It was a weather-perfect Friday afternoon when Rep. Suzanne Kosmas's entire office staff decided to take the afternoon off. They knew what was coming: a 4:30 protest of her position on the Health Care bill. The rally, organized by Tony Scelzo of AFSCME and Jennifer Kenny of FLARA, focused on Kosmas's betrayal of the supporters who actually worked hard for her election in 2008. On Wednesday Scelzo and Kenny and AFSCME president Gerald McEntee met with Kosmas's Port Orange office staff and were assured that the congresswoman had not made her decision, while at the same time Kosmas was telling the Orlando Sentinel's Washington reporter that she would vote no on the bill.
Because there was no staff at the office the feeling among the eighty plus assembled was that she was, in addition to being a turncoat, both a liar and a coward. Calls to her Washington office were not getting through. The crowd was urged to text her as many times as possible. All of the union people declared that their members felt betrayed by Kosmas and that she sold out to her big insurance and real estate friends, Specifically Brown and Brown, one of the largest insurance bundlers in the country. In an earlier article of mine about the enigma of Bill Nelson, Brown and Brown figured significantly in his funding efforts.
One speaker, Steve Hall of IUPAT, demanded all of the money back that he and his union had given Kosmas in 2008. Ben King of the College Democrats spoke passionately about how betrayed the students at all the colleges in her district felt. Most of the speakers were captured on video:
Suzanne Kosmas is at a crossroads in her career. Which road will she take?