Kevin Derby

Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Walt Disney World opened in 1971 -- making it a fitting place for the Florida Democratic Party to meet this past weekend.

The Democrats labeled their convention "A Legacy of Leadership: A Promise for Tomorrow.” They should have called it “That 70‘s Show,” though the likes of Ashton Kushner and Mila Kunis were nowhere to be seen.

While the Florida Democrats did not feature a cast of teenagers having zany adventures in Wisconsin, they went back to the disco era to feature the likes of Reubin Askew, Carrie Meek and Bob Graham. And why not? State Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Miami, is back in the upper chamber. She took over as president of the Florida Senate more than 20 years ago, and was first elected to the Florida House in 1974 back when ABBA ruled the charts with “Waterloo” and Carl Douglas mixed martial arts and disco with “Kung Fu Fighting.”

Democrats may have dominated Florida politics for the last century and a half, but the sun is setting on them in the Sunshine State.

In 2010, Democratic nominee Alex Sink came close to being the first member of her party to win a gubernatorial race since 1994. But Republican candidate Rick Scott was an unknown candidate who was bloodied after a brutal primary against Bill McCollum, who refused to endorse his GOP rival.

Sink may have come close, but the rest of the Democratic ticket went down in flames in 2010. Republicans buried the three Democrats in the state Cabinet races. Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek finished a distant third in the U.S. Senate race in 2010. Four Florida Democrats -- Allen Boyd, Alan Grayson, Ron Klein and Suzanne Kosmas -- were thrown out of Congress in 2010. Republicans continued to build their majority in the Florida Legislature and won enough seats to override vetoes in both the House and Senate. After the 2010 elections, Democrats held only 39 of the 120 seats in the Florida House and 12 in the Senate.

The Democrats certainly have their pockets of strength in Florida, and they have shown a knack for winning mayoral elections. Alvin Brown was elected mayor of Jacksonville earlier in the year -- the first Democrat to win since Ed Austin back in 1991. They have also had success in mayoral races with Pam Iorio and Bob Buckhorn and in Orlando with Buddy Dyer. But, at the state level, they have essentially vanished.

Dyer spoke to the Florida Democrats on Saturday and, while he praised them for helping Barack Obama carry the state in 2008, he warned that they need to do more at the state and local level if they want to remain relevant. The 2,000 Democrats who attended the convention in Orlando certainly were charged up to back Obama and Bill Nelson--and defeat Scott in 2014. Whether they are that fired up for congressional and legislative races in 2012 remains to be seen.