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.

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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.

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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

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.

Congressman Brian Mast Visits our November Veteran’s Event

In our annual salute to veterans, of which there are quite a few among the club members, Army Veteran and Congressman Brian Mast recapped his first year in the House representing CD18.

Brian was introduced by Sid Dinerstein, who pointed out that although Brian’s seat has been targeted by the national Democrats mainly because of the narrow (R+4) district demographics, with popular State Attorney Dave Aronberg likely sitting it out the seat is not that much at risk if we all give Brian our support.

Club President Fran Hancock echoed that theme, pointing out that although some club members live outside the district, Brian is still “our” Congressman since he is the only Republican representing any district in Palm Beach County. As such, we should give him our support, our time and our money as he runs for re-election in 2018.

Brian’s remarks addressed some of the questions he was asked before the meeting got started.

A common question was “is Washington really as awful as it sounds?”. The answer is somewhat mixed. One of his pet peeves about many of those that inhabit that swamp is the total disingenuousness of his colleagues. It is hard to fathom how someone can call you vile names while in front of the cameras, then come by later and act as if they are your friend seeking support for their pet legislation. Not the way real people behave.

Brian was hopeful for passage of tax reform this year, and he was one of the needed votes for it to pass the House this past Thursday. What will happen in the Senate (where hundreds of bills have gone to die) is anybody’s guess, but the House has done their part. The House bill will be good for people in district 18 – statistics indicate that currently only 30% itemize, and the new standard deduction will drop that to 5-10%. What the left is spinning about tax cuts only for the rich is very misleading. Pointing out that the amount of taxes that are levied in each bracket is declining for all earners, tax reduction is real.

He spoke of his work on VA Legislation, and the fact that through his efforts, he now has a Congressional Office right in the West Palm Beach Medical Center. He encouraged veterans with problems with the system to drop by his office and seek his assistance.  He also hoped that other representatives throughout the country choose to do the same and get offices at their local VA hospitals.

In the Q&A session that followed, he was asked what we could do to help. “Bring your friends to the townhalls” he said. That is the way to create new activists when they witness the rhetoric on the left and how he stands up to it.

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At the conclusion of the meeting, members voted on the slate of officers for 2018 who will be installed at the December 6 lunch featuring Dimensional Harmony. They are President Fran Hancock, Vice President Fred Scheibl, Secretary Claire Anderson Jones, and Treasurer Bette Anne Starkey.

Property Rights Discussed at October Lunch

At the October lunch, Daniel Peterson, Director of the Center for Property Rights at the James Madison Institute in Orlando gave us his view of the legacy of property rights in the US, and the forces that threaten them today.

Contrasting the situation that existed in the Soviet Union, where all property was owned by the state and most people lived in apartments, he described our system dating back to the Puritan colony in New England were they considered individuals as “stewards of the land”.

Our system provides 5 rights associated with property: the freedom to possess property, to enjoy it without interference, to use it for our own purposes, to exclude others from it, and to dispose of it as we see fit.

Threatening these rights are three forces:

First is the “Government Estate” – ownership of land by governments that crowd out private uses. As example, 50% of all the land west of the Mississippi is owned by the federal government, including 83% of the state of Utah. This not only takes the land out of public use, but it starves state and local government of property tax revenue (sometimes offset by PILT – payment in lieu of taxes, where the locals are partially compensated by the federal landowner.)

In Florida, about a third of the state is government owned with 30% in conservation (37% in PBC). The cost of acquisition of these 2.5 million acres was about $2500 per acre under the P2000 and Florida Forever programs. Added is the cost of maintenance ($173M per year) and the cost of bonding ($145M / year).

Another threat is over reaching regulations, particularly things like the EPA’s “Waters of the US”, which attempted to restrict usage of most of the surface water in the country, (including presumably rain puddles in your backyard) and the “Clean Power Plan” which the Obama administration was using to destroy the coal industry and hamstring energy use and production.

The third threat is the Bureaucratic maze with its sometimes conflicting permitting requirements from all manner of jurisdictions that makes business creation or even enjoying your own property difficult.

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Please join us next month as we salute veterans with Congressman Brian Mast on Saturday, November 18th. The usual lunch meeting will be free to all veterans – bring your friends!

Professor James Todd’s Views on the upcoming Supreme Court Term

The Supreme Court begins its next term on Monday, the thirteenth presided over by Chief Justice John Roberts. What can we expect?

Our speaker yesterday, PBAU Professor James Todd, who specializes in American governmental institutions and constitutional law, gave us his perspective.

Professor Todd listed the three areas that he is watching – the actions of new Justice Neil Gorsuch, a set of interesting cases they are likely to take up, and the possibility of resignations in the near future.

Justice Gorsuch, who took office in April and participated in the end of the last session has had an auspicious start. As promised by President Trump, he is very much in the mold of Antonin Scalia – a very conservative jurist. For those cases in which he participated, Judge Gorsuch staked out the most conservative positions, even going so far as to write his own opinion when he thought the majority did not go far enough.

On the travel ban case for example, while the court mostly removed the lower court injunction pending review in the fall, but modified the ban to allow for exceptions, Judge Gorsuch (along with Clarence Thomas) opined that the executive was not to be second guessed by the judiciary on matters of national security. He also strongly affirmed the principal of religious liberty in the Missouri playground case – where a religious school was denied government funding for safety improvements by a lower court. The upcoming session should be interesting to watch.

Upcoming cases that Professor Todd thought would be addressed by the court include:

• The revised travel ban, after it makes its way through the lower court challenges. (The October hearing was canceled since the original ban ended and a modified one has been introduced that addresses some of the initial objections).
• Partisan gerrymandering – do partisan state legislatures have the right to define districts so as to advantage a particular party. He expects that the court may conclude that there is no constitutional issue here – it is all politics and should be addressed at the ballot box rather than the courtroom.
• The Colorado “wedding cake” case – does religious liberty allow a baker to refuse to make a cake for a gay wedding when in conflict with local anti-discrimination laws. The justice to watch in this case is Anthony Kennedy, who has typically been supportive of gay rights in other cases.
• Gender segregated bathrooms
• The Maryland AR-15 ban
• The right to privacy in cell phone records. The court has already decided that a warrant is needed to search the contents of a cell phone, but not the records maintained by the carrier.
• Should school boards be allowed to have a prayer at their meetings? Although the courts have ruled that governmental bodies (eg. city councils) may include a prayer, this issue turns on whether a school board is special because it is part of a school system (where prayer is precluded).

On the issue of retirements, Professor Todd lists the most likely in order as Anthony Kennedy (coming up on his 30th anniversary next year), Ruth Bader Ginsberg (at 84, the oldest justice, but would be loath to let Donald Trump pick her successor), Clarence Thomas, and Steven Breyer.

Please join us for the next meeting on October 25 for Daniel Peterson, Director of the Center for Property Rights of the James Madison Institute.

August Lunch Featured County Commissioner Steven Abrams

August speaker Commissioner Steven Abrams gave us a county update, and some musings on the events of the day today at the Airport Holiday Inn.

As a term-limited Commissioner with 15 months remaining, he described the difficulty in seeking higher office for any Republican in Palm Beach County. After a successful challenge by the League of Women Voters after the 2012 redistricting, in which coastal and inland districts (aligned with unique and different interests) were forced into two east/west districts with significant Democrat majorities, we are left with CD21 (Lois Frankel’s D+17 district) and CD22 (Ted Deutch’s D+14 district which is mostly in Broward). There is also Alcee Hasting’s minority interest district (CD20 which is D+49) and northern CD18 (R+3) which is already held by a Republican – Brian Mast.

Steven joked that Ted Deutch told him how his district had improved – with the Broward area he now has three “Century Villages” and two “King’s Points” – areas where Republicans are an endangered species.

When the redistricting for county offices was in the planning stages, he looked into expanding his district 4 north into Palm Beach (it now ends at South Palm Beach). (“At least he would get invited to better parties.”) Unfortunately, districts have to be contiguous and the minority interest district 7 needed a piece of the island to connect Riviera Beach and WPB sections to Boynton and Delray.

With reference to the unpleasantness surrounding the Mar-a-Lago bookings that have involved local pols, Steven said the county commission tries to stay out of the ‘ideological’ issues that churn in Tallahassee and Washington, and focus on the “pothole” issues – public safety, economic prosperity and quality of life.

In these areas, he described some ongoing projects – a golf development coming to non-aviation airport land, the shooting range being built on SFWMD land at Mecca Farms, and issues surrounding western development like the GL Homes projects and Minto’s “Town of Westlake”.

He also pitched his idea to realize a $15M savings in the budget (over several years), by NOT buying the SFWMD land in the Ag reserve that has been offered and which staff wants the county to purchase. He would rather see it sold to farming families and kept zoned for agriculture.

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In other business:

– Fran mentioned that John Clark (one of our scholarship recipients) just got married.
– Our scholarship fund is depleted (please give!) and there will be a fundraiser later in the year.
– Linda Gore mentioned that “Furry Friends” is holding an event in Jupiter on Saturday from 9-3 where you will be able to watch dogs surfing.

Photos from Carol Porter:

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