PLF’s Mark Miller at January Lunch

This month’s speaker was Mark Miller, Senior Attorney of Pacific Legal Foundation, one of the most active and effective public interest legal organizations in the US. Founded during the Reagan years, PLF has tallied up an impressive set of victories in high profile cases, including 11 wins at the Supreme Court. A 501(c)3 organization, PLF is supported by grants and donations and does all its work pro-bono.

Mark specializes in environmental law, land use and first amendment cases, and he described for us many of his projects that have been covered by the national media.

In his recent Supreme court case, Weyerhaeuser vs. US Fish and Wildlife, Mark successfully argued that restricting land use in Louisiana as habitat for the “Mississippi Dusky Gopher Frog”, an amphibian that has not been found there in decades, was a mis-application of the Endangered Species Act. In an 8-0 decision (Cavenaugh had not yet been confirmed), SCOTUS overturned both the district court and the 5th circuit who had maintained that Fish & Wildlife had ‘agency discretion’ to so designate.

Another case Mark explained was Knick v. Township of Scott, in which a Pennsylvania property owner challenged a recent town ordinance that required public access to her property which was alleged after an intrusive search, to contain graves. With an argument that this was in violation of the 4th (unrestrained search) and 5th (unlawful taking) amendments, PLF argued at the Supreme Court recently that the case should not have to exhaust all remedies at the state level prior to argument in federal court. This case, argued this month, is pending.

Another high profile PLF Supreme Court case was Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, in which voters who wore clothing containing political sentiments were denied access to the polling places. A tea party “Don’t tread on me” slogan was at issue. The Court issued its ruling on June 14, 2018, stating in a 7–2 decision that Minnesota’s law did violate the First Amendment, ruling it unconstitutional.

Mark has also been involved in state and local cases. In 2014 he represented the owner of the Crafted Keg brew pub in Stuart, who wanted to sell beer in industry standard “growlers” (64 ounce containers) in violation of a Florida law which protects large beer makers from upstart craft brewers. This one received national attention. “Why should his success be limited by a state law that’s irrational?”, Mark argued. After suing the state, this one was resolved in the Legislature where the 64 oz. growler was legalized.

He also volunteered to represent JP Krause, a Vero Beach High School student whose election to student body President was dis-allowed by the school over a “build a wall’ joke he made during the campaign. He was re-instated after the story was picked up by Fox & Friends and Whoopi Goldberg supported the student’s position on “The View”.


After the meeting, in preparation of a full page ad in the Lincoln Day Dinner booklet, the club leaders were photographed with our new club banner:

From left: Claire Jones, Fred Scheibl, Carol Hurst, Fran Hancock, Bette Anne Starkey, Virginia Brooks

Thoughts on the Election with Sid Dinerstein

When we first booked Sid Dinerstein for his “after-election, looking-forward” thoughts, our current electoral chaos was not anticipated. With four races still in flux eight days after the election, we still don’t know with certainty where we will be when the dust settles, but Sid did have some encouraging words for us.

Starting with the fact that the military ballots (which lean considerably Republican) have not yet been tallied, and that recounts rarely if ever move votes in any substantive way, he opined that DeSantis and Scott will likely prevail. With the current 5,000 vote deficit, it does not look as good for Matt Caldwell. It is clear that the Supervisors of Election in Broward and Palm Beach must be replaced before the next election, and we need to work towards that end.

On a national level, losing the House was not a desired outcome, but it has interesting ramifications for 2020. Gridlock will ensue, not some Progressive tsunami. Sid believes we will have no immigration reform and no wall, but with an expanded majority in the Senate we will have judges. When President Trump is done he will have appointed fully 1/3 of federal bench. Deregulation is likely to continue (it doesn’t need Congress), as will trade negotiations, and the economy will continue its good performance. With the expectation that House Democrats will be out to torture Trump with endless investigations and impeachment, something even most Democrats are not asking for, a big 2020 sweep for the President is likely.

On the state level, Rick DeSantis origins in the Freedom Caucus bode well for no tax increases, more school choice, continued growth in population and tourism, a low crime rate, and no Medicaid expansion – a complete opposite of what a Governor Gillum would have sought. We will continue what Sid sees as the “Golden Age of Florida.’ And lest we forget, we will have 3 new conservative justices on the Florida Supreme Court in January.

Overall, not a bad outlook!

Sid was introduced by current GOP Chair Michael Barnett who calls Sid his mentor. Michael also asked for volunteers to help with the “count watching” at SOE as the hand recounts begin shortly. We also had at the meeting victorious State Representatives Rick Roth (HD85), Mary Lynn Magar (HD82), and Michael Caruso who is currently ahead by 37 votes in HD89, and Palm Beach Gardens Councilman Matthew Lane.

Please join us on Wednesday, December 19 for Charles Bender, Executive Director of the Place of Hope who will give us an update on their activities, and we will also have a little holiday music.

Scott Maxwell on the Importance of Poll Watchers

With the election less than 6 weeks away, the county party wants a lot more volunteers to man the polling stations, both as poll watchers and to wave signs at the early voting locations. That was the main message from Executive Director Scott Maxwell on Wednesday.

Scott wants to physically cover all 14 of the early voting locations with a unified Republican presence. Unlike the limited hours during the primary, the EV sites will be open fully 7AM to 7PM.

Poll watcher classes have already started so the time to sign up is now. To illustrate the importance of that job, Scott told us the story of the rampant voter fraud that had been perpetrated in his city of Lake Worth before he was elected to the City Commission, and how effective poll watchers put an end to it.

This is story I had never heard before, and as a current poll worker, I was skeptical that it could happen with our stringent processes on checking voter identification. As we heard though, with an inside job performed by criminal poll workers, anything is possible. Poll watchers are our only line of defense against it.

Here is Scott’s story:


In a convoluted scheme perpetrated by a coterie of far left activists, their teams went door to door seeking out those who had not voted lately, with the intention of identifying those who had died or moved away, but were still on the rolls. They then ran multiple candidates for each of the city commission seats to split the vote enough to force a runoff. When the runoff occurred, other volunteers flooded the polling places claiming to be those voters they had previously tagged as no longer eligible but still on the rolls. Since this can only work with the cooperation of the poll workers in the targeted precincts whose job it is to verify identity, it was accomplished by packing the precincts with poll workers who were part of the conspiracy.

Scott had always wondered why seemingly fringe candidates were winning these elections, and was able to ferret out how they were doing it by analyzing the voter history data for the main and runoff elections. The fix was simple – put poll watchers in the precincts to watch what was happening and prevent the fraud from taking place. This worked, Scott and other non-fringe candidates began winning elections, and the corruption has been stopped.

The evidence of collusion on the part of the poll workers was taken to the State’s Attorney and the Supervisor of Elections. Unfortunately though, time went by and ultimately the statute of limitations had passed and no prosecutions for voter fraud occurred.


So, become a poll watcher for November and help insure a fair and open election.

Next month, join us on October 24 for a discussion of constitutional amendments you are being asked to approve. The large number of complex ballot questions to appear in November require research to really understand the consequences of their passage. Let us help you through it with a distillation of the important issues and some recommendations on how to approach them. See who put the questions on the ballot, who supports them and who opposes them. You will come away enlightened!

August Lunch Features Array of Primary Candidates

Six days before the election, our candidate roundup had a pretty good lineup, including 4 who are running in state-wide races.


Matt Caldwell

For the position of Agriculture Commissioner, Fort Myers resident Matt Caldwell made his pitch. Currently the State Representative for district 79 (Lee County), Matt spoke of his priorities of “Jobs, water and the second amendment”, and his NRA endorsement. The club has hosted competing candidates Denise Grimsley and Baxter Troutman over the last couple of months.


Frank White

For Attorney General, panhandle resident Frank White spoke of his promise to “defend the constitution”. Protecting the second amendment, prosecuting fraud, and using the 10th amendment to fight back against federal programs like Obamacare are his priorities. Frank’s campaign against Judge Ashley Moody (who many of us met at the Jamboree) has turned nasty, with an increasingly strident level of negative ads.


Gene Badger

Representing the Adam Putnam campaign for Governor, we heard from Florida Agricultural Hall of Famer Gene Badger, who made the case for Adam as a businessman for Governor. This was surprising since Adam Putnam has spent most of his adult life as an elected official (8 years as Ag Commissioner, 10 years in Congress, 4 years in the Florida House). Adam was the youngest House member in 1996 at the age of 22, and the youngest member of Congress at 26.

Other Governor candidates were in attendance, including Miami resident John Mercadante and Melbourne resident Bob White.


John Mercadante

Mr. Mercadante, who describes himself as “quite a piece of work”, believes the second amendment is “chiseled in stone”. Regarding the Parkland shooting, he believes the answer lies in bomb sniffing dogs, and banning children’s backpacks.


Bob White

Mr. White, who calls himself the “outsider candidate” is the chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida (RLCFL). His issues are 2nd amendment related (open carry, campus carry), and he opposed the MSDHS Public Safety Act.


Dave Cummings

The only federal office candidate we had was Dave Cummings for Congressional district 18. With the theme “All is Vanity”, Dave spoke philosophy rather than policy. Challenging incumbent Brian Mast, he believes he has better answers than Brian on the algae issues and the second amendment.


Belinda Keiser

For the Florida Senate district 25, Belinda Keiser spoke of “faith, family, and the love of country.” She is interested in implementing e-verify in Florida, and outlawing sanctuary cities. Belinda is facing Gayle Harrell to fill the seat vacated by Joe Negron.


Matt Spritz

Farther south in House District 89 to replace term limited Bill Hager, we heard from Matt Spritz and Mike Caruso.
Mr. Spritz spoke of his extensive public policy experience as legislative aid to representative Bob Rommel (Naples). He described a long list of endorsements by public officials.


Mike Caruso

Mr. Caruso, a CPA, is focused on education (“stop testing so much”), and ending sanctuary cities.


Rick Roth

Also speaking was one candidate on the November ballot but not in the primary – HD85 representative Rick Roth. Describing President Trump as an “Evangelical Populist”, he speculated on a possible “red wave” in the fall. For that to happen though, we need to get out there and talk to the NPAs, convincing them to vote for Republicans.


Sid Dinerstein

Finally, we heard from Sid Dinerstein on the Palm Beach Gardens ballot questions. Sid, a key player in getting term limits passed in 2014, spoke of the attempts by the current council to weaken them. “The good news is that all five on the Council in 2014 are now gone; the bad news is the people on the Council that replaced them…”. The city was sued (by Sid and others) to invalidate the 4 charter questions on the March ballot, and 2 were thrown out. A third is being challenged on appeal. On the August ballot, the two that were thrown out have come back with different wording but the city is running a campaign designed to mislead the voters. Sid urges Gardens residents to vote NO, NO, NO on the three questions.

Thanks to Carol Porter for the candidate photos.

2018 Political Jamboree

Every two years, during the summer of an election year, the county GOP hosts a “Jamboree” – an old fashioned political picnic for candidates on the upcoming ballot to introduce themselves to the party activists. With a barbecue lunch under the pavilion roof, surrounded by covered booths hosted by candidates and political clubs, it is gathering place for the GOP faithful and those who seek to represent them at all levels of government.

Upper row from left: Dave Cummings (CD18), Javier Manjarres (CD22), John Joseph Mercadante (Governor), Ashley Moody (Attorney General), Sid Dinerstein (Moderator), Lower row from left: Belinda Keiser (FS25), Matt Spritz (FH89), Mike Caruso (FH89), Scott Singer (Boca Mayor), Al Zucaro (Boca Mayor)

After remarks by county chairman (and RPOF vice-chair) Michael Barnett, and state committee reps Cindy Tindell and Joe Budd, master of Ceremonies Sid Dinerstein introduced the candidates.

The only state-wide candidates present were Attorney General candidate Ashley Moody who listed her impressive resume and endorsements which include current AG Pam Bondi, and John Mercadante – a long-shot candidate for Governor with lots of enthusiasm.

In CD18, incumbent Brian Mast has drawn a couple of primary challengers, mostly as a result of his controversial stance on gun control which is perceived as a vulnerability. Dave Cummings spoke and presented himself as a conservative in support of the Trump agenda. The winner of this primary will face one of two well-funded Democrats in a race that has drawn national interest.

CD22 was represented by candidate Javier Manjarres who is facing Nicholas Kimaz (who was at the event but left before speaking), and Eddison Walters. The winner will face entrenched Democrat Ted Deutch (who has a long shot primary challenger in Jeff Fandl) in this D+14 district.

For state legislative offices, Belinda Keiser spoke. She is competing with current House member Gayle Harrell for the Senate 25 seat vacated by Joe Negron. The winner will face Democrat Robert Levy in the fall.

For House district 89, vacated by term limited Bill Hager, competitors Matt Spritz and Joe Caruso spoke. The winner of that race will face one of two Democrats in November.

At the city level, we had Boca acting mayor Scott Singer and his opponent BocaWatch founder Al Zucaro. Municipal elections are usually in March, but the departure of indicted former Mayor Susan Haynie prompted a special election to be held coincident with the August primary.

This year, the number of candidates was fewer than past years (9 versus 19 in 2016 and 14 in 2014), partly due to a lack of challengers overall, and partly from the absence of Republican candidates that are running. CD18 incumbent Brian Mast and challenger Mark Freeman were absent, for example. This year there are NO Republicans running for open seats on the school board, Port Commission, or County Commission districts 2 or 6.

DeSantis Rocks Trump National

On Saturday, Republican candidate for Governor Ron DeSantis appeared at Trump National in Jupiter with “The Great One” Mark Levin, Fox pundit Dan Bongino, and CD1 Congressman Matt Gaetz. The large crowd was welcoming and enthusiastic, and possibly indicative of a surge in popularity for his candidacy. With some polls showing that the double digit lead held by Adam Putnam has waned, Ron appears to be making the most of his endorsement by President Trump, and has begun to define his value proposition as governor.

Ron has had support among the tea party grassroots since before his election to the sixth congressional district seat (Coastal from south Jacksonville to New Symrna Beach including Daytona Beach) in 2012. A tea party conservative, he is a key player in the House Freedom Caucus. I have long been a fan of his work in Congress, repealing Obamacare, opposing the Iran deal, and pushing for oversight of the corruption at the top levels of the Justice Department and FBI. His candidacy for Governor though, had seemed to be weak.

For the most part, Ron had seemed to be touting his Congressional bona-fides, and his campaign literature and fund raising appeals seemed more a call for Congressional re-election than a bid for the top executive job in the third largest state. A line of attack from the Putnam camp is that he is running his campaign on Fox News (Ron is a regular), has never held an executive job, and knows little about the Florida issues outside of Washington.

It was a different message we heard on Saturday. First, his surrogates described his work in DC as just as much “Florida Issues” as national ones. Health care, Immigration, tax cuts and de-regulation to boost the economy – these are all things that concern us within the state’s borders.

When Ron took the podium, he brought the focus back locally. Water issues and toxic algae, sanctuary cities and immigration, these are state issues, as is opposing common core and introducing civics back into the K-12 curriculum. He drew a sharp contrast to Adam Putnam on Sugar money (he doesn’t take it), ethanol mandates (Putnam opposed a measure to stop the measures that were harming the marine industry), and Congressional term limits (Putnam opposed).

Although his website is still short on specifics, he seems to be holding his own on the issues with Putnam and referred the audience to the Fox News debate between them last month, which he feels he won.

On the Democrat side, Jeff Greene seems to be developing a lead. With the money he plans to put in the race, a unified GOP will be needed to hold on to the Governor seat. DeSantis and Putnam are both credible candidates, but a tightening race may see the race turn negative. Let’s hope not.

At the end of the day, the Trump factor may make the difference. The President has endorsed DeSantis, and praised his work with the Freedom Caucus. There is evidence that Putnam has never really been a Trump fan. We will see how much weight that carries in Florida.

CIA Stories

Our May lunch featured former CIA agent Michelle Rigby Assad, author of “Breaking Cover, My Secret Life in the CIA and What It Taught Me about What’s Worth Fighting For.”

Telling several stories from her book, Michelle related the management of an Iraqi insurgent source during the “surge” (2006) when “nobody wanted to be in Iraq”. She and her husband, also a clandestine agent, were sent there “against their will”. The intelligence she gathered through the trust she engendered with the asset was significant, as women are not treated seriously in Iraqi militant culture.

Women are not treated very seriously in the CIA either apparently, as the one of the main takeaways from her talk was the gender bias she experienced throughout her career there, and she does not think it is any better today.

She was successful in spite of this challenge though, and she pointed out that there are 50 to 180 thousand applicants each year and just becoming an agent is significant, man or woman.

“The CIA is in need of fundamental changes,” she said, and it “has been successful in spite of itself”. Asked whether the appointment and confirmation of Gina Haspel to lead the agency showed improvement, Michelle was not particularly impressed. “Gina” she said, “is a headquarters person”, (not a field agent) and more of a “keep it together” executive than a visionary.

After leaving the CIA, she and her husband worked with producer Mark Burnett to help Iraqi Christians escape persecution. They were able to airlift 149 to Slovakia over a period of 4-1/2 months.

Also at the meeting was Agriculture Commissioner candidate Denise Grimsley. Denise touted her lifelong experience as a farmer, but also as an executive and finance professional.

Please join us next month for our annual scholarship meeting where the club will announce the awards for the 2018-19 school year. Inlet Grove Charter School CEO/President Dr. Emma Banks will be our speaker.

Peter Feaman on the Congressional Elections

“Work like it’s up to us; Pray like it’s up to God!”

With this exhortation, Peter Feaman gave us his views of the upcoming midterm elections.

Peter is the Florida Committeeman on the Republican National Committee and a member of the Rules Committee that presides over the conduct of the national convention and primaries. The RNC is in great fundraising shape this year compared to the Democrats he reports, and is 100% in lockstep with the President on his agenda.

“There has never been a better Republican President than Donald Trump in terms of policy”, he said. Losers like Bill Crystal who predicted that Trump was not a conservative have been proven wrong by his actions.

We are in the middle of a revolution or a civil war though – the left has still not accepted the results of the election. Barack Obama had pulled the country so far off the founder’s roots (and there is so much work to do), it is very important that we don’t lose the House in 2018.

The Democrats and the media would have you believe that they will win big and seek to demoralize our voters and donors, but in fact, the DNC is in debt and has little in the bank while the RNC has raised over $150M in the last year, $12.8M this February alone. We have been building a targeting database since the 2012 election and now have over 3000 points of data on 200 million voters.

The Senate will be tough for the Democrats – Nelson (FL), McCaskill (MO), Donnelly (IA), Heitkamp (ND), Manchin (WV) and Baldwin (WI) are all incumbents in Trump Country and at risk. The GOP can likely pick up 5-6 seats – not 60 but close.

In the House, it could turn over if the Democrats win back 24 seats – not unusual historically, but there are 53 open seats and only 6 (3D and 3R) are tossups.

Regarding our own Brian Mast (FL18), lots of people are mad as hell over his troubling gun grabbing rhetoric, but we still need to support him. Yes, he is not with us 100% of the time, but a Democrat would be against us 100% of the time. Remember: “Principle without Pragmatism is Suicide!”

It is important to remember that regardless of the Congressional Preference polls, the “mood” polls favor Republicans as the President works to bring back Reagan’s “Shiny city on the Hill,” and the tax cuts will certainly help. But ultimately, keeping the House is up to us.


Please join us next month on May 25th for Florida House Member Rick Roth (HD85), who will give us an update of the 2018 legislative session.

Starla Brown at January Lunch

Our first meeting of the new year featured Starla Brown, Grassroots Director, Americans for Prosperity Florida.

If you haven’t been involved with AFP lately, it was interesting to learn of the variety of their projects, over and above the core mission of getting out the vote.

Of particular interest to Starla is free speech on campus. Having just completed an event on this topic at FAU, they are supporting HB909 this session which would end “free speech zones” on florida campuses. While many would expect that the entire country is a “free speech zone”, unfortunately the liberal stalwarts that run our universities have relegated objectional views (such as conservative thought) to small pens in out of the way places (such as next to dumpsters). HB909 would stop the practice but it made it out of its first committee by only a 2 vote margin (out of 12) and has 2 more committee hurdles before it can get to the floor.

Other projects by AFP and their 501(c)(3) subsidiary AFP Foundation include the Libre Initiative, that advances the principles and values of economic freedom to empower the U.S. Hispanic community, primarily by offering English classes with a dose of policy.

Others are the Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) that aims to preserve the freedom and prosperity they and their families fought and sacrifices to defend, and Generation Opportunity – an outreach to millenials. Starla related that millenials she works with live in a virtual bubble through social media, only seeing people and ideas that are like minded.

To keep up with the bills in Tallahassee that AFP is supporting (or opposing), check out the Florida Billboard


Maryann Connors

Accompanying Starla was their local Field Director, Maryann Connors.

Also present was Derek Schwartz, candidate for CD21, the Lois Frankel seat. Derek is a Boca attorney and lives in Boynton Beach who specializes in tax law, and is a self described “America First” Trumpster. We expect to hear more about Derek in the months to come.

Candidate for SD31 Tami Donnally was represented by Paula Prudente.

Please join us next month, February 28, for a 2018 Election Update with PBCGOP Executive Director Ryan Hnatiuk.

Dimensional Harmony Highlights December Lunch

Our Christmas lunch was enhanced by the sweet tones of Dimensional Harmony from Boynton Beach High School and their leader Sterling Frederick.

The a cappella chorus did a range of traditional Christmas songs, as well as some of their pop favorites, with some excellent solo performances.

We also heard from PBCGOP Chairman Michael Barnett with some end of the year remarks as he swore in the club officers for the next year, and Tami Donnally, who is now a candidate in the special election for Senate District 31.

Mark your calendar’s for next month’s meeting on January 24 which will feature Starla Brown, Florida Grassroots Director for Americans for Prosperity.

  • Dimensional Harmony Dimensional Harmony
  • Michael Barnett and Tami Donnally Michael Barnett and Tami Donnally
  • Swearing in Ceremony Swearing in Ceremony

     

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