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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.