Forty-one. That’s a big number in terms of how many candidates lost out of a field of fifty-five. And that’s exactly what happened to those candidates who supported the #NowOrNeverglades Declaration.
Before the election, the Everglades Foundation launched an ill-fated, 12-day, 20-city bus tour that snaked its way across the state to promote it’s “NowOrNeverGlades” Declaration, inviting citizens and candidates to sign a petition to “buy the land” south of Lake Okeechobee. As previously reported here, here, here, and here, the declaration has less to do with “environmental preservation” and everything to do with a broader effort funded by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones in his never-ending quest to cleanse his profit-seeking soul by sucking up to environmentalists in the name of philanthropy. Nevermind the fact that his plan seeks to force the state and federal government to buy up and then flood some of the most fertile farmland in America, putting tens of thousands of people out of work.
In the Donald Trump wave that crashed across Florida, voters rejected Jones’ “government knows best” approach by defeating 41 of the 55 candidates that supported this anti-farming petition.
Today, incoming Senate President Joe Negron, who supports Jones’ idea, tried to put a happy face on the loss by claiming he has a “strong foundation of support” from 25 Republicans out of the Senate’s 40 members. It’s hard to see how that could be true, though, given the fact that only four incoming Senators who signed the NowOrNeverglades pledge actually won their respective races, one of them being Negron himself.
Of those incoming senators, only one of them, Jose Javier Rodriguez, actually defeated an opponent (Miguel Diaz de la Portilla) who didn’t sign the pledge. The three others who signed and won were running against opponents who also signed, meaning it couldn’t have been a deciding factor in the race. Contrast that with the outcomes in Senate Districts 17, 18 and 23, where the candidate(s) who signed the pledge lost. In fact, in District 18, both a Democrat and a No Party Affiliation candidate signed the pledge and lost to a Republican who didn’t sign.
The bloodbath was even worse in the Florida House, which saw a devastating 20 out of 22 candidates who signed the declaration go down in defeat. That’s a full 91 percent failure rate for the Everglades Foundation in the Florida House, and perhaps the biggest reason why “Buy the Land” is dead on arrival next spring, regardless of Senator Negron’s effort to breathe life into it.
Still, you’ve got to hand it to the TC Palm for trying to do their part. Near the bottom of the story (linked above), the paper included a bold headline that reads: “GROWING MOMENTUM.” Underneath, they say the Everglades Trust endorsed 14 candidates, and seven of them actually won. Not only can the TC Palm not be bothered to do the math on just how poorly the effort actually fared, the paper can’t even find all seven names that supposedly won their races. They only list five. Here’s a screen grab:
Note the quote by Kimberly Mitchell, who said the election was all about the Everglades and clean, plentiful water. If that’s true, then losing 75 percent of their preferred candidates sends a pretty clear message that “buy the land” isn’t really a high priority for voters.
Here is the complete list of candidates who signed the #NowOrNeverGlades Declaration and the result (winners are in bold):
| Candidate Name | Party | Running For | Election Results |
| Tim Langer | DEM | Citrus County Commissioner District 3 | Lost |
| Ivette Gonzalez Petkovich | DEM | Florida House District 103 | Lost |
| Carlos A. Puentes Sr. | DEM | Florida House District 110 | Lost |
| Rosa Maria “Rosy” Palomino | REP | Florida House District 112 | Lost |
| Jeffrey Doc Solomon | DEM | Florida House District 115 | Lost |
| Dan Horton | DEM | Florida House District 120 | Lost |
| Joe Snodgrass | DEM | Florida House District 19 | Lost |
| Ray Guillory | DEM | Florida House District 2 | Lost |
| Adam Morley | DEM | Florida House District 24 | Lost |
| Noel Cheryl Bickford | DEM | Florida House District 25 | Lost |
| Bob Doyel | DEM | Florida House District 41 | Lost |
| Benny Valentin | DEM | Florida House District 42 | Lost |
| Carlos Guillermo Smith | DEM | Florida House District 49 | Won |
| Sean Ashby | DEM | Florida House District 50 | Lost |
| David Anthony Kearns | DEM | Florida House District 53 | Lost |
| Bernard “Bernie” Fensterwald | DEM | Florida House District 65 | Lost |
| David Vogel | DEM | Florida House District 67 | Lost |
| Charles Messina | NPA | Florida House District 76 | Lost |
| John Scott | DEM | Florida House District 79 | Lost |
| Mary Westcott Higgins | DEM | Florida House District 82 | Lost |
| Crystal Lucas | DEM | Florida House District 83 | Lost |
| Gayle Harrell | REP | Florida House District 83 | Won |
| Robert Simeone | DEM | Florida House District 85 | Lost |
| Laurel Bennett | REP | Florida House District 86 | Lost |
| Lori Berman | DEM | Florida House District 90 | Won |
| Ken Keechl | DEM | Florida House District 93 | Lost |
| Linda Stewart | DEM | Florida Senate District 13 | Won |
| Dean Asher | REP | Florida Senate District 13 | Lost |
| Amy Tidd | DEM | Florida Senate District 17 | Lost |
| Bob Buesing | DEM | Florida Senate District 18 | Lost |
| Joe Redner | NPA | Florida Senate District 18 | Lost |
| Frank Alcock III | DEM | Florida Senate District 23 | Lost |
| Joe Negron | REP | Florida Senate District 25 | Won |
| Bruno Moore | DEM | Florida Senate District 25 | Lost |
| Jose Javier Rodriguez | DEM | Florida Senate District 37 | Won |
| Debbie Mucarsel-Powell | DEM | Florida Senate District 39 | Lost |
| Anitere Flores | REP | Florida Senate District 39 | Won |
| David Purdo | REP | Islamorada Village Council Seat 2 | Lost |
| Cheryl Meads | REP | Islamorada Village Council Seat 2 | Won |
| Mike Forster | NPA | Islamorada Village Council Seat 5 | Won |
| Jill Zima-Borski | DEM | Islamorada Village Council Seat 5 | Lost |
| Robert Pryor | INT | Martin County Sheriff | Lost |
| Bill Snyder | REP | Martin County Sheriff | Won |
| Tony Bennett | DEM | Palm Beach County Commission District 1 | Lost |
| Dave Kerner | DEM | Palm Beach County Commission District 3 | Won |
| Taniel Shant | REP | Palm Beach County Commission District 5 | Lost |
| Ed Young | NPA | Seminole County Soil & Water Conservation District Group 4 | Won |
| April Freeman | DEM | U.S. House District 17 | Lost |
| Brian Mast | REP | U.S. House District 18 | Won |
| Alina Valdes | DEM | U.S. House District 25 | Lost |
| Joe Garcia | DEM | U.S. House District 26 | Lost |
| Carlos Curbelo | REP | U.S. House District 26 | Won |
| Scott Fuhrman | DEM | U.S. House District 27 | Lost |
| Corry Westbrook | DEM | U.S. House District 8 | Lost |
| Patrick Murphy | DEM | U.S. Senate | Lost |