ME:
Hi, everyone, welcome to The Florida Progressives Dot Com Podcast, Episode Three, for May 13th, 2014. I'm Mike Eidson.
This show delivers news and updates via interviews with activists around the state on the issues that you, the people of Florida, care about. This episode is about health care, getting out the vote, and many more topics.
As usual, listeners, stick around for the end of the show to hear the list of actions, groups, and resources discussed on the show that can help you effect positive change.
Kofi Hunt is a progressive activist/organizer based out of Pinellas County who has been working through the Awake the State movement for about three and a half years. He has worked many jobs in the area, including Executive Director of Action Florida, a six week contract as a Statewide Gun Violence Issue Organizer for OFA - Florida. He has been a blogger for Matter of Cause. He has worked for The Florida Consumer Action Network.
Some of the issues he has been working on are immigration reform, the health care system, education, and poverty.
He was also a 2013 Netroots Scholar at the annual event Netroots Nation. That’s located in San Jose, California. And he is currently the Project Coordinator for Awake Pinellas and a Community Organizer with the Florida branch of the Service Employee International Union.
Kofi Hunt, thanks for joining me today.
KH:
(laughs) You’re welcome. It sounds like a lot when you lay it out like that.
ME:
(laughs) Speaking of a lot, I’ve been looking at what you’ve been -- you’ve been very busy lately. I noticed a headline from April 2nd, the Sunshine State Clean Energy Coalition, about a rally that you guys had at Duke Energy Headquarters. Can you tell me a little bit about that rally?
KH:
Yeah. Well, the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign basically started a coalition called the Sunshine State Clean Energy Coalition, to call on Duke Energy to close their Crystal River coal-fire plants by 2016 and start moving beyond coal towards solar and energy efficiency.
And Awake Pinellas, the main group I work with, joined the coalition and helped collect petitions and helped mobilize people to the rallies. Basically, I was asked to be a speaker at the rally before last. I talked about civic engagement and the importance of it, not just for rallies, but to consistently stay involved. So yeah, that was pretty cool.
ME:
That’s great. And then another headline I saw was from April 11th, and the headline read, “SEIU and Health Care Activists Target the Coverage Gap Voters in Republican Districts.” So that’s another event that you were involved in, where you were going into certain districts. Can you tell me a little about that event?
KH:
Y’know, when you do this kind of work, it’s most important to focus in a representative’s area; I mean, Will Weatherford represents areas out in Wesley Chapel in Pasco County. And I could get people in Pinellas to leverage him, but he wouldn’t really be very responsive, because he’d be like, “Well, they’re not my constituents.” Even though he’s Speaker of the House and technically represents all of the people of Florida, in my view, along with all the other representatives.
But we were specifically in Kathleen Peters’ district, to get her constituents to become aware that Medicaid Expansion, which is something a lot of people agree with, was not being talked about or discussed up in Tallahassee.
Over a million Floridians who qualify for the program and are currently without health care access… And so, we thought it was important to let her constituents know. So we knocked on a ton of doors in her district. We talked to a lot of people. And we brought some of those people out to her office for several rallies to call on her to take a stand.
The only real comment she made was that she thinks there are better ways to help people, and she listed some things about homelessness and domestic violence. Those are very important issues as well, but they’re not the same issue. You can work on issues like homelessness and domestic violence, while accepting the $51 billion that’s sitting at the border of Florida, waiting for someone to just let it in.
ME:
Right. So, she was trying to change the subject, basically.
KH:
Yeah, she was deflecting. That’s unfortunately what a lot of elected officials do when they don’t want to talk about something, and it’s one of the reasons activists continue to pressure them, because if we try to have a conversation, it’s only a one-sided conversation. But if we have a conversation with a hundred voices on our side, they have to have a human response.
ME:
Right. Medicaid Expansion is obviously very important to the state of Florida. Many other states have been accepting this. Like you said, it was utterly ignored by the Legislature this year.
So you’ve been doing several issue-based campaigns around St. Petersburg and that area. Is that fair to say? I’ve also read about how you did some support for candidates themselves. Do you have a preference? Do you like to go out there and talk about an issue more, or is it more like, whatever a situation calls for?
KH:
Well, yeah, that’s a very interesting point. As an activist/organizer, I’m really challenged with, how do I approach campaigns: do I advocate for issues for the campaigns to represent, or do I advocate for campaigns themselves...
ME:
Right.
KH:
For my career, I’ve mostly… When I’m working on a campaign, doing what the campaign wants, which is, advocating specifically for the candidate… But I do think, going forward, and I have started to dabble more in building a constituency and a universe around the issues rather than specifically the person, because I think, in the long run, that’s how you build a movement more. You coalesce people around the issue, because after the person is elected, you need that same constituency to drive the issue home in the legislature or whatever governing body the person is elected to.
ME:
All right. So tell me a little more about field work. Like, you could use one of the examples you just spoke of.
KH:
Field work is really exciting. It’s really where the rubber hits the road. It’s where you get to talk to people about things that are affecting them. And unfortunately, most people have no idea about the decisions being made on their behalf. They’re not ignorant or stupid, they’re just going about their daily lives, and frankly, our form of government doesn’t lend itself towards people being involved in an easy way. They have to, kind of, go out of their way and change the normal function of average American life to be aware of what’s going on.
The media doesn’t tend to talk about what goes on. That’s one reason it is so important to work with activists, both progressive and otherwise, to advocate for our interests, because a lot of times, the only way you’ll see a story in the papers is if a bunch of activists, y’know, either motivate a spokesperson who’s affected by an issue to go and talk to the media, or do some sort of action with protests outside of a representative’s office.
And they’ll come out and say, “Why are you here?” And we’ll say, “Because things are going on,” and they’ll be able to detail the issue.
I work in this capacity to really, you know, to really push issues and, really, craft stories, and I’ve started to find really innovative ways to do that. So, yeah, it’s really exciting, going forward.
ME:
Well, tell us one or two of the innovative ways, without revealing all your secrets. [laughs]
KH:
[laughs] It’s basically, like, y’know, it’s basically understanding the media. They’re not really some big, mysterious entity. They’re people, with their own ideas and thoughts. But they are mostly there to write what’s going on.
ME:
Uh-huh.
KH:
And they’ll write from their perspective, but as long as you represent your perspective very well, with facts -- not just with facts, though, but with real experiences -- it’s very difficult for them to distort that.
It’s basically incumbent upon activists to become media experts, to understand who are the people in their area that are writing stories. To see who leans one way or another, ideologically. The best people are the people who are just plain-old fair. And just find them and they write stories, and have a real communication with them. That’s basically what I figured out; I mean, a lot of activists, y’know, not to their detriment -- it’s just the institutional knowledge of Florida -- a lot of activists just go out and do a protest every single time they want to say something.
ME:
Right.
KH:
But a lot of times, that’s not really necessary. I mean, it’s great for a hundred cars to see a sign you are holding, saying “HEALTH CARE NOW,” but it’s a lot better for them to see an article in the paper that talks about a person who’s struggling because they spent all of their life savings paying for wrist surgery, and now they don’t know what they’re going to do when they’re 55 years old, and they’re self-employed.
ME:
Right.
KH:
That affects people a lot more. And if you set that story up right, the media themselves will contact the [State] Representative. And they’ll ask the Representative directly, on the record, I’m the largest paper in this area, and I want to know, why you aren’t voting for this issue?
On the first article, the Representative might deflect it. The second, they might be frustrated. But on the third, they’re going to have to answer. Because on the third, it starts to become what they’re associated with. They’re going to want to be a associated with it in either a positive way or a negative way, and once they’ve taken that stance, then activists have a position to, either, y’know, let up on it and remind them about it, or to pressure them more on it. And it’s about becoming more methodical in that way, not using a cannonball to kill a butterfly…
ME:
[laughs]
KH:
...But to be very tactical and strategic in how you approach it.
ME:
Okay. Well, like I said in the introduction, you’re a part of Awake Pinellas. The founder of Awake the State, Ray Seaman, was on the previous episode of this podcast. Can you tell us a little bit about what it’s like to be involved in one of the local Awake networks? What type of work is involved?
KH:
It’s really exciting. It’s exciting in the way that… Awake Pinellas meets every single week. Every Monday, we meet. That’s fairly uncommon for a lot of political groups. A lot of political groups, groups in general, meet once a month. A lot of the Awake groups meet, maybe… Biweekly is very intense for them. Awake Pinellas meets every single week, and it’s very exciting in the way that, sometimes, you forget how exciting and how powerful it is. And then someone comes to your table for the very first time and they experience one of your meetings that you go through every single week, and see what you do, and they’re blown away. And then you get to really appreciate what you’re doing again.
I mean, we’ve done a lot of work. The people at our table have learned a lot. And it’s really challenged me. I’m not the president of Awake Pinellas or anything like that, I’m just a member. But I’m a member that’s been there since the beginning, and I’m the most active member. And, sitting at the table, it’s really challenge me as a leader to help, with what I’ve learned, to bring the table up to where I am, because I have to admit: not to flatter myself, but I’m not very common. I can work on this stuff, and more stuff, to a very high degree, for a very long time, consistently, and not be deterred. And part of that is, probably, I’m single and I don’t have kids [laughs] and what not, so I don’t have as many responsibilities…
ME:
So you’re all in. [laughs]
KH:
Yeah, I’m all in. And so, it should be incumbent upon me to take what I’m learning and take what I’m gaining and bring it back to the table and help the people at the table grow with me, because the people I work with are some of the most dedicated people I’ve met in this state, and, I think, some of the most dedicated people in the world.
I can call them and say, there’s a five-a.m. protest, two cities away. And they’re like, where’s the location, what time [should we be there]? Y’know? And that, that’s not common. Unfortunately, it’s not. [laughs]
ME:
Yeah, and just speaking personally, some of the activists I’ve met throughout the state... It’s really surprising when you sit there and realize, “Wait, none of these people are getting paid.” Or, at least, a lot of them aren’t.
KH:
Yeah.
ME:
And the amount of time that they put, the number of hours per week, the passion that they bring, it’s really remarkable, like you said.
Okay. Final question would be about, y’know, I mentioned a little bit earlier, the [successful, progressive] St. Petersburg elections from last year. When you factor in things like that, and the progressive movement overall, throughout the whole state of Florida, what issues are really picking up traction right now? Which candidates are you excited about, and for what offices? And how do you see the movement, going forward, this year and next year?
KH:
That’s a really, really good question. Y’know, because there’s this constant debate in the movement. Between people that are more Democrat-leaning saying, y’know, “Oh, hey, we should be working on elections more,” and with people who are more leftist-leaning saying, “Hey, we should be working on issues more.”
ME:
Right.
KH:
And I think it’s somewhere in the middle. It depends on what’s happening within the agenda of the movement. I think the movement needs to start coming up with long-term strategies that aren’t based on election cycles. They’re based on what we want to achieve. And sometimes it will be a five-year strategy. And sometimes it will be ten-year strategies.
ME:
Mm-hmm.
KH:
And, from that, I think we will start to find our way. Because if it’s about one person or one issue, once that person is elected, the thought process after them has to restart.
ME:
Mm-hmm.
KH:
But if you did something like… For instance, when the United States they were going to go to the moon, when JFK set that challenge. The United States spent ten years digging deep into scientific research, invested a lot of research and development went into that, and in the process they got to the point where they did eventually go to the moon, after JFK’s death. But in that time, beyond going to the moon, they created a lot of sciences and technology that allowed them to go off into other areas and achieve other things. If we as a movement created a ten-year vision as to where we want to be, we would be able to create a lot of technologies within activism and organizing, through our experience and over time, that we we would be able to then go back and apply towards our work, going forward. And enrich the movement.
Specifically, the candidates: I’m encouraged by a candidate here in Pinellas County. Her name is Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan. She’s a University of South Florida, a St. Petersburg professor of Political Science. And I’m very interested in her campaign because she’s up against State Senator Jeff Brandes, who’s actually the only person in the state of Florida in 2013 who voted against Medicaid Expansion. And he’s my state senator. I think that it’s important that he be held to account for that in the election. Now, it’s very difficult to do that, because not a lot of people are aware of the issue, let alone of his vote on the issue. But people are aware of the repercussions of not having health care access, or having family that lack health care access. They just don’t know the person that represents them supports that.
But beyond that, Judithanne is someone, I think, who is closer to what a lot of progressives are looking for, in terms of her values and her interests involving people in the community, and the community itself. And she’s seeking the solution towards people’s woes in creating a climate where it’s more easy for people that are underprivileged to seek an equitable life with their friends and neighbors. I think that we have to seriously look at candidates like that and we have to look at supporting them, on the good issues they run on, and we have to promote that those issues are important, and we have to promote when they win on those issues. Because we have to start doing the hard work of defining what progressive means.
Because, at the end of the day, frankly, a lot of people don’t know what progressive means. And so people are able to use it, just as some sort of slogan, positively or negatively. Just about everybody knows what conservative means. And that should be a glaring issue that should be obvious to pretty much everybody, but it isn’t. We focus on the two-to-four-year election cycle. By seeing the trees, we’re not seeing the forest, let alone the entire vista of landscape that we have to play and work and fight and achieve in.
ME:
Okay. Well, thank you so much, Kofi Hunt, for all the work that you do, and for joining me today.
KH:
You’re welcome. Thank you.
And now, resources and calls to action:
You can find Kofi on Twitter at kofihunt. https://twitter.com/KofiHunt He's also on Facebook. Awake Pinellas can be found at https://www.facebook.com/AwakePinellas and the Awake the State networks can be found at http://awakethestate.com/local .
One of the strategies Kofi talked about is earned media. Make sure that your local reporters know the stories of those who suffer the most so that your community is aware of the issues. And make your own stories by organizing and attending events like delivering petitions and holding rallies.
The Service Employees International Union's work in Florida is at http://www.seiufl.org/ They are one of many groups working on the issue of getting Florida lawmakers to accept the federal funds for expanding Medicaid, a critical factor when so many Floridians are drowning in medical bill debt.
The Sunshine State Clean Energy Coalition is courtesy of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. Check out http://florida.sierraclub.org/
Some of the representatives mentioned in this podcast are Kathleen Peters, Will Weatherford, and Jeff Brandis. Links to the terrible things they've voted for and the great things they've voted against are provided in the transcript of this podcast.
[State House Representative Kathleen Peters' voting record:
Speaker of the House Will Weatherford's voting record:
State Senator Jeff Brandes' voting record:
The candidate facing Brandes is Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan. Find out more about her campaign at http://www.votejudithanne.com/ I particularly like this passage from her site. Quote:
"Tallahassee’s got it all wrong. Instead of making the middle class its priority, they are handing over billions of our tax dollars to the huge corporations and special interests that are funding their campaigns.
We can make Tallahassee work for the middle class, but first we need to send the right voice to represent us to Tallahassee." End quote.
Last year, a Democratic mayor of St. Petersburg was elected. I only mentioned it briefly in the interview, but that was a big event in the Pinellas community, and you can read more about that in a Tampa Bay Times article I've linked to in the transcript.
...
FloridaProgressives.com is the home to this podcast. This music is by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com . It is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Whether the topic is health care, the environment, education, taxes, or any number of issues, I'm proud to say my guests are delivering what I believe to be the truth about Florida policies. Check out the transcripts for these first three episodes. Episode Four will be out Friday, May 16th.
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