Naples Standard

Annette Taddeo, Nikki Fried, Charlie Crist take aim at Republicans, not each other.

Seminole County Democrats got their first chance to hear the three leading Democratic gubernatorial candidates define themselves and the upcoming election Saturday night in terms of who they intend to overcome.

“I’m running for Governor to defeat Ron DeSantis,” declared Rep. Charlie Crist at the Seminole Democratic Party‘s big annual gala.

“It has been a long, long two and a half decades. We aren’t just fighting Ron DeSantis. We are fighting the culmination of four Republican Governors in a row, 14 Republican Speakers of the House, 13 Senate Presidents: complete one-party control of every one of the senior offices in our state,” insisted Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.

“I’m running for Governor to stop the horrible damage of the Tallahassee red tide,” said Sen. Annette Taddeo.

The trio spoke to more than 300 Democrats at the sold-out SemDems “Blue Rendezvous ’22” dinner in Lake Mary. Gov. Ron DeSantis certainly was their target. Except for Fried’s unenunciated slap at Crist — who was the third of those four Republican governors before he changed parties after 2010 — and Taddeo’s effort to define herself as unique in the trio, they mostly aimed away from each other.

Crist, who led off in the alphabetically ordered program, pressed on issues Democrats have been trying to raise and Republicans have largely tried to avoid, notably Florida’s affordable housing crisis, and the rising costs of energy which he blamed on a “lapdog” Public Service Commission.

“it’s about as corrupt as it could be. And it’s not right. You deserve better. Florida deserves better. Annette, Nikki, and I, we all deserve better,” he said.

But Crist mostly kept his focus on DeSantis.

“Florida has been traumatized by this Governor, And it’s for one reason. He’s more concerned about appealing to one audience, and one audience only. And that is the hard-right Republican, red-meat, Republican primary voter, than he is to his fellow Floridians,” Crist charged. ‘”My friends, he cares more about Iowa Republican voter than he cares about Florida people.”

Fried took the harshest shot of the three at DeSantis.

“Over the last four years we have been the only ones standing in his way of becoming a full-blown dictator,” said the lone Democratic member of the Florida Cabinet.

But she focused much of her speech on the change she represents as a Democrat and a woman running for Governor. She framed 2022 as a moment in history, about to be made.

“That is why we are here in this room, tonight,” Fried said. “We can’t afford to lose this race. We can’t go backwards, which is what we have been doing every single day. This is it. This is our last chance to fight,” she said.

“We are going to make history by electing the first female Governor of our state,” Fried concluded.

Taddeo, speaking third, wouldn’t have disagreed with that line. She portrayed herself as someone whose fighting spirit has repeatedly helped her overcome adversity and long odds.

“We know what doesn’t work when it comes to winning the Governor’s mansion. Here’s what will. At a time when parental rights are the new attack, how about nominating the only parent in the primary, a mom with a daughter in public schools, a businesswoman who has proven she can win in a Trump seat, and reverse the gains that Republican have made with Hispanics?” she offered. “So here I am. I know the road is long, and the mountain is high, but I have beaten the odds time and time again.”

Taddeo focused on the broader Republican control of Florida’s government. She said it was suppressing voters’ rights and killing Democracy.

“What makes this country great, really great, is the strength of our diversity and I believe when you know your cause is just, you get in there and fight for what you know is right,” Taddeo said. “And when I ran for state Senate in that Special Election in 2017, party leaders told me to stand aside, but I won.”

Original source can be found here.