this is the weekly on click Orlando
dot-com with Justin warmoth welcome back
Florida's election season is officially
here come November the Sunshine State
will have a new governor possibly a new
senator and many new representatives so
we called in new six political expert
and UCF history professor Jim Clark to
break it all down Jim always a pleasure
to see you thanks for stopping by
my pleasure a wealth of knowledge you
have thank you all right let's we have a
lot to tackle this morning
politics in Florida never rests it seems
and it's really firing up but I want to
start with Alan Grayson first Darrin
Soto Grayson trying to take back the
seat that mr. Soto won from him or his
wife rather his new wife his new wife
and so your reaction when you heard that
Grayson was getting into this it wasn't
a big surprise he had been raising money
and shopping for a district I think Alan
Grayson will be running for office
forever just depends where it seemed two
years ago as if the Grayson family was
through in politics but he's back he is
back and the last time he was in that
district it looked a lot different than
its current states with the influx of
Puerto Rican families who now live in
that district who had to come here after
Hurricane Maria does that have any
effect on the on the race it sure does
so no is Darren Soto the congressman is
the first Puerto Rican congressman a lot
of pride there and every day a couple
hundred new voters Puerto Rican voters
are coming into that district the trick
for Soto is going to be to get them
registered and get them to the polls so
that's going to be a real challenge for
him do you think the younger voters and
the Puerto Rican voters will have a
great impact on the elections statewide
this year if they vote yeah ever since
18 year olds got the right to vote they
have voted in lower percentages than the
rest of the population new voters like
the Puerto Rican voters vote in lower
percentages
than the general population the question
is will they vote and then who will they
vote for well a lot of times people
assume that young voters are all Liberal
Democrats or something and time after
time that's been proven to be incorrect
do you think parkland and the momentum
that those kids carried up to
Tallahassee will inspire some of the
youth I think it will I think it's
strange what gets people motivated Sandy
Hook was a horror but didn't have the
impact in parkland just having even
pulse the horror pulse did not have the
political impact but for some reason
parkland has struck a chord all right so
let's switch over to the governor's race
you know there's still some time to file
but right now we have seven who appear
to be running who knows what could
happen over the next few weeks right
anything could happen in your eyes and
based on what you've seen has anyone on
either side really separated themselves
no this is going to be an amazing year
and because for the Democrats there are
so many candidates I think you and I are
the only ones not running and I think
it's going to be interesting there's no
runoff it's possible that somebody could
get 25 to 30% of the vote and win the
Democratic nomination for governor have
seven out of ten people voting against
them but win the nomination Patrick
Murphy who used to be a congressman ran
against Senator Marco Rubio ended up
losing that campaign and it really
wasn't a well-run campaign against Rubio
him getting into the race gives him a
little bit of a name recognition maybe
over some others would you agree with
that I think so
but not a whole lot first of all as you
point out he ran a terrible campaign the
Republicans found discrepancies in his
resume and hammered on that
I think the Democrats are not happy with
him I think they they kind of regret
what happened two years ago that they
could have found a better candidate than
the Murphy they thought they had a
really great candidate he tended to stay
in South Florida he didn't campaign much
in north Florida and so it was not a
good campaign so I think the the
Democrats are kind of surprised to see
him coming back and not only that but
the rumors out there say that his
lieutenant governor would be a
Republican david jolly former
congressman as well that is
unprecedented to have that bipartisan
ticket there what do you think about
that what was your reaction to hearing
that surprised you know the last time
somebody did that was Abraham Lincoln
picking a Democrat and that turned out
badly so I just don't see who gives
money to a Republican Democrat ticket it
doesn't seem to make any sense when you
have strong people in both parties
running how are they going to get
traction how are they going to get
attention and it's going to be really
difficult for that to happen how
important is this race the governor's
race for the Democrats it's vital it
does a couple of things first of all it
gives them a voice in redistricting
after the 2020 census and that's going
to be vital
it gives them power in national politics
and that's going to be vital
remember they going to reapportioned the
whole state every congressional district
is going to change the governor is going
to have a strong voice deciding whether
the Democrats get helped in the process
or the Republicans what about Washington
and their impacts in the governor's race
and also the Senate race between
governor Scott and Senator Bill Nelson
how much of Washington
Washington's hand will be helping or
hurting the other candidates a lot just
as the governor's races is vital to both
parties the Senate race may be even more
important the Senate race may determine
who controls the United States Senate in
2019 bill Nelson has to win for the
Democrats to have a crack at controlling
the the Senate so the Republicans are
going to put a huge effort into Florida
in both the governor's race and the
Senate race a lot of money has been
shelled out already
I mean Governor Scott has been all over
your television and but bill Nelson has
not yet started the TV ads was it
surprising to see governor Scott already
let's get to work those ads already
starting to run yeah I think I think two
things first of all it's not surprising
because Scott is going to have so much
money
Nelson is gonna have to raise it and so
he's gonna be on a limited budget
Scott's gonna get tens of millions of
dollars from outside interests and also
Scott has been very good at advertising
early and establishing a theme that
carries over four years ago against
Charlie Crist it was charges that
Charlie Crist was corrupt if you'll
recall this year he's doing the let's
get to work and talking about term
limits in Washington and of course this
is certainly bill Nelson's last term
right anyway so I'm not sure what what
confirm limits are gonna do there do you
see the irony and Washington and him
specifically targeting Washington
despite some of the help that he will
get from Washington yes he helped elect
a Republican president he helped elect a
Republican Congress and now he's kind of
running against Washington it's gonna be
interesting to see how he deals with
President Trump going forward Trump of
course will be down here frequently and
Scott needs to decide and I'm sure he's
doing polling on this is Trump an asset
or a liability in Florida certainly
should be an interesting summer as the
candidates really fire up those
campaigns my thanks to Jim Clark and
Patrick Murphy for coming by this
morning
on the weekly remember new six and click
Orlando comm has you covered with every
race in fact we have a special section
on click Orlando comm dedicated to
results 2018 that's all the time we have
for you this morning have a great Sunday
and have a happy Mother's Day
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