But then I moved to Florida in '99, after all of the stuff described here. I did talk to Lawton Chiles at the '96 convention, but in that context there was no way he would have brought up what you describe.
I will say that I am amazed at the state of the FDP. It was when I moved here, and still seems to me, horribly underfunded and undermanned. Now my perception may be wrong (I moved to Florida from Vermont where there is a strong Democratic Party) but every race I have seen has featured underfunded Democrats.
Example: everyday I drive thorough the heart of the African American community in Tampa. I seldom see any signs or evidence of organization. Even in 2000 I recall precisely 1 person doing visability on election day in the African American Community in Tampa.
but it also used to be based out of central florida (before there was really an i-4, let alone i-4 corridor). chiles was from lakeland, mckay from deland (askew came from somewhere in the panhandle, where democratic infrastructure was also decimated in the 1990s). in the 1970s, the local county democratic parties (again, volusia over to polk, excepting seminole and osceola) had full slates of precinct leadership and monthly party meetings were mandatory. it was a vibrant party, with its own internal squabbles, and in many places, the primary determined everything.
the thing that president clinton did that was really destructive was openly taking sides in the internal battles (that pitted southern progressives against more conservative dems, usually aligned with the developers and major property owners). our loose confederation, where primary battles were fierce -- and for all the marbles -- were suddenly open wounds with profound resentments. the fact is, clinton choose the wrong side, not just on the issues of desegregation and education, because republicans had been taking the mainstays of the more conservative democrats away from the florida democratic party since the mid-1980s. not too many developers, grove owners or ranchers who are democrats anymore (and even the environmentally conscious developers, like jim swann, are still republicans).
african-american leadership not specifically loyal to clinton got purged. all of the florida civil rights leadership here when i was growing up was. the clinton administration denied federal funds to urban leagues in central florida whose leadership were not chosen by the clintons. welfare reform was not the only place where african americans got shafted by the clinton administration. while there are black dems who are extremely grateful to the clintons, i know more than a few who have long resented the interference of the clintons in the florida democratic party, not because they dislike the clintons per se but because they choose the side of the dying (or departing) elements inside the party. which is not to say that those clintonians who remained and came to lead the florida dems represent the centrist/conservative lines that the clintons choose in the 90s. but by then, the southern progressive tradition of askew and chiles had been pretty much purged inside the party. moderates grew more conservative because there was no "left wing" elements inside the party to counterbalance the centrists who remained. i personally consider florida democrats profoundly conservative by national ideological standards because of this...
