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.

PBCGOP Chair Carl Cascio for February Meeting

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Carl Cascio 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.

Committeewoman Jodi Schwartz at October Lunch

Our October meeting featured newly elected State Committeewoman Jodi Schwartz. A rising star in the PBC Republican party, supporting GOTV efforts and candidates at all levels for the last 5 years, Jodi won almost 25,000 votes (40%) in the August election in a county-wide race against two opponents, including a past Vice Chair and candidate in several House and Senate races. As Committeewoman, she will represent the county party to RPOF and connect local candidates with the movers and shakers in Tallahassee.

Jodi started with the various ways that members can help get our candidates elected on 11/5. At this point we are “past the point of persuasion” and focused on Get Out the Vote. Early voting has already started, and Republicans have done better this year in returning Vote by Mail ballots.

Some of her suggestions suggestions are:

• Sign up for a slot at one of the GOP tents at the early voting sites
• Wear a flag pin or Trump hat and talk it up in supermarket lines and other public places
• Sign wave at the Early Voting sites
• Sign up at the office to door knock and phone bank
• Bring friends and family to the polls
• VOTE EARLY!!

With a full list of our candidates, she urged support for them as well as our positions on the ballot amendments: NO on 3 (Marijuana) and 4 (Abortion), YES on the others, and NO on the sales tax surcharge. It looks good for our incumbents Peggy Gosset Seidman and Mike Caruso, and Meg Weinberger in the seat vacated by Rick Roth. We have the chance of a pickup in HD93 where Anne Gerwig is challenging incumbent Katherine Waldron.

We had asked her to say a few words about election integrity, and that clearly is on people’s minds as there were a lot of questions. She made a good case for the strengths of our checks and balances, and the improvements that have been made since Wendy Link was appointed Supervisor of Elections by Governor DeSantis.

State Committeewoman Jodi Schwartz to speak at October Meeting

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Jodi Schwartz has been a full time, very active, grassroots volunteer in Palm Beach County politics since January of 2020. She has worked on Congressional, State House, State Senate, County Commissioner, School Board, and City Council Campaigns. She has held leadership roles in the Republican Party of Palm Beach County as a Regional Director and Deputy Director of Election Operations. Jodi looks forward to taking her activism to the next level, representing you in the State Party.

Her story is similar to a lot of us in South Florida. She was born in Brooklyn, NY, and moved around the Northeast, from NY to Massachusetts, then to New Jersey to Connecticut, before moving to Boca in 2017. Jodi graduated from Northeastern University with a BS in Business with a concentration in Management Information Systems, and started her career as a Technical Recruiter and Corporate Trainer before leaving to raise a family. Married to Duane for 20 years, they have two children, Andrew (18) and Hannah (15).

PBCGOP Chairman Kevin Neal to Speak at September Meeting

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Kevin Neal is a populist, nationalist, America First Republican and currently serves as the Chairman of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County. Kevin’s primary goal is to get Republican candidates elected in Palm Beach County to municipal, county, state, and national offices. Kevin is also focused on recruiting new members for the Republican Executive Committee.

Kevin is the founder and CEO of Neal Development Company. He has almost 20 years of experience in design and real estate development and has developed projects totaling over 3,000 units and over one billion dollars. As a Real Estate Executive Kevin has led projects with teams made up of hundreds of people and budgets totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Kevin is also a trained Architect and he has designed and developed some of the most successful multi-family apartment projects in Florida. Kevin earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Masters in Architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Kevin and Laura live in Delray Beach with their twin sons.

School Board Candidates on the Challenges and Opportunities of the 2024 Education Legislation

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Club Participates in Red White and Blue Barbecue

On Saturday, June 15th, the club had a table at the President’s Council barbecue featuring many candidates for this year’s elections. We also met some new people and added to the club roster.

With Armand Grossman as master of ceremonies, John Fischer in colonial garb singing the anthem, and keynote speaker and Trump friend Peter Ticktin, we ate sandwiches from a food truck and heard the stump speeches from county Republicans candidates, many of whom had their teams manning information booths throughout the SCCC pavilion area.

If you weren’t able to attend, here are the candidates that spoke to us (or were represented by surrogates). CLICK HERE For a full list of candidates, with links to their websites.

Brian Mast (surr) Congress 21	Dan Franzese Congress 22	Andrew Gutmann Congress 22	Deborah Adeimy Congress 22
Gary Barve Congress 23	Bob Weinroth Congress 23	Joe Kaufman (surr) Congress 23	Forest Freedman State Attorney
Sam Stern State Attorney	Mike Caruso House district 87	Dan Zapata House district 89	Bill Reicherter House district 90
Anne Gerwig House district 93	Christian Acosta (surr) House district 94	John Fischer County Comm 5	Laurel Diaz Sheriff
Mike Gauger Sheriff	Roderick Clarke Port district 3	Tami Donnally State Committeewoman	Jodi Schwartz State Committeewoman
Jenniffer Lee State Committeewoman	Jason Kulp State Committeeman	Joe LaFauci State Committeeman

President’s Council Red White and Blue BBQ

In lieu of holding a meeting in June, we are asking our members to attend the Republican Club President’s Council Barbeque on Saturday June 15th. Many of the federal, state and local candidates will speak in addition to Peter Ticktin’s anecdotes about former (and next) President Donald Trump. The club will have a tent at the event, so drop by and say hello!

Donald Trump wins RCPB Straw Poll

The club hosted a forum on September 26th to contrast Florida’s two presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis which included a straw poll.

After an introduction by Fred Scheibl who highlighted the unprecedented nature of this 2024 election, Willy Guardiola (“Christian on a Mission”, “Trump Corner” rallies, anti-abortion activist) explained his personal connection to Donald Trump and why he needs to be re-elected. Then Joe Budd (“Trump-45 club co-founder, 2 time Congressional candidate) outlined why he thinks it is time for Ron DeSantis to take the reins of our country.

The coming election is unique to say the least. The twice impeached front-runner who has been indicted four times by a corrupt DOJ and vindictive prosecutors in New York and Georgia is the left’s worse enemy. They are willing to trash the rule of law, the first amendment, lawyer-client and executive privilege to prevent him from re-taking the white house. The media has dropped all pretense of fairness or impartiality. Leftists in the states are trying to keep Trump off the ballot with the 14th amendment, and there are unresolved election integrity issues, even in Florida. Despite all that, he has a majority in most national polls and in one, beats Joe Biden by 10 points.

Willy referred to the outstanding Trump record – “Making America Great Again” at least until Covid came along and threw the world into chaos, and the awesome experience of being in the crowd of 800,000 for the January 6th rally in Washington (before anything happened at the capitol). Trump is needed again to repair the damage done by Biden’s leftist minions.

Joe explained that although he still loves Trump, he finds the drama exhausting. Trump could have accomplished more if he had picked the right team or fired the ones that proved to be working against him. He contrasted that to Governor DeSantis who has actually fired the “bad ones” – SOEs Susan Bucher and Brenda Snipes, Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, and a couple of rogue prosecutors. He touted the Governor’s conservative record – a CPAC 93 when in Congress, and how the 6 week abortion ban puts him to the right of Trump. As far as the polls are concerned, Joe pointed out that we don’t have national primaries and the results in Iowa and New Hampshire (which he thinks DeSantis can win) will change the dynamics of the race.

The attendees were asked to complete a straw poll ballot after hearing the speakers, and they were collected and tallied during the Q&A session which followed.

The results:

For President
Donald Trump	53%
Ron DeSantis	37%
Nikki Haley	5%
Vivek Ramaswamy	2%
Chris Christie	2%
Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Others	0%
For Vice President
Nikki Haley	24%
Kristi Noem	13%
Vivek Ramaswamy	13%
Tim Scott	11%
Kari Lake	11%
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.	8%
Kim Reynolds	5%
Matt Gaetz, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump	1 vote each

There was also one vote for the ticket of Ann Coulter and Megyn Kelly.

Also at the meeting was candidate Deb Adiemy, running for Congressional District 22.

The 2024 Presidential Primary – Why this one is different

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