Large Field of CD22 Candidates Take the Stage

On December 5, the extremely large field of Republicans looking to retire Ted Deutch in Congressional District 22 took the stage at the South County Civic Center. The event was sponsored by the Republican Party of Palm Beach County.

This D+15 district is comprised of northern Broward County (413K voters, D+18) and a small part of Palm Beach in Boca Raton east of the turnpike (100K voters, equal number of R and D). Whoever emerges from this field will have a tough road as Deutch is sitting on a war chest of $488K while none of the Republicans have posted any funds.

That said, with many Independents and even Democrats strongly opposed to the partisan impeachment farce which Deutch is supporting, this may be the year to turn CD22 red.

Moderated by MaryAnna Mancuso, a moderate Republican strategist who appears on WPTV’s “To the Point”, the forum gave each of the candidates a chance to stretch their political legs and make an impression.

At the left of the stage was Kevin Boyle of Boca Raton. A “law and order” candidate, Kevin would like to close the southern border until it is under control, impose maximum penalties for human trafficking, and curb Iranian aggression through military force if necessary.

Next up was Jessi Melton of Delray Beach who has an interest in health care. She supports health insurance across state lines and reducing the power of the FDA.

Jim Pruden, also from Boca, would push to pass Kate’s Law, reduce the national debt, and support the Trump Administration’s plans for the middle east.

To Jim’s right was Christine Scott of Boynton Beach. She would reduce our trade with China as we “don’t really need them”, applauds the “Right to Try” legislation and allowing drug importation from Canada. Seeking to qualify via petition, Christine has been out and about in the district since August, meeting thousands of voters.

Next was Joe Smith. His interest is criminal justice reform and supporting medical innovation.

To his right was Darlene Swaffer. Darlene is known as the “Medicare Lady” (her registered trademark) and runs a large Insurance agency in Deerfield Beach. She is interested in stopping the Algae Blooms in our waterways and revising Obamacare. Noting the Democrat lean to the district, she has already won the support (including endorsements) of some Independents and Democrats in Broward.

At the end of the stage was Dr. Eddison Walters of Boca Raton, a financial professional who believes that the 2008 real estate bubble was a hoax. His interesting hypothesis is backed up by a paper he wrote for the Journal of International Business and Economics. He believes that concern for the national debt is overblown, and focusing on growth is what we need to do.

With, eight months to go before the August primary, it will be interesting to see how this field shakes out. Besides these candidates and Ted Deutch, there is also an NPA candidate in the race, Omar Reyes, and Imtiaz Ahmad Mohammad is challenging Deutch in the Democrat primary.

Joe Budd on the 2020 Outlook

Joe Budd, State Committeeman and Trump Club 45 President, gave us a positive rendition of our chances for 2020.

An early Trump supporter, Joe was on board within a couple of weeks of the escalator ride. He noticed that it was the outsider candidates (including Fiorina, Cruz) that were getting most of the attention, and Trump was the best of these. Working as volunteer co-chairman of the campaign in the county, Joe helped his candidate achieve 52% of the vote in the primary and more votes in the general (41%) than Romney, McCain or Bush.

In 2020, it looks like the outsiders have the energy among the Democrats as well, with Biden falling and candidates like Kamala Harris making their mark. Joe expects the eventual candidate to move away from current Democrat leadership. Socialism and massive spending programs though, are not likely to do well in our center-right country.

He had some advice for our Congressional candidates. The only state-wide race in 2020 is for President, so that is where the focus and energy will be. Republican candidates need to attach themselves to the Trump agenda and the Trump campaign, otherwise it will be hard for them to raise funds or get noticed. Going it alone is not a smart strategy for next year.

Florida of course is very important to a 2020 victory, and we constitute a campaign region by ourselves with a state Chairman already in place. Unlike 2016, this time the RNC and the Trump campaign are joined at the hip and working smoothly together. This is true also of RPOF.

Joe and the Snowdens started Trump Club 45 to keep track of the large group of voters who came out to vote for Trump, maybe as first-time voters. Turnout was 52% better than in 2012 and we want to keep it that way. The club took the PBC Trump email list that we had compiled during the campaign, and more than doubled it. It is now the largest such club (of many) in the country. Unlike chartered Republican clubs, TC45 is independent, and has a fair number of Democrat members. This is a good thing as the support for the President here in PBC is bi-partisan.


Christian Acosta

Nick Vessio

Jim Prudent

John Rich
Also at the meeting were candidates Christian Acosta running for Lois Frankel’s seat in CD21, Nick Vessio who plans to challenge Brian Mast in a CD18 primary, and Jim Prudent who is exploring a run for CD22 against Ted Deutch.

We also heard from John Rich who gave us an update of what to expect from the training sessions at GOP headquarters this weekend.

Representative Mike Caruso Describes the Recount Circus

Our February lunch featured FH89 Representative Mike Caruso.

With the nickname “landslide” in Tallahasee, given his 37 vote winning margin, Mike relayed some of the arduous steps involved in moving through the circus that was Susan Bucher’s election operation.

Although he admits he very much enjoys the work of the capital, he may have thought twice about running if he knew what was in store for him. The coastal district, held for the last 8 years by Bill Hagar, was described to him as an easy Republican win when he decided to run. “Easy” is relative of course as the district is actually only R+1.6, practically even.

The campaign was dirty, with opponents stealing signs, lots of nasty lies spread in mailers, etc., but the worst was to occur after election day.

FH89 was one of the four races that were close enough to trigger a recount, and Mike witnessed first hand all the corrupt practices that were on display at the Supervisor of Elections. Many of us who were involved in the process were aware that there was no transparency, and that communications from Susan Bucher’s office were few, misleading and probably not true.

What you may not have known about though, was the gobs of ballots that were being “found” after the counting was supposed to be done – over 4000 in the case of FH89. Mike’s opponent Jim Bonfiglio was heard to say at one point during the recount “don’t worry, we will have the votes”. Bucher was never able to actually say how many votes had actually been cast in any of the races, yet she seemed to always know the margins.

Lots of dirty tricks were occurring. SOE employees were observed in a backroom hurriedly filling out new ballots – supposedly transcribing “unreadable” ones but who could tell – no one was allowed in there and the canvassing board was not present in violation of law. When this activity was challenged, the supervisor’s response was to move filing cabinets around to block the view of the activity from the “public”. When the canvassing board was present and involved in “determining the intent of the voter”, Mike was keeping count of how many votes were being assigned to him and his opponent. At the end of the day though, when the tallies were supposedly “rolled up”, his count never changed. This occurred multiple times.

The most arrogant action by Bucher though was about toilets. With hundreds of volunteers from both parties descending on the Riviera Beach counting facility, there was only one bathroom and she refused to remedy the situation as she really didn’t want to make it pleasant for those looking over her shoulder. Mike requested from the Republicans in Tallahassee assistance in obtaining porta-johns and toilet paper, and when they came through, Bucher refused to place them on “her” property and said she would have them towed if placed on the street.

Fortunately, when the race was finally certified, Mike was ahead by the same 37 votes he had been from the start and his opponent conceded. Although the entire experience was an unpleasant one, he has taken his place in the Legislature, and through the actions of Governor DeSantis, we have a new Supervisor of Elections.

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!

Ballot Amendments to be Explained at October Meeting

Please Join us on Wednesday, October 24, for a discussion of the 13 ballot amendments to appear on the November Ballot.

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!


1
Increased Homestead Property Tax Exemption

2
Limitations on Property Tax Assessments

3
Voter Control of Gambling in Florida

4
Voting Restoration Amendment

5
Supermajority Vote Required to Impose, Authorize, or Raise State Taxes or Fees

6
Rights of Crime Victims; Judges

7
First Responder and Military Member Survivor Benefits; Public Colleges and Universities

8
School Board Term Limits, Allow State to Operate Non-Board Established Schools

9
Prohibits Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling; Prohibits Vaping in Enclosed Indoor Workplaces

10
State and Local Government Structure and Operation

11
Property Rights; Removal of Obsolete Provision; Criminal Statutes

12
Lobbying and Abuse of Office by Public Officers

13
Ends Dog Racing

PBC-1
PBC School District Tax Increase
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Program Noon – 1PM, Buffet starts at 11:30AM

Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center

Palm Beach Airport
1301 Belvedere Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33405
Phone: 561-659-3880

$25/Members $30/Guests
Pay at the door.

Make sure you submit your RSVP in advance by clicking on our link below:

or by emailing info@gopclubpb.org, or by calling 561-855-0749.
  Please respect Club rules: Cell Phones Silenced, Business Casual Attire
Republican Club of the Palm Beaches
PO Box 2585
West Palm Beach, FL 33402
(561) 855-0749

The Ethical Lapses of Andrew Gillum

The following is excerpted from the Sunshine State News:


Now that Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is the Democratic Party nominee for governor, the press and voters need to take a much closer look into his service as our ceremonial mayor.

Gillum has been consistently involved in issues that the FBI is investigating as part of their work into corruption at City Hall and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).

While Gillum alleges he was told by the FBI that he’s not a subject of their investigation, no one has ever corroborated that statement.

First and foremost is the ethical concerns around the New York City trip that Gillum took for his former employer. We now know, after persistent questioning by the Tallahassee Democrat, that Gillum stayed on after that meeting, relocating to a plush NYC hotel, the Millennium Hilton, attending the “Hamilton” Broadway play where tickets cost hundreds of dollars, and even going on a boat ride around Manhattan and the Statute of Liberty with Adam Corey and Mike Miller, where pictures were taken.

Gillum has recently told The Washington Post that sometimes his brother Marcus Gillum pays some of his expenses, and he has said that his brother paid his expenses in NYC.

For the full article click HERE

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.

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.

PBCGOP Executive Director Ryan Hnatiuk at February Meeting

Please Join us on Wednesday, February 28, for

Ryan Hnatiuk
Republican Party of Palm Beach County Executive Director

Join us in February as Ryan will give us the local party’s view of this election year, with particular focus on the March municipal elections.

We will also be inviting candidates to introduce themselves at this meeting.

Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Program Noon – 1PM, Buffet starts at 11:30AM

Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center

Palm Beach Airport
1301 Belvedere Road
West Palm Beach, FL 33405

$25/Members $30/Guests
Pay at the door.

Make sure you submit your RSVP in advance by clicking on our link below:

or by emailing info@gopclubpb.org, or by calling 561-855-0749.
  Please respect Club rules: Cell Phones Silenced, Business Casual Attire, Please No Jeans
Republican Club of the Palm Beaches
PO Box 2585
West Palm Beach, FL 33402
(561) 855-0749

Ryan C. Hnatiuk is the Political and Executive Director of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County. He was born and raised outside of Flint, Michigan. He, and his wife of 14 years, have one son who is a very active toddler and is a full time job in his own right. Since coming to South Florida, Ryan has had the opportunity to work with various candidates, consultants and fundraisers primarily within Palm Beach County but has also consulted in the counties of Martin, Broward, and St. Lucie. He has worked in various sized campaigns from town council to congressional and county commission seats.

Ryan recently attained his master’s degree from Nova Southeastern University in Conflict Resolution and is also a certified mediator. Prior to getting his master’s degree he received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan and a minor in International Relations with primary focus being on Latin American governments and their emerging markets. He is looking to use the skills he has attained to strengthen friendships, build lasting coalitions and open dialogue to attract new people to the Republican Party.

Sid Dinerstein Talks about the Trump Victory

“Black People Vote on Sunday!” – with this thought, former county GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein laid out for us all the clues that were readily available to predict the election of Donald Trump.

Describing a conversation he had with his daughter in New Hampshire on November 7, the night before the election, Sid gave us some insights into the demographics of 2016 and how it differed from when Obama was running. While at the time he wasn’t sure how it would turn out, there were encouraging signs.

The re-election of Barack Obama in 2012 saw a turnout in the black community that exceeded white turnout for the first time (on a percentage basis). Many thought the Obama coalition would turn out for Clinton and insure her victory, but it was not to be. On the traditional “souls to the polls” day – the Sunday before the election, turnout in Palm Beach County was very heavy, but the proportion of black voters seemed to be less. (Editor’s note: In fact, 24% of the 23K voters on 11/6 self-identified in voter rolls as black, compared to 33% on 11/3/2012.) This was happening all across the country.

Another clue was the polling, much of it designed by the media to suppress Republican vote.

Zander Lurie, CEO of Survey Monkey (the company that provides much of the polling muscle for the mainstream media), was known to have contributed $600K to the Clinton campaign. All pollsters are not dishonest of course, but when you know how the boss wants the poll to come out it can have an effect.

There are many ways to diddle with poll results. One that was used was to adjust the outcome to reflect the demographics of the 2012 race. Another was to adjust where the polling was done. If I wanted to make the case that independents were supporting Clinton with big numbers, I could have polled them in Century Village. Since many “independents” have a tendency to vote just like their neighbors, independents in heavily Democrat areas will lean that way.

Survey guru Nate Silver has usually been right about outcomes, but he is an aggregator of polls, not a pollster himself. Thus, if the majority of the polls show a Trump defeat, than he was led to draw that conclusion.

An ironic side-effect of this bias in the polls was over confidence by the Clinton campaign. They had no internal polling of their own and believed the polls that were skewed to make them appear to be running away with it. As a result, they neglected to campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan, believing those states to be solidly in their camp.


Also at this meeting, we heard from Steve Hyatt who is running a “candidate school” for GOP candidates down in Plantation.

The next meeting will be April 26 for which we are trying to line up a speaker from the James Madison Institute.

If you live in Palm Beach Gardens or Jupiter, please remember their is a runoff election on March 28. Republican Joe Russo is the Republican in the Gardens Group 5 race, as is Ron Delany in Jupiter District 2.

  • Steve Hyatt Steve Hyatt
  • David and Tami Donnelly with Mercedes Garcia and Delia Garcia Menocal David and Tami Donnelly with Mercedes Garcia and Delia Garcia Menocal
  • Sid Dinerstein Sid Dinerstein
  • Nancy Hogan, Col. Arthur DeRuve Nancy Hogan, Col. Arthur DeRuve

     

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