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U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Pembroke Pines is announcing her support for Dan Gelber’s AG campaign while U.S. Rep. Ron Klein of Boca Raton is backing Dave Aronberg.
Statements after the jump.
MIAMI — Air Force One just landed here as President Obama prepares to attend a fund-raiser in Miami Beach for Democratic Senate and House candidates.
Obama stepped off the plane about 5:30 p.m. with Sen. Bill Nelson and greeted a passel of Democratic elected officials on the tarmac at Miami International Airport: Chief Financial Officer and gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink; U.S. Rep. and Democratic Senate frontrunner Kendrick Meek of Miami; U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston; Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and state Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach.
Obama is to attend a fund-raiser at the Fountainebleu Hotel, then go to a solar energy plant in DeSoto County on Tuesday.
In addition to the display of endorsement firepower, Deutch’s campaign said it has already raised more than $200,000 in its first 10 days. And Deutch has about a dozen fund-raisers scheduled for the next six weeks, including one in Washington hosted by his congressional endorsers and events in New York and Cleveland.
Wexler is resigning in January to head the nonprofit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation. A special election is expected in early 2010.
A Republican hoping to unseat U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz literally set his sights on the Broward County Democrat at a shooting range, according to press reports.
Robert Lowry was one of the Southeast Broward Republican Club who went on a shooting spree at a gun range and fired assault rifles at targets including a man in a headdress holding a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
Lowry’s target was a silhouette of a human figure with the initials “DWS” next to the head.
The target practice drew criticism from state Sen. Ted Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat, who issued a statement condemning the event.
“In a nation that has a tragic history of violence against our leaders it is unconscionable that Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz’s opponent would fire an assault rifle at a silhouette bearing her name,” Deutch said.
“Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz is a dedicated public servant who has earned the respect of her constituents. She deserves far more than a halfhearted apology. The Republican Party of Florida should condemn this candidate in the strongest terms. Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of outrageous vitriol in our political discourse and it needs to stop,” he concluded.
U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler of Delray Beach, Alcee Hastings of Miramar, Kathy Castor of Tampa and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Pembroke Pines are among 92 House Democrats who have co-sponsored the “Respect for Marriage Act,” a bill introduced Tuesday to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. That 1996 law bars some benefits from same-sex couples.
From the South-Florida Blade:
Absent from the sponsorship of the bill is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), an openly-gay and usually vocal proponent of GLBT rights. Both Pelosi and Frank believe the bill has little chance of passage, and prefer to implement legislation that would take gradual steps to repeal DOMA.
“Given that there is zero chance of this bill becoming law in the near future, it is a mistake to explicitly introduce this crossing state lines issue,” Frank said. “The controversy now will not be about whether we should have the federal government treat people fairly in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, etc., but whether we should export [marriage recognition] to Ohio and Florida.”
Craft
In a Republican-leaning congressional district that favored John McCain over Barack Obama last year, the National Republican Congressional Committee is using the event to paint Craft as an out-of-touch liberal.
U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings and Debbie Wasserman Schultz have lost no time in endorsing their colleague, Rep. Robert Wexler.
Hastings and Wasserman Schultz sent out the following news release today:
“Don’t get messed up in anybody else’s campaign within the congressional area.”
That’s the advice former Rep. Sam Gibbons, a Democrat from Tampa, gave the current members of the Florida congressional delegation at their organizational meeting today.
“If you want to keep the peace, you’ve got to make peace,” Gibbons told the members.
“Let ‘em eat doughnuts.”
That’s what Debbie Wasserman Schultz says is Clay Shaw’s message to Medicare beneficiaries who fall into the prescription drug law gap called “the doughnut hole” because it doesn’t provide coverage to those who drugs cost more than $2,250.
Wasserman Schultz joined Robert Wexler at a news conference attacking Shaw’s op-ed piece in Sunday’s Palm Beach Post, which criticized Wexler’s op-ed piece last month.
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