After years of making South Florida the location for their big annual spring fundraising dinner, Florida Democrats are leaving. They’re heading to Disney.
The “Leadership Blue” conference and fundraiser is set for June 8 at Disney’s Yacht Club and Beach Club resorts, according to the state party’s website.
For more than 10 years, the party has almost always held its signature June event at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, where Democrats from across the state gathered to strategize and schmooze for a day typically capped off with a national party figure for the big fundraising dinner.
Attendance can top 1,500 and the party can bring in more than $1 million.
“I don’t recall the last time it was not here,” said Mitch Ceasar, who was chairman of the Broward Democratic Party from 1996 to 2016.
A state party representative didn’t have an immediate comment Thursday about the move.
Last year’s keynote speaker was Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association — who was laying the groundwork for his presidential campaign, announced earlier this year.
In 2017, it was former Vice President Joe Biden, who is widely expected to run for president. In 2016, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who’s also running for president, was at the dinner. In 2014, former President Bill Clinton was the headliner, as Hillary Clinton prepared for her 2016 presidential candidacy.
That’s typical on a smaller scale as well. Potential candidates for state and federal office use the gatherings of various Democratic constituencies — the progressive, African American, Caribbean, disability, LGBT and Hispanic caucuses among others — to introduce themselves.
Ceasar said the Orlando area isn’t a bad choice. The party’s annual fundraiser, then known as the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, was held in Orlando when Ceasar was 1998-99 state Democratic Party chairman.
It’s a minus for South Florida Democrats, Ceasar said, some of whom won’t drive to Orlando and spend two nights in a hotel to attend the meetings and dinner. But, he said, it’s a plus for people elsewhere who will find the new location more convenient.