Utterly crushing defeat in Florida.
@stickstones, has it exactly right. The campaign just sat here while the opposition lied, lied, lied. There was no fighting back from our side. Yes On 2 allowed the opposition to say all these lies, with little retailiation.
We needed a smashmouth response, and came up with nothing. We should of been more engaging in the community(phone calls are great, but we needed to get out and talk to the voters in person more); highlighted the donations from the out-of-town anti-christ, Sheldon Adelson screwing with OUR local politics; fought back more against the Florida Sheriffs Association; Used all the studies out there and UCR stats to REFUTE the oppositions claims about how horrible things are in states where mmj is legal or recreational.
Nothing, for a few weeks, seemed to be our response to their attack. For whatever reason, our campaign leaders seemed content to think the voters would see through the oppositions lies. Not on a topic like mmj. Every blow they struck we needed to counter-strike, we didn't, we lost.
58% to me, just shows how the campaign lost 30% support from our earlier polls(some were even higher).
90%, 87%, 82%, 88%, were just some of our numbers late summer.
FWIW, I put my heart, soul, blood, tears, a lot of time and some money into this campaign, along with some very great volunteers, who were equally or more passionate than I. Our county(Pinellas), that we were "responsible" for, voted 233,000+ "Yes" to only 116,000 "No" votes. THAT is why I felt the campaign was still going to be able to "right" the ship. The feedback we were getting was so positive, but it did not represent enough of Florida.
I am truly so sorry if I gave any of you false hope. My optimism was solely based on what I was seeing and the feedback we were getting from the people. When the polls started showing less than desireable trends, I truly thought it was just the media trying to disuade folks from coming out to vote, I didn't realize that my county could be so positive, yet some others, quite the very opposite.
I feel the weight of the patients' on my shoulders now so more than at any time during our campaign. I am truly sorry for all of you that we didn't get it done and will carry this burden for some time to come.
If anybody here is looking for a nice 4-bdrm home in Florida, I think I can help you out.
Fuck You! Jeb Bush, Oh wrong thread!!!! That damn Bush family, fucking everything up.
