Legislator Scorecards: Beaches Lawmakers Fall Short
The Digital Democracy Project, a nonpartisan civic engagement effort that uses a clever online app to allow voters to weigh in
on bills before the state legislature, recently released its second end-of-session scorecard for each representative and senator. The scorecard compares the votes of lawmakers to the positions taken by participating constituents on key bills. So how did our folks do? Beaches legislators, Rep. Kiyan Michael and Senator Clay Yarborough earned accountability scores of 58% and 55%, respectively with Yarborough receiving the lowest score of any state lawmaker. The two diverged from participating voters on a variety of issues from school vouchers and gun regulations to child labor and property insurance relief. Check out their scorecards and votes on specific bills here. Michael is seeking re-election for a second term in 2024 and faces challenger Rachel Grage.
The project recently expanded its focus to include federal legislation. Voters who sign up for the app can give thumbs up or thumbs down to bills before Congress, with real-time feedback provided to federal lawmakers. The project plans to release scorecards on U.S. Representatives and Senators as well.
Mark your calendar for June 5th for a virtual wrap-up of the 2024 state legislative session featuring lobbyist and activist Pamela Burch Fort. Registration details coming soon!
FL DEMS Field Candidates for
ALL Congressional Seats on 2024 Ballot
The FL DEMS successfully recruited candidates to run in all of the 28 Congressional Districts on the ballot in 2024, including District 5 which covers the Beaches. Qualifying for state and federal offices closed last Friday. Navy veteran Jay McGovern will challenge incumbent John Rutherford in his re-election bid in November. Rutherford will also face Mara Macie in the August GOP primary, and write-in candidate Gary Koniz in the November general election. McGovern previously ran for a state house seat in 2020. Find a list of all state and federal candidates on the Florida ballot here.
Registering New Voters at Fletcher!
We helped register 232 new voters at Fletcher High School last week! Thanks to the Duval Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland and his community outreach staff, and Kelly Salls and the American Government/Civic Department for organizing the event. Our challenge now is to educate young voters about the candidates and where they stand on the issues they care about!
Happening This Week
Vice-President Kamala Harris will visit Jacksonville on Wednesday, May 1 to mark the start of Florida's six-week abortion ban. The Duval DEMs, Mayor's office and Biden-Harris campaign are distributing invites to the event.
April Carney, who represents District 2 & the Beaches on the Duval County School Board, will attend a town hall on Tuesday, April 30th at 6:15 p.m. at San Pablo Elementary School. On the agenda: proposed consolidation of Beaches schools, including the closure of high-performing schools like Atlantic Beach Elementary.
State District 16 candidate Rachel Grage will turn in her final batch of petitions to the Supervisor of Elections office on east Monroe Street today (Monday, April 29th) at 4 p.m. Thanks to everyone who signed, canvassed, and helped collect signatures to put her on the ballot!
Join us for the virtual kick-off of Joyful Resistance: Together, We Win! 2024 Get-Out-The-Vote Summit featuring political commentator and author Steve Phillips! Invited leaders of community organizations and advocacy groups will meet on May 8th in Jacksonville to plan strategies and strengthen their collaboration in getting out the vote for the 2024 election. The summit is hosted by BAM, Indivisible Mandarin and Indivisible Jax Riverside in partnership with the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, Florida for All and Floridians for Democracy. The event is supported by a GROW grant from national Indivisible. RSVP for the virtual opening session here.