Democrat: Obama endorses Andrew Gillum for Florida governor

President Barack Obama release his “second wave” of endorsements early Monday afternoon.
“Today, I’m proud to endorse even more Democratic candidates who aren’t just running against something, but for something—to expand opportunity for all of us and to restore dignity, honor, and compassion to public service,” tweeted the president, who gave his first wave of nods on Aug. 1, before the primary. “They deserve your vote:”
In Florida, where absentee ballots go out next week, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell got a shout out in her congressional race against Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo. So did State Senate incumbent Annette Taddeo. and State Reps. Javier Fernandez and Nick Duran. He also gave Senate candidate David Perez, a firefighter who wants to replace the termed out Rene Garcia, a nod.
But there was a notable omission in the list: Donna Shalala.
Shalala, the former UM president who won the Democratic nomination in August, was former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton and president of the Clinton Foundation until 2017. Her supporters (read: puppeteers) portray her as bluer than anyone.
Read related: UM’s Donna Shalala is not going to fool anyone in CD 27
But Obama knows what Ladra and the rest of us voters in District 27 know: Shalala is a Republican at heart.
She was bad on labor, going against unionized sanitation workers who striked at UM because the working conditions were so awful. She was bad on the environment, letting UM sell endangered pine rock lands to a developer who wants to build a Walmart. And just how much did tuition increase during her tenure at UM? Bad on education.
So why is anybody surprised that Obama didn’t endorse her? Ladra is not among them. I am far more surprised she won the primary in the first place.
Party leaders are already doing damage control, especially since Republican nominee Maria Elvira Salazar has painted herself as a moderate and gained some steam heading into the general (more on that later). A Herald reporter tweeted that someone with the DCCC said there was “still room for more Obama endorsements.”
So there’s going to be a third wave? When? After ABs go out? Like, you know, “Ooops, I forgot. But I like these people too! My bad.”
Really? Really?
Did I mention that Nick Duran was on Obama’s yes list? So it’s not like he just overlooked anybody.
Obama didn’t just overlook Beto O’Rourke, who is running against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in a much more high profile race than this, or New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo or New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, who were also curiously missing from the list.
And he didn’t just overlook Donna Shalala. He intentionally excluded her. Que pena!

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Even though Florida Sen. Annette Taddeo has raised more than twice as much campaign fodder for her re-election as her challenger, Republican superwoman Marili Cancio has more cash in hand, according to the latest campaign reports.
That’s because Taddeo has outspent Cancio, who has only been campaigning since June, by almost ten times.
Cancio has reportedly raised $319,457 between her campaign account and her PAC, Friends of Marili Cancio, according to latest campaign reports filed that tallied through Sept. 14 and Sept. 21, respectively. That’s less than half of the to the $760,408 raised by the sitting senator between her campaign account and her PAC, Fight Back Florida, only counting the funds since she won the seat in a special election in September, 2017.
But Taddeo has spent close to $530,000 since October 2017 and Cancio has only spent about $60K. That means Cancio has a small edge in cash on hand, by the tune of about $20K. Not enough to really make a difference. And she has struggled in the most recent reports, so maybe the donations were early and have been spent.
Read related: GOP’s Marili Cancio vs Dem Sen. Annette Taddeo in ‘year of the woman’
Of course, money is not everything. Taddeo won her seat in last year’s special election against former State Rep. Jose Felix “Pepi” Diaz, who had more than three times as much campaign funding as she did.
And also, this doesn’t count outside party money. Like the kind that paid for mailers that arrived in the district last week, courtesy the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (pro Cancio) and the Florida Democrats Legislative Campaign Committee (anti Cancio). A source involved in the race told Ladra that Taddeo had sent two positive pieces earlier, but this negative attack on Cancio’s support of the Marshall Program that puts guns in schools is the first received by Ladra.
“She’s worried. My campaign is too clean,” Cancio told Ladra in a text message over the weekend.
“You are not going to get mail from me because yo are now a registered D,” she added, with a smiley face emoji. “Focused on NPAs — can’t afford the entire universe.”
It’s true that in her own mail piece, she is appealing to NPAs and trying to come off as moderate. “I am a state senate candidate because I want to bring new ideas and perspectives to the challenges we face in our community, overcoming partisan politics,” the piece from the Senate Campaign Committee says, but in Spanish.
It landed last week in Ladra’s home, but addressed to both of Ladra’s parents, “Hispanics over 60,” an often sought voting bloc. One is Republican but one is registered Democrat, so Cancio’s universe is bigger than she says.
Read related: Jose Felix Diaz outspends Annette Taddeo 3 to 1 plus — but loses anyway
The intro/bio piece, which has waaaaay too much copy on it, has the word “Republican” only in one place — the tiny type disclaimer. It focuses on her community work — stints on the board of Directors at Miami Dade College (it doesn’t say she was appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Scott), the Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board, the Miami-Dade County Hispanic Affairs Board, the Florida Association of Universities and as pro bono attorney for La Liga Contra El Cancer.
“She has always put the interests of our community above partisan politics,” it says.
But who is Marili kidding? This is the Republican Superwoman, a nickname Ladra gave her because of her hard work for the party. She was proud of it before she needed NPA voters to help her win this seat. She constantly defended Trump on Twitter, which is the reason why she has deactivated her old account for a new campaign one — to hide all that partisan Trumpism.
But make no mistake about it, Marili Cancio is as puro GOP as they get. Cancio, who was recruited by the Republican Party, has been involved in local GOP causes, the Women’s Federated Republican club and has been a surrogate for national and state candidates on Spanish TV and radio for years, often providing the Republican voice on This Week in South Florida, where she goes out of her way to defend and promote the GOP agenda.
Of course, the people who vote in District 40 may not know that. Because they don’t know Cancio at all and they are getting very toned down version of her. It’s time Taddeo use some of her funds to let people know who Cancio really is.

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