Florida Majority Vote

We hope you read the website information and choose to honor the voting rights of the Florida Democrats by signing the petition and contacting the DNC (links on left).

To get a law passed in the state of Florida, a majority vote is required in both the House and the Senate.  The legislative members of Florida, at the time this bill passed was 41 Democrats in the House and 71 Republicans; and 14 Democrats in the Senate and 26 Republicans.  This means, if there is a vote in the House and every Democrat shows up, they will still be short 31 votes to have a majority.  And, in the Senate they would have a deficit of 13 votes.

Keep in mind that even if they were able to get that 'majority' vote, the Governor of Florida, who is also a Republican, could veto the bill.  If the Governor chooses to veto, it would take a two thirds majority vote in both the Senate and the House to overide that decision.  Sadly, it has been this way in Florida for many years.  I am sure you can see that exactly the opposite would be true of the Republicans. With this majority, any law that the Republicans choose to pass is pretty much a 'shoo in'. 

Considering all of this, how could the minority Democrats in the State of Florida going to stop the passage of HB537?  They knew that once it was written, it was a 'done deal'. 

You might ask, "What about the 5 Democrats who co-sponsored the bill and the large amount of Democrats who voted for the final bill. If you have ever tried to get legislation passed in Florida, as a Democrat, you would understand this immediately. Two of the 5 co-sponsors are Junior Representatives (first year members). They are trying to learn how to negotiate through a political system that has an overwhelming opposing majority vote. The other three I have dealt with in the past. They, like many of the other long standing Florida Democratic members, have learned how to pick battles wisely, because there are very few battles that they will be allowed to win.  Issues that are much more moderate in nature have a much better chance of getting support.

It was obvious, from the beginning, that Florida Republicans believed that the passage of HB537 was 'non-negotiable'.  The council votes, committee votes, and expansive amendments added make that very clear.  So, my question is why is Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee drastically (100% sanction) penalizing the legislative Democrats, and constituents, of Florida for something that they had absolutely no control over!  And, why would we, as voters, let this happen?