Florida, dozens of cars lined up at a sports facility in Tampa to pick up sandbags to protect their homes from flooding.
John Gomez, 75, ignored official advice and traveled all the way from Chicago to try to save a second house he has in Florida.
“I think it’s better to be here in case something happens,” Gomez said as he waited in line.
Scientists say global warming has a role in intense storms as warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapor, providing additional energy for storms, which exacerbates their winds.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday released footage from a specialist plane called “Miss Piggy” as it flew into the hurricane to collect data.
Paperwork, equipment and personal items were sent flying as the plane was shaken by wind and rain.
On the ground, communities hit by the deadly Hurricane Helene, which slammed Florida late last month, have rushed to remove debris that could become dangerous projectiles as Milton approaches.
In Mexico’s Yucatan, strong winds toppled trees and pylons, and heavy rain caused flooding, but the peninsula avoided major damage or casualties as the storm barreled offshore.
Across the southeastern United States, emergency workers are still struggling to provide relief after Helene, which killed at least 230 people across several states.
It hit the Florida coastline on September 26 as a major Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding in remote inland towns in states further north, including North Carolina and Tennessee.
Helene was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the US mainland since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, with the death toll still rising.
Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- The national poll conducted by Siena College and The New York Times found Harris ahead by 49 percent to 46 percent
NEW YORK: Kamala Harris has taken a slim lead over Donald Trump in the US presidential race, a new poll showed Tuesday, as the Democrat slammed her rival for “weakness” during a media blitz four weeks before the election.
Vice President Harris and Republican former president Trump — who was doing a three-hit airwaves blitz of his own Tuesday — are deadlocked as they scramble to get out the vote and reach the sliver of Americans who remain undecided.
The national poll conducted by Siena College and The New York Times found Harris ahead by 49 percent to 46 percent, with registered voters crediting her more than Trump with representing change and caring about people like themselves, but giving the edge to Trump on who is the stronger leader.
The rivals were tied at 47 percent in a mid-September Times/Siena poll shortly after the two clashed in their presidential debate.
The overall result is largely in line with an aggregate of national polling collated by RealClearPolitics.com, which has Harris ahead by two percentage points.
In the seven battleground states seen as likely to determine the election outcome, the race is even tighter.
With Trump critics warning the election is nothing less than a referendum on American democracy, Harris conceded the knife-edge race is keeping her up at night.
“I literally lose sleep — and have been — over what is at stake in this election,” she told radio icon Howard Stern in a 70-minute live interview Tuesday.
“This is an election that is about strength versus weakness, and weakness as projected by someone who puts himself in front of the American people and does not have the strength to stand in defense of their needs, their dreams, their desires.”
Harris, the new poll showed, has begun making inroads with the rival party, with nine percent of Republicans saying they planned to support her, up from five percent last month.
She touched on the issue during a Tuesday appearance on popular ABC television show “The View,” where she talked about campaigning recently with Republican former congresswoman Liz Cheney.
There are more than 200 former officials from past Republican presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, as well as officials tied to Republican heavyweights John McCain and Mitt Romney, who have endorsed her, Harris said.
“We really are building a coalition around some very fundamental issues, including that we love our country and that we have to put country before party,” she said.
The Democrat, who turns 60 next week, also accused Trump of “full-time perpetuating lies and misinformation,” and said voters have grown “exhausted” with the strategy.
Trump meanwhile maintained his aggressive posture, attacking Harris as a “very low intelligence person” and claiming she has been “missing in action” over the federal response to Hurricane Helene — even though Harris traveled to the disaster zone last week.
And the 78-year-old Republican insisted on conservative influencer Ben Shapiro’s podcast that he has the stamina to finish strong on the campaign trail.
“I’ve worked about 28 days in a row, I have about 29 days left” before the election, he said, “and I’m not taking any days off.”
In addition to the poll, Harris got another potential boost Tuesday after a pro-Palestinian group threatening to draw votes from her in swing state Michigan came out strongly against Trump.
The Uncommitted movement stopped short of explicitly endorsing Harris, but warned in a video that “it can get worse” under Trump.
Major US pro-Palestinian group comes out against Trump
- Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 41,965 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians
WASHINGTON: Democrat Kamala Harris got a potential boost Tuesday after a pro-Palestinian group threatening to draw votes from her in swing state Michigan came out strongly against her Republican opponent Donald Trump.
The Uncommitted movement stopped short of explicitly endorsing Harris, but warned in a video on social media that “it can get worse” under Trump. One of the group’s co-founders, Lexi Zeidan, said voters should consider “the better antiwar approach” rather than “who is the better candidate.”
The Harris campaign is worried about losing votes in places like Michigan, where anger among the state’s large Arab American community over the White House’s support for Israeli operations in Gaza and Lebanon has threatened to narrow already thin margins for Democrats.
The Uncommitted shift to openly opposing Trump, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will come as some relief to Harris, the vice president.
However, Abandon Harris, another group of anti-war voters, has endorsed fringe Green Party candidate Jill Stein, potentially turning her into a spoiler that would help elect Trump in swing states decided by just a few thousand votes.
Both groups, drawing heavily from Arab, Palestinian and Muslim voters, emerged in protest at President Joe Biden’s backing of Israel despite mounting civilian casualties in Gaza.
Harris has attempted to walk a tightrope on the issue, saying at the Democratic presidential nomination she would get a Gaza ceasefire “done” and ensure Palestinians realize their right to “dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
But Harris has rejected protesters’ demands, such as an arms embargo on Israel — a longtime key US ally.
Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures, which include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed 41,965 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the United Nations has described as reliable.
Pro-Palestinian activists target UK offices of Germany’s Allianz
LONDON: Pro-Palestinian activists targeted the British offices of German financial services firm Allianz on Tuesday, daubing the outside with red paint in protest over the company’s links to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems.
Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the protest on social media platform X, and said demonstrators had attacked 10 Allianz offices in the UK and “occupied” the insurer’s UK headquarters in Guildford, south of London, overnight.
“Without insurance, Elbit couldn’t operate in Britain,” Palestine Action said in its post.
In addition to urging customers to boycott certain financial firms, demonstrators have expanded protests to include defacing buildings using red paint to symbolize the bloodshed in Gaza.
Allianz is the latest global financial company to have suffered such vandalism. British lender Barclays has also been a target for pro-Palestinian protesters.
