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**NOVEMBER 24, 2020**

Meyerson on TAP

Florida's Most Powerful Democrat Lives in New York

On Manhattan's Upper East Side, to be a little more specific.

There, Politico

****reported

last night, former New York mayor and current gazillionaire Michael
Bloomberg has called for Florida Democrats to make former Miami Mayor
Manny Diaz the state party's new chair. More to the point, Politico

****noted, Bloomberg "is ready to open his wallet for the party again if
Diaz is chair." (The "again" refers to the $100 million that Bloomberg
purportedly spent to boost Joe Biden's and other Democrats'
campaigns in Florida this fall, to no discernible effect.) "No one is
better suited for Florida Democratic Party chair," Bloomberg told
Politico, "than Manny Diaz."

Now, there's no contesting that Florida Democrats need to get their
act together, and Diaz, a 66-year-old Cuban immigrant, certainly appeals
to and has longstanding contacts with a measurable chunk of the Florida
electorate, some of whom clearly abandoned the Democrats in November's
election. The question is why a 78-year-old New Yorker should cast so
decisive, if de facto, a vote to determine the future of Florida
Democrats.

Diaz appears to have lots of support, to be sure, though some party
activists have said they'd prefer to have a Black person at the
party's helm. And no doubt the election-season chops of the Florida
party matter to Democrats across the nation, who know they can't go on
losing the nation's third-largest state in election after election.
And rebuilding that party will take considerable resources, though it
will also take a surge of enthusiasm among young activists, which is not
the sort of thing that rises in tandem with Bloomberg dollars.

Not to be a proverbial wet blanket this close to Thanksgiving, but
Bloomberg's recent Florida foray doesn't demonstrate that his
judgment in matters Floridian is flawless. Maybe Diaz can build a more
effective party organization; maybe he can't. But aside from the
question of whether Bloomberg is making a shrewd investment or just
throwing good money after bad, there's the question of how having
Mike's millions cast the decisive vote in this contest comports with
any kind of small-d democratic theory.

I know, I know: This is just for party chair; no one's buying a
candidate, and $100 million can get you a shitload of lawn signs. But
still ...

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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