It’s only Wednesday, yet unless something dramatic occurs, Adam Smith of the Tampa Bay Times will be hard pressed to find a more deserving “Loser of the Week in Florida politics” than Lenny Curry, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
That’s because Curry’s win-loss record after Tuesday’s elections in St. Petersburg is so abysmal, Republicans may soon ask a judge to grant Jim Greer early release from prison just so he can teach Curry a thing or two about winning elections.
Here’s Curry’s record:
As chair of the Duval County Republican Party, Curry saw a Democrat elected mayor of red-meat Jacksonville.
As chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Curry saw Democrat Barack Obama carry the state despite it being a must-win for Mitt Romney, who was leading in statewide polls until the very end.
As chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Curry saw Democrat Bill Nelson easily re-elected after he defeated Connie Mack IV, the last man standing out of a lackluster field of Republican challengers.
As chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Curry saw Democrat Amanda Murphy win the high-profile Special Election for House District 36.
As chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Curry saw Democrat Rick Kriseman unseat the Republican mayor of St. Petersburg, despite 7 in 10 residents polled saying that the city is on the right track.
To Curry’s credit, the Republicans still hold the Cabinet and wide majorities in the Florida Legislature, but that has more to do with Curry’s predecessors, such as Tom Slade and Al Cardenas, than it does Lenny Curry. In fact, Speaker Designate Steve Crisafulli just had to send out a memo to Florida House incumbents telling them to get their sh*t together because their fundraising is off pace from where it was during the last election cycle. So even the GOP’s strength in legislative races could soon be diminished.
Of course, the Republican Party of Florida is very good at designing infographics and writing memos about bloggers, so maybe it’s wrong to criticize Curry. However, if you are a Republican, ask yourself when was the last time you felt good on an Election Night? 2010, right? That’s three years ago. Right before Lenny Curry took over the RPOF.
Update – 8:24 p.m.: Christian Camara attempted to add a comment to this post but was not able to, so I am adding it here:
“Peter…point well-taken. Lenny Curry is a big boy, and I’ll leave it up to him to defend his record. But if you’re going to expose and criticize anyone’s ‘abysmal record,’ how could you support the Backstabber Charlie Crist whose record is beyond abysmal?
His record is one of chronic absenteeism, disengagement, cronyism, corruption and perpetual campaigning while on the job. This is all well-documented, and his dereliction of his duties as governor due to all those distractions was clearly reflected in Florida’s various economic indicators throughout his term.”
