Meet the Candidates

With the primary over and the November Midterms looming, come and meet some of the Republican candidates for office or their representatives – we have invited those for Congress to County Commission and in between.

Participants as of today: (Click on the picture for their website)

Congress 23 Deborah Adeimy	Senate District 26 Rick Roth	House District 87 Jon Maples	House District 93 Anne Gerwig
House District 94 Meg Weinberger	County Commission 6 Sara Baxter	School Board 4 Daniel Zapata (rep)	Port of PB 5 Ted Sarandis

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Kenneth Abramowitz at August Meeting

Our August meeting featured Kenneth Abramowitz, Chairman of Citizens For National Security and founder of savethewest.com

Ken began his talk by drawing a line between good and evil – a distinction based on what an individual believes.

Illustrated by a colored pie chart, he divided the world into the “evil” components (Red for Big Government and its Communist/Progressive adherents, Green for Political Islam, and Blue for globalists and the United Nations), the indeterminant Isolationists, and in the center the “good” Rational Centrists. In his view we (western civilization) are at war with these factions using all the tools at our disposal.

In analyzing the rhetoric of “evil”, he listed slogans in common use (“Globalize the Intifada”, “From the River to the Sea”) and the antisemitic message they carry, and suggested that it was time to criminalize these “incitements to genocide”. This prompted some pushback from the audience as an infringement on the First Amendment.

To win the hearts and minds of those taking these slogans to heart, he suggested a back to basics approach based on “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. Life means physical protection (closed borders, peace through strength). Liberty means to protect culture (more control of our healthcare, education, etc. and conducting elections where it is easy to vote but hard to cheat). Happiness means to grow the economy (economic freedom, energy independence, stop corruption).

Victory Office Now Open

Kenneth Abramowitz of Citizens for National Security is August Speaker

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Kenneth Abramowitz is a Managing General Partner and co-founder of NGN Capital, a worldwide healthcare venture capital fund. He joined NGN from The Carlyle Group in New York where he was Managing Director from 2001-2003, focused on U.S. buyout opportunities in the healthcare industry. Prior to Carlyle he was a partner and healthcare analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. for 23 years, 1978-2001. He was awarded the Number one analyst status in Medical Devices and Services for 15 years by the Institutional Investor magazine, which also placed him in the Wall Street Analyst Hall of Fame in 2009. Kenneth has published several notable studies on healthcare service companies, major medical mergers and cardiovascular device innovations. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of CardioValve and Cerapedics.

Kenneth has been a staunch supporter and contributor to various organizations that are fighting to preserve liberty and to protect America from Political Islam and the radical left. He is the Chairman of Citizens For National Security (CFNS), a Florida-based and grass roots National Security advocacy organization. Ken is the founder of savethewest.com, a website dedicated to saving America from itself! He is also an active board member for the American Center For Democracy (ACD). For these purposes, he gave 100 speeches per year for the past 5 years. 

RCPB Hosts Chairman Carl Cascio at June lunch

Our June meeting featured GOP Chairman Carl Cascio.

Starting with his thoughts on key local issues, Carl pointed to the county administration and the actions at the state level to slow the excessive growth in county and municipal budgets. Led by CFO Blaise Ingoglia who directs FAFO (Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight), analysis has been done comparing the budget growth to population and inflation, and they have faulted Palm Beach County for greatly exceeding that measure. Speaking for the county, Administrator Joe Abruzzo wants to see actual evidence of excessive spending and claims the CFO knows nothing about our budget. Carl thinks that Joe should sharpen his pencil.

Comparing a budget to inflation and population growth (also knows as TABOR – taxpayer bill of rights), is a time tested metric which avoids quibbling over pencils and office furniture. In fact, the county budget is mostly driven by large increases in PBSO (which has doubled over the last 8 years and is now about 60% of the $1.5B ad valorem budget), and year after year 6% “cost of living” salary increases for county employees.

To slow or reverse this local budget growth (affects everyting but the school system), the state has put on the ballot for November an increase in the homestead exemption to $150,000 next year and $250,000 by 2028. The county will try to defeat this (needs 60%) by arguing that the cut is massive and will cause layoffs and a cutback in critical services like PBSO and Fire/Rescue. Clearly a ready made campaign issue on a local level.

Another local issue that Carl touched on is the proliferation of data centers such as “Project Tango” slated to be built on Southern Blvd. near 20 mile bend. With their large demand for electrical power and water for cooling, opposition to these data centers (which is also opposition to the growth of AI) is increasing. With the County Commission about to approve this project, it has become a valid local campaign issue as well.

On the political front, Carl reminded us of the narrowing registration gap (only 8,797 more DEMs than REPS as of today, making the county D+1). The local party has been pushing the Supervisor of Elections to keep the voter rolls clean and she has done significant purging over the last few years. With the redistricting this year, Republicans now have a shot at winning the new Congressional Districts 22 (from Wellington to the west coast) and 25 (coastal Broward and Boca/Delray south of Linton Blvd.). The focus of the REC will be on turning out Republican voters first, then going after the NPAs.

Also at the meeting we heard from Ralph and Dorcas Hernandez, accepting one of our scholarships for their son William. Annalise Hernandez, who we heard from last month also received a scholarship for 2026.

Candidates who spoke included former State Representative Rick Roth who is running for Senate District 26 and unopposed in the primary, and Jonathan Rubin running against Jon Maples in the primary for for House District 87. We also heard from Todd Fabricant, recruitment director for the REC. Todd explained the responsibilities of an REC member and the need for more people to step up and join.

County Chairman Carl Casio for June Meeting

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As Chairman, Carl provides the leadership needed to continue the success of the election operations/integrity, candidate recruitment and fundraising areas of the REC. He believes these areas will be key to the future success of the REC as it has been over this past year. Carl was born and raised a Floridian and importantly, a Republican. Carl’s family moved from Miami to Palm Beach County in 1988. After finishing law school, Carl moved back to Palm Beach County and soon thereafter became a member of the Republican Executive Committee in 1993 and in 1994 Carl ran for State Representative as the Republican nominee.

Carl has also helped several candidates in Local, State and Federal races and raised a family before re-joining the REC in 2019. Carl has been a critical part of the team that has led the preceding REC leadership which achieved its record setting fund raising, significant improvements in the 2024 municipal elections and success in this past General Election cycle. Despite significant change in REC leadership, our local party has made significant strides in some very important areas, but still much more needs to be done moving forward. In the past year, while acting as REC General Counsel, Carl effectively led the REC Board to ensure that the executive committee was running properly, according to the local rules, states rules and County Model Constitution.

Carl earned a B.S. in Business Management from Purdue University while also starting on the Men’s Tennis team, and earned a Law Degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law. Carl has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1992 and is also admitted to United States District Court Southern and Middle Districts of Florida. He is also the founder of Carl A. Cascio, P.A. and Owner and President of Dolphin Title of the Palm Beaches, Inc.

Carl currently lives with his wife, Dianne, in Palm Beach Gardens and together they have four adult children.

Vice Chair Lonnie Weinberg at May Lunch

Our May lunch was a study in contrasts.

On the one hand, things should be great for Republicans in Palm Beach County as we have closed the registration gap to less than 10,000 (9708 as of 5/28 or D+1.1). At the time of the November 2024 election the difference was about 40,000, and Trump almost won the county, falling only 5676 votes short.

Additionally, the Legislature has passed and the Governor has signed a redistricting plan that should favor Republicans in 4 more seats assuming the court challenges are repulsed. These new maps have major changes in our backyard, with CD20, 22, and 23 all looking very different. Although Lois Frankel is in a better position, with her district (now called 23) more Democrat than it was, Jared Moskewitz, Debby Wasserman Schultz, Frederica Wilson and whoever runs in CD20 have challenging races and one of them is likely to lose their seat.

So what’s not to like?

We just had a special election for House District 87 to replace Mike Caruso. By most measures, our candidate Jon Maples should have had an easy win, but he lost by 801 votes out of 33447 cast, or roughly 49 to 51%. Jon had lots of money – more than is usually spent on House races, and a team that went door to door all over the district. His mailings were prodigious and it would have been hard to not know what he stood for or that there was an election in which to vote. This district is currently R+14, with 47856 Reps, 31899 Dems, and 35325 other. Jon won election day and in early voting, but was swamped 8468 to 5366 in Vote-by-Mail. So what happened?

Our speaker, GOP Vice Chair Lonnie Weinberg discussed some of this. We didn’t turn out the vote he said. Republican turnout was 12% when it should have been 30-40%. Given that the overall turnout in the election was 29% (historically very high for a special election), Lonnie has a point. The real issue though wasn’t that our turnout was light (it usually is for these specials) but the Democrat turnout was phenomenal. They saw this election as a way to gain some momentum for November and really pushed out their vote for Emily Gregory, particularly in VBM. Holding on to the seat will be harder of course as the turnout with Congressional and Governor races in the fall driving the turnout, and R+14 SHOULD be impossible to overcome. Gregory is going to try though and as a resident of the district, I’ve received more mail from her than I ever did from Mike Caruso or Rick Roth. She also is doing monthly town halls.

Coming to Lonnie’s assistance in answering the question “so what did the REC not do and how will you fix it in November?”, we heard from county Chairman Carl Cascio who was in the audience. Jon’s mistake was that he reached out to NPAs” said Carl. They all turned out to be Dems at heart. “He should have focused on local issues” said Carl, who will be our speaker next month. “What local issues are they?” he was asked. “You’ll have to wait until next month to hear about those” he said. While it could be true that HD87 NPAs lean left, they only make up 30% of the district. It has been my experience that NPAs typically vote in percentage of their neighbors and don’t typically swing an election.

In any case, the Republican Party should be worried about this result, and we need a much better plan going forward to get out the vote. Sid Dinerstein, also in the audience, added “and we should stop trying to unseat sitting Republicans and fighting with each other!”.

Later in the meeting we heard from Annalise Hernandez, daughter of our club members Ralph and Dorcas Hernandez. She was the winner of one of our Anne Roberts Scholarships this year and the check was presented to her early as she is starting school soon and will miss our June meeting. Annalise plans to study political science at Florida Atlantic, and will be an intern in the Office of the President at FAU.

GOP Vice Chair Lonnie Weinberg for May Meeting

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Lonnie is a lifelong Conservative and America First Republican, originally from Newton, Massachusetts. In 1991, he relocated with his family to Palm Beach County, where he launched a business that continues to thrive today. He is a strong advocate for limited government, lower taxes, individual liberties, and other core Republican values.

Over the years, Lonnie has actively supported numerous political campaigns, assisting local candidates as well as Governor Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump. He is deeply engaged in grassroots efforts, regularly participating in flag rallies and helping with campaign signage. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Bentley University and an MBA in Finance from Babson College.

In addition to his political and professional work, Lonnie played a key role in developing two boys’ high school lacrosse programs in Palm Beach County. He served as the inaugural head coach for the boys’ lacrosse team at Palm Beach Central High School in 2005 and 2006, and later at Wellington High School in 2007 and 2008.

Both Sides Now

Note: This article was published by Newsmax on April 23rd. Both Sides Now

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose, And still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all

This great classic, Both Sides Now, was written by Joni Mitchell in 1967 and popularized by Judy Collins. It speaks to the recent political loss we Republicans suffered in a special election for Florida House district 87 last month; an election we couldn’t possibly lose, and yet, we did. House District 87 is President Trump’s home district and is solid Republican. This posting is my version of Both Sides Now; the Republican strategy versus the Democrat strategy. And, yes, this is also my home district.

But, first, a trip down Memory Lane. In 2009, then Florida State Senate President Ken Pruitt resigned his seat after the legislative session ended in the Spring. That set up a special election between Republican Joe Negron and Democrat Bill Ramos. I was Chairman of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County at the time (2002-2012) and asked Joe: “How can I help?” Joe told me that the Republican Absentee Ballots (we now call them vote-by-mail) were not being returned on a timely basis and he needed an AB Chase. I told him I was on it. I called Linda from Jupiter and asked her to put a volunteer group together to “chase” Joe’s ballots. How successful were we? When the election was over, Joe had more votes from Absentee Ballots and early voting than his opponent had accumulated in the entire race. In other words, because of Linda’s work, the election was over before people went to them polls that Tuesday.

Fast forward to March 24, 2026. Jon Maples lost to Emily Gregory by around 700 votes. How did that happen? Sometime between Joe Negron and Jon Maples the Republican Party ceded the whole concept of vote-by-mail to the Democrats. Everywhere. In Jon’s election, he lost the mail by 3000 votes and won at the polls on Tuesday by over 2000. Hence, the 700-vote deficit.

In election campaigns there are two strategies; the Air game and the Ground game. The Air game consists of media: Television, Social Media and Postcard mailings. The Ground game consists mostly of door knocking, signs and phone calls. We Republicans got a major dose of the Air game. Literally, every day our (physical) mail box had new large postcards telling us how wonderful Jon Maples is; showing us pictures of his beautiful family, filling us in on his successes in sports, business and politics. At night, there was Jon on television, reminding us of those same successes. I never saw a single Emily commercial, although I was told she did some. I had no idea of what she looked like or believed in. Jon assured us he was for low taxes and that he had the Trump endorsement. Jon also assured us Emily was for higher taxes. Jon’s campaign cost $500,000 and was run by Tallahassee consultants. Emily’s campaign spent $400,000, virtually none of it on Television, large postcards or large signs. So, where did Emily’s money go? TEXTING. Every day Democrats got texts urging them to get a VBM ballot. “Punch here!” Every. Single. Day. Later in the campaign, every day’s text was VOTE EARLY, until it was VOTE TUESDAY. The Ground game strategy of “punch here, get your vbm overwhelmed the Republican “Here’s Jonny” Air campaign. The only Vote Tuesday texts the Republicans received were either sent by me or my vender, all personally paid for. The REC? They simply don’t do campaigns against Dems. Right now, they’re totally focused on beating an incumbent Republican County Commissioner.

And, how about the Tallahassee angle? First, in the campaign business, media expenditures generate placement fees back to the consultants who placed the ads. In other words, television pays. Maybe that mattered and maybe it didn’t. But Emily spent little on television, and won. Jon probably spent six figures on television, and lost. Second, when you’re in a state as Red as Florida, too much fighting is intraparty, Republican versus Republican. Before there was Jon Maples there was Tracy Caruso. Tracy wanted that seat. Tallahassee didn’t want Tracy. Why? Because she and her husband, Mike, were seen as pro-DeSantis. Apparently, Tallahassee is MAGA all the way. Me? I think President Trump and Governor DeSantis are two of the best leaders in American history. I don’t see any need to pick one over the other. I just want to win.

I looked at this election from both sides now, from win and lose, and reached one simple conclusion: Those that keep their eyes on the prize will beat those that engage in not-so-friendly fire.

April Meeting – Brigadier General Mark Holler on the Middle East and Beyond

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Brigadier General (Ret.) Mark A. Holler most recently served as the Deputy Commanding General – Operations for Eight Army in South Korea (2022-23). A native of Florida, Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Holler graduated from the University of North Florida in 1992 as a ROTC Distinguished Military Graduate. His advanced education includes a master’s degree in military operational art and science and a master’s degree in strategic studies.

Over a 31-year active duty career, Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Holler served in leadership positions ranging from platoon leader to commanding general. He served a total of eight years overseas, to include five combat tours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and three assignments within the Pacific region. Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Holler also served in the Pentagon as the Director of Fires on the Army staff and Executive Officer to the Inspector General of the Army.

Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Holler’s awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit (six awards), Bronze Star (three awards), Meritorious Service Medal (five awards), and Joint Service Commendation Medal. His badges include the Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist Badge, Combat Action Badge, Senior Space Badge, Inspector General Badge, and the Army Staff Identification Badge.

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