PANAMA CITY — Democrats upset over incumbent Rep. Steve Southerland’s “untruthful” ad and the revelation he held a men-only fundraiser demonstrated Wednesday outside his Panama City campaign headquarters.
The demonstration was one of two Wednesday; in the morning, demonstrators protested outside of Southerland’s campaign headquarters in Tallahassee. Both events were organized over the course of a few days by the Florida Democratic Committee, spokesman Max Steele said.
Between 15 and 20 people showed up and waved signs urging Southerland to “man-up’ and apologize to women for voting against the Violence Against Woman Act’s reauthorization and misleading voters with a carefully worded television ad in which a woman claims “Congressman Steve advocated for things like the Violence Against Women Act.”
Virginia Gill felt insulted that Southerland would claim to support a bill he voted against when, she said, it’s so easy to find out how he actually voted.
“It not only shows that he’s untruthful, but he’s stupid,” Gill said.
Demonstrator Mark Lipton of Panama City Beach thought the ad showed Southerland to be disingenuous, and the vote showed him to be stubborn and unreasonable.
“When you have people like Southerland in office you cannot move forward, because you can’t get compromise,” Lipton said. “The heart of politics is compromise; everybody doesn’t get everything they want.”
Dice Willie, a Realtor with an office near the demonstration, came out to see what all the fuss was about. He said he knows Southerland, and he doesn’t believe he would vote against VAWA without a good reason.
“I suspect that there’s an underlying reason why voted against that particular bill ... if it was a straight-up, we’re going to help ladies out by doing this or that or whatever — Steve’s all over it,” Willie said. “I know in my heart of hearts that if he voted against this like they say he did there had to be a really good reason. That’s not like Steve.”
There were separate bills to reauthorize VAWA, which had enjoyed bipartisan support each time it came up for reauthorization until 2013. The Senate bill, which is the one that became law and the one Southerland voted against, included protections for minorities and undocumented immigrants that weren’t in the House bill that Southerland voted for.
Matt McCullough accused Gwen Graham, who is challenging Southerland in the November election, of misleading voters in a prepared statement. (Graham’s campaign spokesman, Eric Conrad, attended the demonstration in Panama City, but he said it was not organized by the campaign.)
“Women across this district are standing with Steve because he cares about them and he’s fighting for their values,” McCullough said. “It’s unfortunate that Gwen Graham has chosen to mislead voters on an issue as important as this. As the father of four daughters, Steve is proud that he voted for an extension of VAWA, whether or not Ms. Graham is willing to acknowledge he did so.”
Ann Mitchell of Tallahassee, who leads Women for Southerland (which is not gender exclusive), said the whole issue is being imposed on the voters of the 2nd District by outside forces. Democrats are pushing hard for female voters this election; women polled recently by the Wall Street Journal/NBC supported Democrats in control of the House by a 47 to 40 percent margin.
“Republicans seem to be targeted as being against women, and that’s simply not true,” Mitchell said.
“This is where I live too,” Mitchell said, “and I don’t know if I want the Democratic Machine coming down and telling us how to think.”
Democrats got more fodder last week when it was revealed an invitation for a men-only Southerland fundraiser urged men to tell the “misses” not to wait up because there would be smooth whiskey and cigars, and the men would have much to discuss.
“Good men sitting around discussing & solving political & social problems over fine food & drink date back to the 12th Century with King Arthur’s Round Table,” the invitation said.
“I just saw red,” Gill said “Where are the women?”
Lipton skewered the invitation.
“First of all, King Arthur is fictional. Second of all, he was in the fifth century. Third of all, do we really want to use the 12th century to fashion a political discourse today?”
Southerland supporter Willie was not upset that Southerland held the fundraiser; it makes sense for a politician to meet with any interested group, he said.
“I think it’s a red herring,” Willie said. “In my mind, there are all sorts of different constituencies in a given district.”