Broward County Unpacks its Baggage in the 2018 Midterms
PLANTATION, Fla. — The 2018 midterm elections sparked strong responses across Broward County regarding this year’s voter turnout, media coverage of the polls — and of course, a controversial recount that gained nationwide attention.
Voters also expressed mixed opinions about Florida’s practice of amending the constitution, and why passing laws might be a better idea going forward.
Gary Juda, an attorney from Ft. Lauderdale, said that while some results were disappointing, he thought the election turned out well for the Democrats as a whole.
“I think in the big picture, it was very good for the Democrats, in the sense that the checks and balances of the country need someone, or some avenue, where everything’s not in one person’s power,” Juda said.
“There were some surprises, but for the most part, I think it was ultimately good for the country to get us back in balance. Then, if the president decides that he’s going to do something above and beyond the law, Congress can now check him the way it should.”
Michael McCahill, a property insurance lawyer, noted that Americans should not be surprised when the election results are different from the polling predictions. Many Republican voters might be hesitant to admit their views in this political climate.
“I wasn’t really surprised. I don’t think Republicans, or people who would vote for the Republican party in this political climate — where you get s — t for supporting a racist or a Nazi — are going to report to people who they vote for,” McCahill said.
“If you’re walking out of a polling place, and you don’t want to be shouted at, you’re just not going to talk to anybody about it,” he added. “I think older people, generally speaking, vote Republican, and I think older people, generally speaking, follow the rule of don’t talk about religion and politics and things of that nature and definitely aren’t answering questions to pollsters.”
Others felt the outcome was unexpected, especially from what the pre-election media coverage told them.
“I was actually kind of surprised that DeSantis won,” said Daniel Murphy, a swim coach at Nova Southeastern University. “It was kind of the same with the last presidential election, where the media led me to believe that there was no possible way that the Democrat was going to lose, but the Republican ended up winning.”
Adam Sacasa, a former Sun-Sentinel reporter and photographer, agreed that he expected the state to turn bluer than it did.
“The polls that I saw had [Gillum] four or five points ahead of Desantis. I really thought that he was going to win,” Sacasa said. “I thought the rest of Florida was probably going to be more red, but I thought Miami-Dade and Broward were going to come out and support him, but it turns out there was only 50-something percent of people who voted. I was disappointed in that. Plus, I was disappointed with what happened in Parkland with the shooting. I thought it would’ve motivated people to come out to the polls — at least younger people. That didn’t happen either, so that was also disappointing.”
Of course, voter turnout among voters age 18–29 was high for a midterm, and it did make an overall impact. In a wide-ranging analysis in FiveThirtyEight, pollster/journalist Nate Silver writes that this demographic chose Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives by 35 points, a record margin for the youth vote in the exit-poll era.
As attorneys, both Juda and McCahill brought up an interesting point about amending Florida’s constitution. Should Florida residents be voting to amend the constitution? Why not just make regular laws? For example, instead of passing Amendment 13, which banned greyhound dog racing, members of the Florida legislature could have passed a good, old-fashioned bill and made it into law.
“I think the better way of [passing Amendment 13] would have been through enacting a law,” quips Juda. “I think that one of our problems is that we’re putting things on the constitution like ‘no dog racing.’
“I don’t believe in dog racing, but why is that something that becomes a constitutional amendment as opposed to simply a law? The constitution is supposed to have some limits. So whenever anybody gets an idea and can get enough signatures, they get it on the ballot.”
Constantly amending the constitution may be not only unnecessary, but also a waste of resources.
“The constitutional amendment for the victims of crimes [was] already in the law of the state, so why did we need to make a constitutional amendment when something is already a law?” posed Juda. “Because a billionaire had the money to fund it all over the country, is the truth. Why do we do that? That’s kind of a waste of effort, money, and I believe in all those things, but it’s already the law. Why does it have to be in the constitution?”
McCahill held the same view on the subject. He joked, “I would just like to put on the ballot that Mike McCahill gets free beer for life in the state of Florida if you have a liquor license. I think I could get 60 percent of the state to vote yes on that. I [could] get enough signatures and put it in there. It’s a little too easy to put those things in.”
Some had a gloomy perspective on what the 2020 race will hold.
“I want to be hopeful,” said Sacasa, “but I feel like I’ve been hopeful for a while and it keeps going the other way. It seems like all the polls keep getting harder and harder to trust. They seem wrong every time.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump won in 2020. I’ll be disappointed, but I know there’s people who, no matter what he does, are always gonna support him. Which is why I’m not going to hold my breath. I expect it, so if it does happen, I’ll expect it, but if it doesn’t, I’ll be thrilled.”
Murphy also believed that Trump winning in 2020 was likely.
“As long as Trump runs or someone like him, he’s going to get the older white vote, or all the people who actually go out to vote,” Murphy said.
Juda is curious to see what’s next.
“We should have some interesting times ahead. I am not a Donald Trump supporter, so hopefully we have somebody who can run against him,” Juda said. “We were on one end with Obama, we snapped all the way back to the other end with Trump. Somehow we have to get back to the middle again.”
