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.
An Analysis of the 2017 PBG Council Election
Good turnout for PBG Election
Apply Now for the 2017 Ann Roberts Scholarship
The Republican Club of the Palm Beaches’ Scholarship was named after a long-standing and active member of our Club, Anne Roberts.
Anne Roberts
Anne Roberts, a petite but strong and dedicated Republican, was born in Virginia in 1920. She lived and worked in Maryland until 1954, and then moved to Palm Beach County. Interestingly, this was the year after our Club was chartered.
While working as an R.N. for 50 year, she and her husband served on the REC. She was presented the Jean Pipes award by Palm Beach County Republican Party as an acknowledgment of her dedication to Republican principles. She never sought the limelight herself, working behind the scenes, continually letting others take credit. She always admonished us to “do the right thing”, make sure there’s education involved, mentor the young to follow in the right path, have fun, be prepared, and by all means, don’t lose money doing it!!! That is who Anne Roberts was!
In the late 80’s she had worked her way to 2nd Vice President of the Florida Federated Women. She was tasked with the “Entertainment”/Program for the NFRW National Convention held in Orlando on the 50th anniversary of the organization. She had the entire PB delegation, consisting of 6 Federated clubs, involved –even doing a “can-can” dance for one evening’s entertainment. What a “hoot” Anne was!
Her many committees remember her, not only for her great character and good judgment, but as the epitome of organization –always ready with even the tape, paper clips and scissors. She chaired a Lincoln Day Dinner in the 90’s, and true to who she was, read up on protocol for seating. She knew the value of research for allowing her to be sure everything ran smoothly—and many of us remember she knew how to delegate that research..
In 2005, Anne chaired the FFRW State Convention held in West Palm Beach. Despite a recent hurricane which cancelled the keynote speaker, she found a better one; and the show went on! If there were glitches, no one knew.
Anne left us before our club chartered with Republican Party of Florida. But, being a renaissance woman who realized that times change, I am sure she is smiling as we carry our Club’s Legacy onward. She would be very proud of the young folks who have received a scholarship in her name.
The Anne Roberts Memorial Scholarship is available to any full or part time undergraduate or graduate student seeking to further their education. Students must have a GPA of 3.0 or above and plan to attend an accredited college. Applicants must be Palm Beach County residents and registered (or pre-registered under 18 yrs. of age) Republicans. Current members may refer applicants for this scholarship. The deadline for this application is June 2. The recipient will be eligible to receive up to $500 to be sent to the school they will attend. Award will be presented at the monthly luncheon June 28, 2017.
RCPB Scholarship application 2017
Previous Years Winners
In 2016, we added two new recipients to our program, Lauren Staff and Jenna Calderaio.
Lauren graduated from Dwyer High School in 2015 and is presently at Gator Land, University of Florida in her sophomore year, majoring in telecommunications. She writes for the Independent Florida Alligator Newspaper and works for ESPN Gainesville Radio 95.3 researching sports statistics. She tells us that Law School is in her future.
Jenna graduated from Jupiter Community High School this year and is headed to Seminole Land, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY, to major in business and entrepreneurship looking forward to a career in product development. She attended the Florida Sunshine Summit in Orlando witnessing 14 presidential candidates which supported her goal to be a strong conservative leader for the Republican Party on a local or national level.
In 2015, our new winners were Aaron Mejias, who is studying Political Science and History at PBAU and Ryan Walker, a political science major at the University of Florida.
In 2014, our previous undergraduate recipients kept up their grades to receive additional scholarship: Dylan Brandenburg, John Clark, Jason Ferrara, and Daniel Kozell. Because of the generosity of our club members, we were able to add a fifth recipient, Hanna Matry, a junior at UF majoring in Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering and a member of the University’s Rocket Team in the NASA Hybrid rocket competition.
2013 was an expansive year for our scholarship program, with 6 recipients. They went to Elizabeth Cayson, a county employee who is attending Walden University in Illinois remotely, and Danielle Madsen, who recently graduated from Palm Beach Atlantic and is working at a TV station. Three Florida State students received grants including John Clark (3rd year), Dylan Brandenburg (1st year) and Daniel Kozell (2nd year), and Jason Ferrara who is attending the University of Alabama received his third year scholarship.
In 2012, there were 5 scholarships awarded: James Schackelford in his 3rd year at Florida Atlantic University and Daniel Kozell entering Florida State University. We continued to follow John Clark, Jason Ferrara and Shirley Schaff.
In 2011, there were four scholarships awarded. John Clark attending Florida State University, Jason Ferrara attending University of Alabama, Shirley Schaff attending Northwood University and Kimberly Twoey attending Palm Beach Atlantic University.
In 2010, one scholarship was awarded to Cindy Morris, mother of 5, in her final year with 3.7 GPA at Palm Beach Atlantic College School of Education with endorsements in special education and English and a second language.
The second 2010 scholarship was awarded to James Shackelford, majoring in accounting at Florida Atlantic University. With his passion for politics, he is active in student government and volunteered for Allen West and Marco Rubio campaigns. After receiving his masters in Finance, James plans to attend law school.
The 2009 recipient, Nicole Vega, from Berean Christian High School, aspired to be a civil engineer. After much mentoring by several Club members, Nicole has changed her studies to major in Communications with a minor in Political Science at Palm Beach State College.
RCPB Scholarship application 2017