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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now more of our informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific exit poll for primary day in New York State and now we add for primary day in Florida. If you're listening in New York, you can call in and tell us how you're voting in any of the congressional primaries or state senate primaries we've been covering.

Now if you're listening in Florida or have any connections to Florida, call in and tell us who you're voting for or what you think about the Democratic primary for governor there primarily to take on the Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who, of course, is such a prominent figure these days and a likely 2024 presidential hopeful, most well-known, probably, these days outside of Florida for the anti-LGBTQ 'Don't Say Gay' bill as it's come to be known and more recently against abortion rights, very strict crackdown in the State of Florida after Roe vs Wade was reversed.

As your calls are coming in, whether on Florida or on New York, Lori Rozsa, reporter covering Florida for The Washington Post joins us now to discuss primary day in the Sunshine State. Lori, welcome to WNYC. Thank you so much for joining us.

Lori Rozsa: Hi. Good morning, Brian. Thank you for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Who's competing to compete against Ron DeSantis?

Lori Rozsa: We have the two Democratic candidates, Nikki Fried and Charlie Crist. Nikki Fried is currently the only statewide elected Democrat in Tallahassee. She is the Commissioner of Agriculture in DeSantis' administration and Charlie Crist is a former GOP governor of Florida and is now a Democratic congressman. Those are the two that have been battling it out for the past several months for the chance to go up against DeSantis in November.

Brian Lehrer: Charlie Crist, two people from outside Florida who pay a little attention to the Sunshine State, such a puzzling figure for people because he's been a Republican, he's been an independent, now he's a Democrat. Here are two brief excerpts from campaign commercials about 12 seconds each. NPR's Morning Edition excerpted these this morning and we'll replay them now. You'll hear how they're running against each other. Here's Crist first.

Advertisement speaker: Newspapers across Florida have endorsed Charlie Crist, the Democrat with the best chance of defeating DeSantis. Crist has been a solid pro-choice [unintelligible 00:02:46] Crist is the only choice for governor.

Nikki Fried: I'm Nikki Fried. I'm your only statewide elected Democrat, only pro-choice Democrat, only Democrat who have never taken a dime from the NRA. I'll beat Ron DeSantis and be a governor you can finally be proud of.

Brian Lehrer: Lori, can you explain the context for those ads?

Lori Rozsa: Yes. Nikki Fried, part of her campaign against Crist was pretty much running against the Republican version of Charlie Crist. She has some things to dig into there for when he was governor. He was a very moderate governor, and he, of course, has become not far more progressive, but a little more progressive in the years since he was governor. Crist has battled back pretty well saying he's pro-choice, and he's made some success there. I think Fried was fighting the old Charlie Crist and Crist changes around, as you've noticed the different parties he's represented in government.

I think he successfully pushed back on a lot of the Fried's attack ads because he has gotten a lot of support from the establishment media, but also Crist got some endorsements from some important progressive Democrats in the Florida House and Florida Senate folks. Nikki Fried has been fighting a battle mostly in South Florida where she's based. It's been interesting, but the trend has been towards Charlie Crist for a while now. Fried has made a big push in the past few days and spent more money than she had recently, for what I can tell, but it's hard to tell exactly what's going to happen, but polls show Crist leading.

Brian Lehrer: The Crist campaign commercial that we excerpted from included a reference to electability. Is he making the argument that because he's been a Republican, he's been an independent, he can pull over more swing voters to the extent that there are swing voters in Florida running against DeSantis? If so, how does Fried counter that?

Lori Rozsa: She counters. Who knows what Charlie Crist, what message he's trying to say with electability? We don't like to think that it's a reference to the fact that Nikki Fried is a woman, but who knows. It could be because he has dipped his toes in every party available, that he could try to sell the idea that everyone's liked him at one time or another.

Nikki Fried has been very upfront about wanting to be the first woman governor of Florida and that this is a historic chance. It's almost as if she set up her race four years ago for this moment. In fact, some old political hands in Florida say that if she had waited another four years, it might have been better for her, but she countered it by saying that Charlie Crist is not WINO but a DINO, Democrat in conservative clothing, whatever they call that. She's saying she's the real Democrat, the real progressive, the one who stands in stark contrast to Ron DeSantis.

Brian Lehrer: How popular is DeSantis in Florida? A lot of our listeners up here look at his anti-abortion stance, his homophobia and transphobia translated into policy and say, "Does that really resonate with most of the state or is the public split, and if they are, are they split by age, geographic location, some other democratic factor?" How popular is Ron DeSantis as he runs for re-election?

Lori Rozsa: In the Republican Party, incredibly popular. In the state of Florida, it used to be a pretty purple state lately. Republican voter registration has eclipsed Democratic voter registration. That was going to happen anyway because the Panhandle Democrats used to vote Republican anyway. It's still fairly evenly split. That's why there's a lot of consternation in Florida from non-Republicans about what the governor is doing, but among the Republicans who make up a huge part of the state, he's very popular.

Brian Lehrer: It looks like Val Demings is going to get the Democratic nomination today to face Marco Rubio for his senate seat in the fall. I've seen that the polls show that as close between them. Is that what your reporting shows?

Lori Rozsa: Yes, it does. Demings caught up to Rubio in polls recently, in the past month or so. Rubio is sending out campaign donation requests that some folks say are beginning to sound a little desperate, but Demings is coming on very strong with her police background and her law, and order background, and also her pro-choice background. She hits a lot of the Democratic high notes, but also very pro-police. Although the Rubio campaign is trying to paint her as defunding, that sort of thing, that's not what she's about.

That race has become very interesting because it's become so close. Demings has done a lot of campaigning in the state. Rubio's presence hasn't been felt that much lately. That probably would change the next couple of months, but that race is far closer than folks expected it to be at this point.

Brian Lehrer: Any hot congressional races? We've been reporting on those in New York that are very close for various reasons, mostly having to do with the contentious redistricting process in the state this year that redrew so many congressional lines and made incumbents run against each other and all this other stuff. Any hot congressional primaries in Florida today?

Lori Rozsa: Probably not quite as interesting as what you've got going up there, but yes, redistricting really reshuffled the game board in a big way. In Florida, things could have been different with the congressional map legislature had approved, but Ron DeSantis and his team came in and did something highly unusual, drew their own maps, and of course, the legislature passed. The maps favor Republicans much more heavily than the other maps did, wipes out a minority access district that stretched across North Florida. That's going to be gone. It's less of who's running more than which parties. It's going to be a GOP-tilted map in a fairly significant way. There is one district that goes-- [crosstalk] I'm sorry?

Brian Lehrer: Because of gerrymandering, you expect a larger percentage of Republicans to come out of Florida than in the current House of Representatives?

Lori Rozsa: That's correct. Florida gained, I believe, it's one seat after DeSantis, so they will now have a more district-solid GOP than the Democratic. There is one race that goes to the middle of state around Orlando, where there are 10 Democrats vying in the primary today. That one's the biggest noisiest race. Other than that, the congressional races are even less interesting this year, I think, than the school board races in Florida because those are decided today. The governor has backed a lot of school board candidates, which, again, is highly unusual for governors to do, and his campaign has funded some of them. He's taking his policy efforts down to the very local level, including in school boards.

Brian Lehrer: Lori Rozsa, reporter covering Florida for The Washington Post. Thank you for filling us in on primary day in the Sunshine State.

Lori Rozsa: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. All right. Now to more of your calls and our informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific exit poll for primary day in New York State or Florida. If anybody from there or connected to there wants to chime in.

It's very interesting, for all the coverage that there has been of the two races in Manhattan that are so contentious and hard-fought, the 10th and Lower Manhattan and the 12th just north of that, so many of our callers are calling to weigh in on the two races just north of the city, the 16th congressional district, where Jamaal Bowman is the incumbent and trying to stave off two challengers who are in the Westchester County legislature running a little bit to his right, and incumbent Sean Patrick Maloney district, the 17th, that includes the challenger Alessandra Biaggi, who's running to his left, an AOC-backed candidate.

Some things about these races came up before that people want to continue the conversation on, which we can do, but just very, very interesting to hear how much heat there is in the northern Bronx and Westchester and points north. We're going to go to Emily in Rockland County who wants to dive back in on that Maloney Biaggi race. Emily, you are on WNYC. Hi, there. [silence] Emily, are you there?

Emily: Hi, can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, we have you. Hi.

Emily: Hi. I live in New York 17 and this race has been really odd. All the volunteer grassroots energy seems to be with Biaggi, all the establishment party energy seems to be with Maloney, but the arguments they're making are not based on the work he's done or his policies, they're this weird, wonky, three-dimensional chess kind of thing about how he's the only guy who can win, which is just so--

For me, what's wrong with the democratic party is we continue to do the same races we've always done and rely on the same strategy. We have never seen a general election post Dobbs. We do not know what the electorate is going to do. When we have a pro-choice democratic woman against an anti-choice, very conservative, hard-left Republican-

Brian Lehrer: Hard right.

Emily: -and they're just walking around saying, "Oh, she can't win, she can't win," because they have this very small poll that says that. They're encouraging voters not to vote for what they believe in or for what they want to fight for. They're saying, "You can't have that. Just vote for this dude even though he's center-right because she can't win." It's discouraging because it really proves that people aren't willing to fight for the causes that we need to fight for.

Brian Lehrer: Emily, thank you very much for chiming in. We're going to go next to Stacy in Rye who wants to weigh in on the 16th congressional district, the district that's Jamaal Bowman versus the two challengers. Stacy, you are on WNYC. Hello.

Stacy: Oh, hi. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Who's your candidate?

Stacy: Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you.

Stacy: Catherine Parker.

Brian Lehrer: Because?

Stacy: I've known Catherine for 20 years. She is the democratic majority leader of the Westchester Board of Legislators. She has voted to pass sensible gun laws in Westchester. She's voted to stand up for women's rights. She has passed the law creating paid sick leave and ban on asking salary history for women. She is a pro-choice candidate working to preserve women's reproductive freedom and ensure safe abortion access.

She's also been very active working on the flooding issues in our communities here on the Sound Shore. I know she's going to continue to do that as she heads to Congress. I just think she's the hardest working woman I have ever met in politics and I think she's going to be an amazing candidate and congresswoman.

Brian Lehrer: For people who might be Jamaal Bowman's supporters and saying, "Wait, what's wrong with the candidate we just elected and he's in Congress? Why do we want to kick out Jamaal Bowman?"

Stacy: Jamaal Bowman did not vote for infrastructure and he also voted against Israel. Honestly, I believe right now we need somebody who is a little bit more of a centrist. We can say all we want that we are going to go crazy far left, and that's great. I'm all for that, the progressive agenda, but unfortunately, we have to work with other people in Congress and we have to work with the other side to get things done. I believe Catherine takes a little bit more of a moderate approach. She's still a very aggressive candidate and is going to do a great job for us. I just think Jamaal Bowman, unfortunately, has been a little bit of a disappointment here in Westchester, district- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Stacy, thank you very much, well interesting. The more left versus more centris Democrat dynamic very in play in the 16th as well as in the 17th. Let's stay in the 16th. Here's another caller. Mary Ellen in Westchester, you're on WNYC. Hi, Mary Ellen.

Mary Ellen: Hi. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you.

Mary Ellen: Oh, thank you for taking my call. Yes, I absolutely agree with what your previous caller, Stacy, just said. I actually have been really, really heartbroken about the dearth of coverage on [unintelligible 00:16:49]. That in spite of the fact that there's a tie in to Mondaire Jones as well, which I'll get to in a moment, but yes, [unintelligible 00:16:57], and I absolutely endorsed everything that the previous caller said about Catherine Parker, what people should know about her, because we've hardly heard her name, I think quite literally I can say that she has more legislative experience and accomplishments than both of the other two candidates combined. Both of the others are newbies.

Vedat Gashi was just elected to the county board in 2019. He doesn't even live in the district. He doesn't even live near the district. He lives way north, about 25 miles outside of the district, up in, I think, the Yorktown area, somewhere up there. [unintelligible 00:17:39]

Brian Lehrer: Yes, he's from Yorktown. Yes, it's a thing that a lot of people don't know, you don't have to live in a congressional district to run in that congressional district. He doesn't and he says he will move to the district if he wins, but go ahead.

Mary Ellen: She's lived here her whole life and she's done a lot, which I'll get to. He could have run in 17, he chose not to. Bowman, who's never lived in the Bronx as far as I can tell, he seems [unintelligible 00:18:10] champion in the Bronx, but he is never actually lived there, but that's okay, he's lived in this district, but he was just elected two years ago on the same wave that brought in Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres. Unfortunately, Jamaal Bowman is no Mondaire Jones and he has no Ritchie Torres and he has no Hakeem Jeffries.

As I see, I see him as a follower not as a leader. He's got a huge learning curve. He waffles on issues. He's been especially bad and inconsistent and divisive on issues relating to Israel, on issues relating to Ukraine. I have serious concerns about him. Getting back to Catherine Parker, as I said, lifelong resident of Westchester County, raised by a single mother. Apparently, her father abandoned the family when she was an infant. She was raised by her mother who was a school teacher in White Plains and her grandmother I think was a nurse.

She is, again, I will absolutely say what Stacy said before, the hardest working woman I know. She was first elected to our county board of legislators back in 2013 when the county was still effectively controlled by Republicans, including our former county executive.

Brian Lehrer: Rob Astorino, who went on to run for governor.

Mary Ellen: Yes. Right.

Brian Lehrer: Mary Ellen, I'm going to leave it there for time. I hear everything you're saying, and another example, well, two callers in a row of how Israel and Jamaal Bowman's positions on Israel are an issue for some people in that district. We had a strong Bowman caller earlier in the show, now two Catherine Parker voters, so that's the way the informal, unofficial, thoroughly unscientific cookie crumbles as we go from voter to voter and district to district. Let's stay north of the city and back to the 17th for the Biaggi/Sean Patrick Maloney race, and Claudia and Anthony who's been holding on a long time. Claudia, thank you for your patience here on WNYC.

Claudia: I'm happy to be patient for you, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Yes. I've been knocking on doors. It's not something that I relish doing, but I met Alessandra four years ago when she ran against Jeff Klein. Let's not forget that she was one of the group of people who opposed the IEBC. She was outspent by him like 10 to 1, and to beat him because she generates enthusiasm the way Bernie does.

Now, I'm not an AOC fan. I never mentioned that when I knock on doors because I find Alessandra a humility, a great listener, and her focus is ethics. She's new to Albany. She was the chair of the ethics committee. If that's not refreshing, I don't know what is. If she could win against Jeff Klein, I think the winnability is great. The New York Times endorsed Maloney with what I call a left-handed compliment. They called her a rising star, they called her a hard worker, and they included a link in their endorsement of him to that $500,000 that the Democratic National Committee or whatever, you'll tell me, supported a far-right Republican candidate or something.

I'm interested to know you're, if you have a guest, can tell, when The New York Times endorses people, is it solely on electability? Because quite honestly, and in their article August 21st, they think she's great, and I think she's great. She's like the other side of Bernie, and she has values and a good listener. What more can you ask? We need this. We need somebody who gets people excited about politics and is optimistic.

Brian Lehrer: For people who say, "It's too risky, Sean Patrick Maloney has a track record of leaning in swing districts. It's one thing to beat Jeff Klein in the Bronx, who was a Democrat who was helping empower Republicans in the state Senate, that IDC that you mentioned. It's another thing to go up against the Republican in the Hudson Valley in this political climate." What would you say?

Claudia: I would say that she will get out the vote, the [unintelligible 00:22:48]. She will have people knocking on doors the way I am. Like I said, it's not something I think is fun, but she will get enthusiasm in all-- I've knocked on maybe 60 doors, almost everybody is undecided. I think that she's going to get people excited enough that they will participate in our democracy and that is how she will win. She does not want to take corporate money. She is asking for-- it's $5 donations is what I've been getting text messages for, but that's what we need is get out to vote, have people participate.

I have not met anyone who is enthusiastic about Maloney, the one or two people, it's just anger. I think she'll do it on numbers, that's what I would argue. I don't say she's extreme at all, they will try to paint her that way, but she comes from a mainstream establishment. [unintelligible 00:23:47] that's why they loved her when I first worked for her. She's not from an extreme background at all, and she's an attorney by training. I think that's what they'll try, but I don't think they will succeed. I think she'll do well.

Brian Lehrer: Claudia, thank you very much for your call. Interesting. A different dynamic from the reporting that I've seen between the 16th and the 17th, the Biaggi supporters are very enthusiastic for her. The Sean Patrick Maloney voters, maybe not as much, but think he can win and is a reliable Democratic vote on most things and a leader in the party by now, but doesn't make the heart go pit-a-pat as much in the same way.

Although, he is a LGBTQ male and was somewhat of a pioneer in that respect, certainly has a strong base there, people who think he's helped make strides for equality in that respect, but somewhat of a contrast with the 16th, where we heard some of the strong feelings against Jamal Bowman that came out. Earlier, we heard some of the strong feelings for Jamal Bowman and the suspicion about Catherine Parker sending out a mailer that allegedly made it look like she's Jewish when she's not Jewish, because of the way it placed her in a synagogue.

There are people very enthusiastic for Catherine Parker, as we heard, and earlier we heard people very enthusiastic for Jamal Bowman. Those races have different kinds of dynamics. Obviously, we will see what happens tonight in all the races. We thank you for all of your calls to this informal, unofficial, and we can't say how thoroughly unscientific exit poll for primary day two in New York State.

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