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As you are all aware, it was not a good day for IRC Democrats in the Tuesday election. Our turnout was low, our Democratic candidates received 40% or less in the statewide and local elections and Cindy Gibbs lost her race for school board. It wasn't for a lack of effort (see the missive from Manny Diaz that follows), and our results were similar to the rest of Florida, but they were disappointing. My thanks to all our volunteers that worked extremely hard to aid our candidates through texting, postcards and canvassing. It is very much appreciated by our DEC team. We'll have some more insights for you on the election in next week's newsletter as we build on our lessons learned from this election and position ourselves for 2024. Many thanks to you all!

Best regards,
Bill Evans
Chair, DEC of Indian River County

Dear Proud Democrat Volunteers,

Many thanks to the thousands of Florida Democrats who have worked tirelessly during this election cycle. You have demonstrated your commitment to organize and build the foundation necessary to succeed in 2022 and beyond.

Statewide, our combined efforts were impressive: More than 2.8 million door knocks, 3.7 million phone calls, 17 million text messages, and 18.5 million pieces of mail. Our teams in Broward have sent 2.5 million texts, our teams in Miami-Dade have knocked on almost 600,000 doors and our teams in Hillsborough have made over 600,000 calls. The Democratic Women’s Club of Florida has sent over 1 million texts. Since April of this year, our Blue Shift effort has reached over 5 million voters through mail, 7 million through texts, and 8 million through live and robo calls.

Our voter protection team has never been more critical. During 2021, Florida Democrats launched a year-round voter protection program. The voter protection team has built deep relationships with volunteers who have built the largest poll watcher program in the country. The program credentialed 5,000 poll watchers across 60 counties. These volunteers have covered more Canvassing Board meetings in more counties than any previous election cycle. Our voter protection team hosts a hotline providing answers to Floridians’ voting questions in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. We have also helped thousands of voters cure their Vote-By-Mail ballots.

The team has done key advocacy in Tallahassee and with Supervisors of Elections in several Florida counties, establishing clearer methods to track and cure Vote-By-Mail ballots, made it harder for right-wing conspiracy theorists to disrupt Canvassing Board meetings, and fought back against attacks on former felons’ rights to vote.

These results are only possible with extraordinary efforts by our entire Democratic Party family.

With thanks,

Chairman Manny Diaz
Florida Democratic Party

CALENDAR

Saturday, November 12, 2022

11:30 a.m. - DWC monthly luncheon at Bent Pine Country Club. [email protected] or Pat O’Hara at 772-388-2524.

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

9:00 a.m. – Vero Beach City Council Chambers, City Hall, 1053 20^th Place, Vero Beach 32960 : For agenda and meeting information go to https://covb.org/AgendaCenter You can watch here: https://www.covb.org/341/CTYVB-13---City-of-Vero-Beach-Official-T

9:00 a.m. – Indian River County Commission, County Administration Offices, Council Chambers, 1801 27^th Street, Building A, Vero Beach 32960. For agenda and meeting information go to https://ircgov.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

Thursday, November 17, 2022

9:00 a.m. - Indian River Shores City Council
For agenda and meeting information go to https://www.irshores.com/government/town-meetings/

7:00 p.m. - Fellsmere City Council, 22 S. Orange Street, Fellsmere, FL 32948

For agenda and meeting information go to www.cityoffellsmere.org/citycouncil

ANNUAL BIG BIRD BLESSING

We are still collecting donations at our office at 2345 14th Ave Vero Beach 32967 to help provide 1000 Holiday meals to those in need in Indian River County. Especially needed:

CANNED CHICKEN BROTH
EVAPORATED MILK
IDAHOAN MASHED POTATOES
STOVE TOP STUFFING
CANNED GREEN BEANS

Please visit https://TeamSuccessEnterprises.org for more information, to volunteer, or to make CASH DONATIONS.

THANK YOU!

Democratic Women’s Club

The DWC next luncheon on Saturday November 12 at the Bent Pine Clubhouse. To recognize the 50th anniversary of Title IX Legislation, Mr Greg Zugrave, the Athletic Director of St Edward’s School will be speaking on the History of Title IX and Its Impact on High School Athletics Today. RSVP is required by November 10th. Please identify your meal choice: Turkey Chef Salad, Beer Battered Cod Sandwich
Or Vegetarian option to [email protected]. Questions to Pat O’Hara at 772-388-2524. The cost is $25, payable at the door. Non-members may attend as a guest. A non-perishable food donation for the Fellsmere Fridge is requested.
Please consider attending!

The DWC Book Group will meet at the Indian River County Brackett Library at 6155 College Lane on Friday, December 2, 2022 from
2:00-4:00p.m. “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times” by Jane Goodall will be reviewed. Any questions about the book group can be addressed to Maryann and Rita at [email protected]

YARD SIGNS

Please do not throw yard signs in the trash.
You can return them to our office and we will return them to the candidates or contribute them to the IRC RECYCLES project that recycles yard signs into fuel cells.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Legacy of President Trump and MAGA

Republican men don’t seem to care much for women, or their rights. Ethical intelligent women like Rep. Liz Cheney are not wanted in their party.

Hating and wanting to kill Nancy Pelosi, an 82-year-old grandmother, as the rioters attempted during the Jan. 6 Insurrection, has now resulted in violence to her husband. And why?

Because Speaker Pelosi stood up to former President Donald Trump’s lying and bullying tactics. Meanwhile, cowards like Sen. Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio endured insults, even some directed at their wives, from Trump.

Compare Pelosi to former Republican Speakers of the House: Newt Gingrich (ethics violations) and Dennis Hastert (sent to prison over sexual abuse of minors). When Trump and Republican leaders aren’t outright lying, they’re invoking the Fifth Amendment. This is the result and legacy of Trump and MAGA.

Anthony Frigo, Jensen Beach

Following the ‘DeSantis rule’

I saw a political sign for Gov. Ron DeSantis that read "Keep Florida Free.”

Are we free when we cannot say gay or transgender, or let our children read a book that might help them to learn compassion for others? Or when we are not free to wear a mask to keep us safe without being ridiculed?

We are free as long as we obey the “DeSantis Rule” — only my way. He has been elected again, but I am retired and of the age of an "old donkey" put out to pasture. I can have gay friends, read any book I want, wear a mask and get a booster shot if I choose to protect my health.

I can only hope that in his second term Gov. DeSantis will learn to rule with character, courage, compassion and not try to bully those who may have different ideas.

Jane Gilson, Jenen Beach

LOCAL

Indian River County voters OK tax increase to purchase, protect sensitive environmental land

The county will borrow $50 million to purchase and preserve environmentally sensitive land, voters decided Tuesday. The referendum passed in a landslide with 78% of the vote Tuesday, according to final, unofficial results from the Supervisor of Elections Office.

The ballot issue, initiated by the Indian River Land Trust, asked the county to purchase lands west of Blue Cypress Lake, Interstate 95 and along the Indian River Lagoon.
The loan will be repaid by a property-tax increase. For the owner of a $250,000 home, the tax hike will be about $44 a year for 20 years.

Part of the money the county borrows will be used to build infrastructure land to provide public access to the properties, including parking lots, trails and restrooms.

Some money will go toward maintenance of the land, too, including exotic-species removal and fire remediation, records show.

The Indian River Land Trust initially asked the County Commission to place the issue on the 2020 ballot, but it delayed its efforts that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic's financial impact on residents.

The trust recommended the county purchase land along the St. Sebastian River Greenway and I-95 corridors; along the Indian River Lagoon; and along the Florida Wildlife Corridor in the western county, as well as other land west of Blue Cypress Lake.

All of the proposed land is critical for wildlife, drinking water and water recharge, said Indian River Land Trust executive director Ken Grudens.

Now that voters have approved the measure, the county can begin purchasing land within six to eight months, Grudens estimated.

As the county pays off its debt, it also could apply for grants to help offset some of the principal, County Administrator Jason Brown said.

The program is similar to what Indian River County did twice before to acquire conservation property, borrowing $26 million in 1992 and $50 million in 2004. Both voter-approved measures aimed to preserve environmentally sensitive areas through tax increases.

Last year, the county finished paying off debt from the 2004 land-acquisition program.

Thomas Weber and Lina Ruiz
Treasure Coast Newspapers

More: New projects rising as part of Indian River County's Jones Pier Conservation Area

More: They're called 'super clams,' and the Indian River Lagoon just got 55,000 of them.

STATE

2022 Florida Election Results
(99% Est. Vote Counted)

Florida Governor

Candidate	Total Votes	% Votes
Ron DeSantis (R)	4,608,398	59.4%
Charlie Crist (D)	3,101,317	40.0%
Carmen Gimenez (NF)	31,476	0.4%

(DeSantis spent $22,513,769.21

Crist spent               $17,037,411.47)

Florida U.S. Senate

99% Est. Vote Counted

Candidate	Total Votes	% Votes
Marco Rubio (R)	4,469,218	57.7%
Val Demings (D)	3,196,266	41.3%

(Rubio spent $42,500,000
Demings spent $67,500,000)

Agriculture Commissioner

Choices	Total Votes	% Votes
Wilton Simpson (R)	4,505,055	59.3%
Naomi Blemur (D)	3,090,767	40.7%

(Simpson spent $2,443,696.76

Blemur spent          $104,049.28)

Attorney General

Choices	Total Votes	% Votes
Ashley Moody (R)	4,688,541	60.4%
Aramis Ayala (D)	3,077,087	39.6%

(Moody spent $2,020,332.65
Ayala spent $173,002.73

Chief Financial Officer

Choices	Total Votes	% Votes
Jimmy Patronis (R)	4,523,155	59.5%
Adam Hattersley(D)	3,080,746	40.5%

(Patronis spent $1,384,415.66

Hattersley spent $345,376.32)

US Congress District 08

Bill Posey (R) 65%
Joanne Terry (D) 35%.

(Posey spent $529,000
with $580,000 cash on hand.
Terry raised $85,019)

School Board Member District 2

Candidate	Total Votes	% Votes
Jacqueline "Jackie" Rosario	36,910	55.3%
Cynthia "Cindy" Gibbs	29,870	44.7%

(Rosario spent $53,962.63
Gibbs spent $30,837.07)

FEDERAL

Democrats Defied Expectations in the Midterm Elections, potentially defending enough seats to maintain control of the Senate but likely not enough to keep Republicans from taking the House.

The Democrats’ biggest win of the night came in the Pennsylvania Senate race, where John Fetterman defeated Dr. Mehmet Oz to flip the seat, while Georgia’s Senate race between Warnock and Walker appears headed to a runoff election. Keeping the Senate would let Democrats continue approving Biden’s nominations for his administration and the courts.

In the House, Republicans are favored to win control, but by less than expected. If Republicans end up with 224 seats as forecasted by the Times, that would be the weakest performance by the president’s opposing party in a midterm election since 2002.
“The Republican party underperformed everywhere.” wrote Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst.

Many of the biggest contests are too close to call.

Georgia: Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, leads Herschel Walker, the Trump-backed former football star, but the race appeared headed to a Dec. 6 runoff.
Nevada: The race between Catherine Cortez Masto, a one-term Democratic incumbent, and Adam Laxalt, the state’s election-denying former attorney general, remained too close to call.
Arizona: Mark Kelly, the Democratic incumbent, led Blake Masters, a Trump-endorsed venture capitalist, according to The Times’s election needle. The race was leaning toward Kelly.
Wisconsin: Ron Johnson, the Republican incumbent, narrowly leads Mandela Barnes, the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor.
Maggie Hassan, a two-term Democratic incumbent in New Hampshire, easily beat Don Bolduc, a Republican retired Army general who had questioned the 2020 election results.
Republicans held on to seats in Ohio, where J.D. Vance, a critic-turned-defender of Trump, beat Tim Ryan, a Democratic member of Congress., and in North Carolina, where Ted Budd, a Republican member of Congress, defeated Cheri Beasley, the state’s Democratic former chief justice.

Headed into the election, Democrats held a narrow majority in the House: 220 to 212. Republicans needed to win 19 competitive seats to take control. So far, they have won five. Democrats would need to win 46 to keep control and have claimed 19.

Democrats flipped the governorships of Maryland and Massachusetts, the Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania easily beat an election denier and Democratic incumbents won in New York, Maine, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Ballot measures

Voters in Vermont, California and Michigan approved constitutional amendments protecting abortion and reproductive rights.
Maryland and Missouri voted to legalize recreational marijuana. Similar efforts failed in Arkansas and North Dakota.
Washington, D.C., overwhelmingly voted for a higher minimum wage for tipped workers.
Ballot initiatives restricting forced prison labor passed in Alabama, Tennessee and Vermont and failed in Louisiana. Results in Oregon were too early to call.

Commentary

“Big winners tonight: Biden, who lost far fewer congressional seats than historical averages; reproductive rights, which proves a major issue among voters; democracy, with huge voter turnout and many high-profile election deniers losing big.” — Mark Updegrove, historian

“There wasn’t a red wave. That is a searing indictment of the Republican Party. That is a searing indictment of the message that we have been sending to the voters.” — Marc Thiessen, Washington Post columnist and Fox News commentator

“If you’re worried about the health of our democracy, it seems pretty good that we’ve had big turnout — implying that both sides think their votes actually matter.” — Farhad Manjoo, Times Opinion columnist

“Dems have a Florida problem, but Republicans have a Trump problem. That seems harder to solve.” — Jen Psaki, former Biden press secretary

German Lopez, The New York Times

VIDEO of the WEEK

SNL Weekend Update

https://youtu.be/uSHfgmf-CRE

Office Hours

Monday through Friday 10am to 3pm

2345 14^th Ave. Suite 7
Vero Beach 32960

(772) 226-5267

[email protected]

STAY SAFE OUT THERE!

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