Korge move shakes up Miami-Dade Senate races

By DARA KAM
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, June 22, 2016 .......... In a move that defuses one of the state's most-watched legislative contests, Democrat Andrew Korge on Wednesday dropped out of a high-profile battle against incumbent Republican Sen. Anitere Flores and instead waded into a Democratic primary for a nearby Miami-Dade County Senate seat.

Korge's switch to the Senate District 40 race could have a ripple effect on other Senate battles in an election year where Democrats hope to make gains, thanks to a newly drawn electoral map that is the result of the voter-approved "Fair Districts" constitutional amendments that bar lawmakers from crafting districts to favor incumbents or political parties.

Korge, whose father Chris is a longtime Hillary Clinton supporter and major Democratic fundraiser, said he made the switch from running against Flores in neighboring District 39 because he thought he had a better chance of winning election to the Senate. He will compete in what is now a three-way primary contest with incumbent Sen. Dwight Bullard and Ana Rivas Logan, who once served in the state House as a Republican.

"It has long been a dream of mine to serve my community as a member of the Florida Senate to create a better future for our children, to improve public schools and protect college students, and create high-wage jobs for hard-working middle class families. District 40, where I grew up and spent half of my life, offers the best opportunity to do that," Korge said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon.

Korge said he filed his qualifying papers to run for the seat on Wednesday, two days before Friday's noon deadline.

"He can make up any excuse that he wants to as to why he left. I view it as him being scared of what he viewed as real competition, Sen. Flores," Bullard, D-Miami, said.

Incoming Senate President Joe Negron, a Stuart Republican who will take over as head of the chamber after the November elections, has said that protecting Flores is his top priority in the 2016 elections. Some experts had estimated that Flores' Senate District 39 race could be one of the state's most expensive legislative competitions, with a price tag of up to $7 million. With Korge out of the race, her only current opponent is no-party candidate Sheila Lucas George.

Until Wednesday, Korge had campaigned aggressively against Flores, a Miami Republican first elected to the Legislature in 2004.

But now, Korge --- who has never been elected before --- is in a competition with Bullard and Logan in a Democratic-leaning seat that has a Hispanic voting age population of nearly 75 percent. The winner of the primary will face Republican state Rep. Frank Artiles, who has dwarfed Bullard in fundraising, in the November election.

"I don't know what's going to happen in that primary. I really don't. If it's a divisive and destructive primary, it's not going to be positive for the overall goal. If it's a primary where we bring out the issues that our party believes in and bring those to the forefront, it could help us in the general, whoever the candidate is. If it's destructive and negative, that's never helpful," incoming Senate Minority Leader Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

Braynon said he told Korge "that there was no easy path anywhere" and advised him to remain in the District 39 race, where "there's a narrow path to victory."

"As the minority leader in Senate Victory (a campaign effort), we always encourage people to run in a seat against a Republican versus jumping into a Democratic primary," Braynon said.

Korge's decision to abandon the race against Flores could allow Republicans to divert resources from that contest to campaigns in other parts of the state targeted by Senate Democrats, who view the new court-approved map as an opportunity to whittle away at the 26-14 majority held by Republicans in the upper chamber.

In one of the key battleground Senate races, Gainesville Democrat Rod Smith, a former senator and former state Democratic Party chairman, and state Rep. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, both qualified to run in redrawn Senate District 8, which includes Alachua, Putnam and part of Marion counties.

In another marquee race, Democratic state Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez qualified to run against incumbent state Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a Miami Republican whose newly drawn district now gives Democrats an edge.

Bullard accused Korge --- who does not live in District 39 or District 40 --- of having "no real ties to any community, and that's why he's been so nomadic about where he decides to run his race."

"His attitude is win at all costs. You can't claim to be a Democrat and take that position," Bullard said.