Nick Sakhnovsky takes over the leadership of the Volusia County Democratic Party just five years after moving from South Florida, where he grew up and spent most of his life.
Sakhnovksy, 67, and his wife Alice retired to Latitude Margaritaville after years of visiting the Daytona Beach area during Bike Week. Sakhnovsky shows that Margaritaville and the motorcycle scene attract all kinds of people, as he is a former librarian and educator, an Ivy League graduate (Dartmouth at age 19) with three college degrees and a deeply held belief that politics can be used to shape our society to improve.
Here are five questions we asked the new chairman of the Volusia Democratic Party and his answers, edited for brevity.
Nick Sakhnovsky, chairman of the Volusia County Democratic Party
Q: You moved to Margaritaville from Broward County just five years ago. What differences have you observed between politics in South Florida and Volusia?
A: In the past, in Broward County you sometimes saw people switching parties to get elected, for example from Republican to Democrat. … It’s interesting to see, at least in the last five years, that I went from an environment that was essentially dominated by Democrats to an environment that was dominated by Republicans, so that required some attitude adjustment.
Being from Margaritaville, where most people are from outside of Volusia, the way we initially adjusted when I talked to friends, who are all relatively new to Florida or Volusia, was definitely, ‘Wow, there are a lot of unbiased breeds. here.’ And it’s hard to figure out who to vote for. So actually we started two and a half years ago, a group of us there, started a political committee, it’s called VOTE! … Where the real goal was to educate voters and advocate for better leadership, but to do it on a nonpartisan basis. Because I felt like… I believe that no matter who my representative is at any level, I’m still their voter. …That’s why I actually found it helpful that the County Council (the school board and the town offices) were non-partisan. … That’s a big change between Volusia and Broward, because in Broward we call it a County Commission, but in Broward it’s on a partisan basis. Not here. … Most voters want an abbreviation, if you will, and a political party label is essentially an abbreviation for a relatively amorphous, in many ways, set of values or policies. When it comes to actual governance, sometimes reality is not the same as the amorphous meaning of that reality.
Q: You have an interesting background, including a law degree and a career in education. How does politics fit into that picture?
A: It’s all been a public service and if you are, and this is one of the things at the federal level to see what the new administration is doing with the civil service at the federal level, but the state and the counties and the cities provide a lot of very important services for the public and for me, the most important of which are education and libraries, and it goes back to the philosophy of why are those more important to me than the law? That’s because they offer more social value, more opportunities for a better society.
Q: From the president to the seats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Florida Legislature and all seven Volusia County Council and four of the five Volusia County School Board seats, Republicans have dominated Volusia County politics in recent elections . What gives you optimism that this can change?
A: I happened to be at Publix around October and… I was wearing a Volusia Democratic Party T-shirt… and a guy tapped me on the shoulder and said, “By the way, I like your shirt,” and he says, “I’m actually NPA, but this year there’s really no choice.” And I thought that was significant because… there are so many people registered as NPAs and to me that means people who are certainly approachable, certainly people who are caring enough to be registered, but knowledgeable enough to say, ‘ You know what, we don’t do that’. “I don’t fully subscribe to any particular label.” These are the people I think we should pay a lot of attention to.
Q: For 140 to 150 years, Democrats ruled Volusia County and only in the last decade have Republicans gained control. Do you have any ideas about why that happened and how the tide can be turned?
A: I think Volusia acts as a microcosm. … You have to realize that it is historically accurate to say that the Democratic Party was dominated by whites for much of those 140 years. Certainly, African Americans did not have the right to vote for much of that time. And the important change that took place at the national level was that you had a solid South that was Democratic, and now it has actually become a solid South that is Republican, after the achievement – the important achievement – of civil rights for African Americans. This is certainly part of the dynamic. But the other part of the dynamic, in my opinion, is the influx of people from out of state. There are people from places like New York, California or the Midwest. They are retired and come to Volusia and register as Republicans. And I think, frankly, (Gov. Ron) DeSantis has tried to maximize the impact of those kinds of moves, and so when these Republicans pull out of, in some cases, states that are dominated by Democrats, they register accordingly. and that is also part of the dynamics of the past ten years. …I wouldn’t say outright that retirees tend to be Republicans, but that being said, the financial aspect and economic realities of Florida, traditionally a cheaper state, are attractive to retirees. … I think we need to do a better job of addressing the cost of living here in Florida. They are much more than when I was growing up, regardless of who was in charge, and it would be healthy if the Democratic Party offered substantive approaches to making the cost of living here in Florida more manageable.
Q: What is something about the Democrats that Republicans and right-wing independent voters don’t know, but should know?
A: One of the downsides that has emerged on social media over the last fifteen years is the very ease of swearing, compared to when you meet someone in person. For example, someone can call someone a ridiculous, nonsensical name on social media, but they’ll never get away with saying it to someone who can’t respond to them. So the answer is: I will give an interesting example of the term “wake up.” … My wife and I were stopped in a parking lot of a place where we were leaving a meeting, and she was carrying a sign that said “STAY WOKE, FLORIDA.” . . . One gentleman literally stopped his car, rolled down his window and said, “What does waking up even mean?” I said, “For me, being awake really means what Jesus said: loving your neighbor as yourself. And to be sensitive to the other. And he recognized the value of that answer and said, “I’ve never thought about it that way.” And I think that’s the most important thing, that when people start chatting the old-fashioned way, one-on-one, and even if you start with a challenge, you can actually lower the temperature just by being honest and honest. human in your response, and there is actually more we have in common than not. That’s what I would say: remove the labels and start talking about the meaning of these words. The demeaning understanding of what the meaning of words is has really been a downside of social media in my opinion.
This article originally appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal: New Volusia Democrat chairman on what ‘woke’ means, what gets NPA votes
