Francisco Rodriguez Town Hall

This afternoon, in the picturesque seaside Palm Beach Shores Community Center, Francisco Rodriguez, candidate for Florida House District 83, held a town hall for members of that community.  Organized by Carol Hurst, a supporter and Palm Beach Shores community leader, the event was an opportunity for Francisco to give his views on a variety of issues facing Florida today.

When asked for his view of the Sunrail bill, passed by the legislature earlier in the year and sold as a way to bring federal stimulus dollars into the state, he was very clear.  It should not have been passed and he would have voted against it.  Accepting federal money now but obligating the state to provide significant funding for it in future years is a bad deal for Florida.

A common theme that pervades Francisco’s thinking on several subjects is the Constitution and the rights of states to determine their own destiny.  For example, the Federal Government is required to manage the border and control immigration – it is not a state responsibility.  That said, when the job is not being done it is acceptable for the states to see that federal law is enforced.  Arizona did not need to pass the controversial law, but by doing so it provides political cover for law enforcement.  In another example, states are free to adopt any fiscal model they wish – and spend and borrow as they see fit, but when the day comes that bad decisions lead to potential default, the other states (or their citizens through federal taxes) should not be asked to bail them out.  The time has come for states to stand up for their rights and start using the 10th amendment to push back against federal overreach.

The Health Care Freedom Act is one example of this, and Francisco would support a mechanism whereby the states could control the amount of taxes collected in the state that gets sent to the federal government.

On state taxes, Francisco is not a fan of property taxes – which he equates to “paying rent” on a property which you own, and instead prefers use-based taxes with defined purposes such as a gas tax to fund only roads.

Schools, he believes, should be controlled at the local level – including such things as curriculum content and testing approach.  He was not a fan of the recently vetoed education bill, saying it gave too much control over local decisions to the bureaucrats in Tallahassee.

Florida House district 83, currently held by Carl Domino who is running for Senate district 25, sits at the northeastern part of the county and includes parts of Jupiter, Palm Beach Gardens, Juno Beach, North Palm Beach, along Singer Island and Palm Beach Island to just south of Southern Boulevard. ( Click HERE for map. ) In the Republican primary on August 24, Francisco faces Realtor Nancy Cardone and Palm Beach Kennel Club manager Pat Rooney.

A number of RCPB members were in attendance, including organizer Carol Hurst, Jim Vissi, Melissa Andrews,  Delia Garcia Menocal, Clair and Don Jones, Sue Varey, Bette Anne Starkey, Helen Wilkes, and Fred and Iris Scheibl. Following are a few pictures from the event.

Allen West Takes the Lead over Ron Klein in New Poll

In a survey conducted by Wilson Research Strategies on April 18-19, Colonel Allen West leads Incumbent Ron Klein 44% – 42%.

West is now known by nearly 50% of the Congressional district and has a favorable to unfavorable ratio of 3-1 (23%-8%). Klein’s is viewed unfavorably by nearly one-third of the district (31%) and trails West even though over 90% of the voters have heard of Klein.

For the full press release from the West campaign, CLICK HERE.

Video from Allen West HQ Opening

Videos from Boris Balaban
Allen West


Joyce Kaufman


E Clay Shaw


Allen West thank you

CD 19 Election – A Look at the Numbers

In Tuesday’s election for Congressional District 19, Democrat Ted Deutch was the winner, receiving 62% of the votes cast. Voter turnout, an indication of voter interest (or lack thereof) was an anemic 15.2% of registered voters (10% in Broward and 17.4% in Palm Beach). The turnout in the 2008 election by contrast, was 73% in Broward and 72% in Palm Beach.

How did the vote compare?

Let’s look at the “liberal” vote versus the “conservative” vote in each election:

	Liberal	Conservative
2010	Deutch: 62.1%	Lynch + McCormick: 37.9%
2008	Wexler + Graber: 72.8%	Lynch: 27.2%

So the “conservative” vote increased by 10% for those that turned out.

Were the dynamics of 2008 overwhelmed by the candidacy of Barrack Obama which provided for the high turnout numbers, and coattail effect on other Democrats down-ticket? Absolutely not- in 2004, the turnout was 67% and 75% in Broward and Palm Beach respectively very similar to 2010.

To see if that mattered in CD19 we can look at previous elections, but there was no conservative candidate in 2006 or 2004. In 2002, Wexler won against Republican Jack Merkl with 72.2% of the vote with a turnout of 45-50% in the 2 counties. From this I conclude that the increase in conservative votes in 2010 COULD be significant, but it is certainly not a trend that will bring us a victory any time soon (barring a scandal or some other unexpected event).

How did all the grass roots support for Ed Lynch help? We know that South Florida 912, DC Works for Us, and the South Florida Tea Party were all making calls and walking precincts independent of the campaign, and many members of those groups helped the campaign directly. Hard to say objectively, but it surely didn’t hurt. Many calls were to people who were Lynch supporters but didn’t know about the election. Of course on the other side, Organizing for America ran 17 local phone banks for Ted Deutch, last weekend alone.

South Florida 912 selected a subset of the precincts in northern Palm Beach and did “saturation calling”. When the county releases the precinct vote tallies tomorrow or Monday, I will compare them to 2008 and see if there is a statistical difference between the years and contrasted with other precincts in 2010. Stay tuned.

Florida voters spurn Obama, new health care law

In a Sun Sentinel poll, there is bad news for President Obama and generic cialis 5 mg congressional democrats. The statewide telephone poll of 625 registered voters taken after the passage of health legislation on March 23-24 had this to say:

• President Obama favorability: 37%
• Senator Nelson favorability: 36%
• Support health care law: 34%, opposed 54%
• Support health care law(seniors 65+): 25%, opposed 65%

Good news for Ed Lynch maybe?

For the full story, click HERE.

First Rubio/Crist debate on Fox News Sunday on 3/28

FNS can be viewed at 11 am on WFLX but is also shown on Fox News (cable channel 44) at 6pm. Now that candidate Smith has dropped out – these are our two remaining Republican candidates for FL Senator.

See details here. You can also post questions for the candidates on the FNS website or email them to fns@foxnews.com.

Ed Lynch on Fox Business Channel on 3/26

Election Schedule in Congressional District 19

The election is fast approaching. Polls open at all reqular polling locations on April 13, and early voting in select locations starts on Monday April 5, ending April 10 in Broward and April 11 in Palm Beach Counties.

For the location of your regular precinct polling location CLICK HERE FOR PALM BEACH, or CLICK HERE FOR BROWARD.

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Early voting in Palm Beach is from 10:00AM to 6:00PM (M-F) and 10:00to 2:00PM (Saturday and Sunday), at three locations:

West Boca Branch Library
18685 State Road 7 (441)
Boca Raton, 33498

Hagen Ranch Road Branch Library
14350 Hagen Ranch Road
Delray Beach, 33446

Supervisor of Elections
240 South Military Trail
West Palm Beach, 33415

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Early voting in Broward is from 10:00AM to 6:00PM (M-F) and 8:30AM to 4:30PM (Saturday), at two locations:

North Regional Library/BCC
1100 Coconut Creek Boulevard
Coconut Creek, FL 33066-1647

Northwest Regional Library
3151 University Drive
Coral Springs, FL 33065-6134

Klein, CD22, says he’s ‘comfortable’ with his vote for health care overhaul

In today’s Post on Politics, George Bennett quotes the indomitable Ron Klein:

“I really have a good sense of the district and a sense of benefits that this bill will provide to the district,” Klein said in an afternoon conference call with reporters.

“Ultimately I think it’s the right thing to do and people will judge you based on using your best judgment and I’m very comfortable that I’m using my best judgment in making this decision.”

When asked how he will explain the $500B cuts in Medicare to the 125K seniors in the district, our Congressman answered:

“These are not cuts in benefits. They’re cuts to their profit margin,” said Klein, citing Congressional Budget Office and General Accounting Office estimates that the savings can be achieved by curbing overpayments, waste, fraud and abuse.

To Ron of course, “Profit Margin” and “overpayments, fraud and abuse” are one and the same thing. This is our “champion of small business” talking.

Klein’s replacement after the November elections, Lt. Colonel Allen West, had this to say:

“That figure will mean a decrease in services to our seniors and also with this bill passing you’re going to see doctors refusing Medicare patients. Our seniors are going to be adversely affected.”

You go Ron! FAR AWAY. Please.

For the full article, CLICK HERE

Political Parties of Florida

The following table lists the “minor” political parties (SOE terminology, not mine) that are registered with the Supervisor of Elections. Some have websites and can be found to obviously lean left or right. Others are harder to discern. This will be useful information as we engage the voters on behalf of our candidates as call sheets typically identify a person’s party identification.

If anyone has knowledge about these parties and what they stand for, please comment.

Abbreviation	Party Name	Leans
AFP	America First Party of Florida
AIP	America’s Independent Party of Florida	Right
APF	American Party of Florida	Right
AMP	American Patriot Party
ARP	American Reform Party of Florida	Right
BRS	British Reformed Sectarian Party	Right
CHR	The Christian Party
CPF	Constitution Party of Florida	Right
ECO	Ecology Party of Florida	Left
FAP	Faith & Patience Inc. N.P.G.G.
FVP	Family Values Party
FWP	Florida Whig Party	Right
GRE	Green Party of Florida, Inc.	Left
IDF	Independent Democrats of Florida
IDP	Independence Party of Florida	Right
INT	Independent Party of Florida
LIB	Libertarian Party of Florida	Right
MOD	The Moderate Party
OBJ	Objectivist Party of Florida
POS	Possibility Party
PRL	Progressive Libertarian Party	Right
PRO	Prohibition Party
PSL	Party for Socialism and Liberation – Florida	Left
REF	Reform Party	Right
RFP	Real Food Party of the United States of America
SPA	Surfers Party of America
SPF	Socialist Party of Florida
SWP	Florida Socialist Workers Party
TEA	Tea Party
TLP	Term Limits for the United States Congress Party
TVP	Twelve Visions Party of Florida
UNI	Unity08
VET	Veterans Party of America

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