The 2024 Presidential Primary – Why this one is different

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Commissioner Sara Baxter and Sid Dinerstein Highlight December Lunch

What is a winning campaign strategy? Candidates who are newcomers to the political process will tell you they can win against the odds because of their particular background. They may have run businesses, or are professionals of one kind or another, or plan to identify with “the working man”. These newbies for the most part lose their elections because they underestimated the difficulty of raising money, reaching voters and crafting a coherent message. Political insiders, particularly incumbents, have overwhelming advantages in doing these things.

So how did Commissioner Sara Baxter overcome the odds? Winning by 5% while running as a Republican in a D+7 district against a well funded Democrat insider should make us all sit up and take notice. Clearly she knows how it is done, and at our December lunch, she told us.

With a war chest of about $100K (considerably less than her opponent), she didn’t waste it on a bunch of consultants to tell her what to do (a typical rookie mistake). As a small business owner, she already had the skills needed to identify her market and get her message out in an efficient way. She drew on a lot of free advice from the best minds, while taking advantage of a decade of experience in social media marketing. She also started early and worked very hard. Using video to tell her story, she was able to achieve the “touch every voter 7 times” principle so effectively that voters were asking her for new videos to watch.

Unlike the typical newcomer who may say they have the business skills to win but ultimately fall short, Sara actually managed her campaign as a business – with a budget and marketing plan to achieve a business objective – winning the race.

With that kind of skill on the dais, the other six commissioners better pay attention. I expect we will see a seismic shift at the county in the next couple of years.

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Our other speaker was Sid Dinerstein who gave us a sobering assessment of the election just past on the national level.

With all the bad things that the Biden administration has done to the country, this was supposed to be our chance to reverse course. An overwhelming win – 50 house seats for example, would have put us on the road to recovery. Instead we barely limped across the finish line. Unless we can achieve a level playing field in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona (which should be red states but are now dominated by Democrat electioneers) we will never again win a national election.

There is a lot of blame to go around – some of the candidates were not suited for their races, and the national Republican leadership (particularly Mitch McConnell) seemed to be working against our candidates in a number of ways. Sid believes McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and Ronna McDaniel are decent people, but they are not “warriors” and not suited to lead in these times.

Sid also opined about the presidential primary – he believes Ron DeSantis will definitely be in the race. The stars are aligned for him now and it will be impossible to pass that up. In a straw poll around the room on “who do you think will be the nominee”, the members picked DeSantis over Trump by a 3 to 1 margin.

We also had some holiday music at the event, with entertainer Bobby Fonseca.

Great Participation for Meet the Candidates

On Tuesday, September 27th, many of the Republican candidates on the November ballot joined us for quick introductions and to mingle with the members. Speaking for 4 minutes each, the enthusiasm and drive to succeed comes across strongly in this group as the Republican Party of Palm Beach County is fielding a diverse, capable group to compete in all the offices on the ballot.

Our candidates included:

Eric Ankner Senate 24	Steve Byers Senate 26	Mike Caruso House 87
Roz Stevens House 88	Daniel Zapata House 89	Dorcas Hernandez House 92
Saulis Banionis House 93	Sara Baxter Commission 6	Jennifer Showalter School Board 6
Vicki Franzese (for Dan) Congress 22

Willie Guardiola on October 25th

With the November Midterms looming, crunch time is coming. We need to be out there helping Republicans get elected. For some perspectives on what is at stake in this election and how we all can help, Willy is ready to rattle some cages.

A Florida Pro-Life leader and Catholic activist, Willy works tirelessly on advancing the Right to Life position as well as supporting our Republican Candidates. As an organizer of the “Trump Corner” rallies in Palm Beach Gardens and now the “DeSantis Depot” events, he’s actively involved in bringing our enthusiasm for our great Governor to the fore. Willy was recently honored at “Lobster Feast” by the Republican Party of Palm Beach County for his pro-life leadership.

Come to our October meeting and receive your dose of enthusiasm and Conservative vigor.

NOTE – With the construction completed, we will be back in the usual meeting place, The Paddock Restaurant.

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2022 Election Environment Discussed at April Lunch

The 2022 election was the topic discussed at our April lunch.

Fred Scheibl, RPPBC Political Director, went through the actions the GOP took in 2020 to recruit and train candidates for almost all of the state and local offices on the ballot, and build a permanent database for contacting most of the Republicans in the county. Over 1.3 million voter contacts were made on behalf of candidates, our slate, and overall GOTV efforts.

This year has some unique challenges and opportunities given the redistricting, proliferation of Vote by Mail (VBM) ballots, and election integrity risks. Fred walked through the new districts for Congress, Florida House and Senate, and the County Commission and School Board, pointing out areas where the changes give us opportunities for Republican pickups. The VBM ballots, which made up 2/3 of the votes cast in the March elections, are here to stay. In Florida, these ballots have better chance of being more safe and secure than other states given the provisions of the election law changes passed last year (SB90) and this year (HB524). These laws are only tools though, and we as a party need to be vigilant to make sure the provisions of the law are being followed. To this end, we are planning an election integrity action team (EIAT) to scrutinize election operations and make sure that it is “easy to vote but hard to cheat”.

Pam Wohlschlegel, Director of REC region 1 in the north county, explained the actions they took to win 3 out of 3 Jupiter municipal elections this year, in spite of massive spending on behalf of Democrat candidates. Jupiter is now one of the very few county municipalities with a 100% Republican Council. Pam also spoke about the organizing activities of the REC regions and how the party will be reaching voters and promoting our candidates.

Members are urged to get involved with these activities – support a candidate with time and money, join the REC, become a poll worker for the SOE to observe the system from the inside, or a poll watcher for the party, monitoring activities at the polling locations and counting center in Riviera Beach. For help getting into these activities, you can contact us at info@gopclubpb.org

Click HERE to view the maps and charts used in this meeting.

Candidates at the event were Jennifer Showalter for school board district 6, and Jane Justice spoke for Conner Frontera for district 3.

Are We Ready for Elections 2022? – Redistricting, Election Integrity and Candidate Support

Is there going to be a “red wave” this year? Nancy Pelosi doesn’t seem too worried. Her minions are busy gerrymandering districts and weakening voting laws. There can only be a “red wave” if there are fair districts, VBM ballots are not abused, and cheating is prevented.

Please join us on April 26th for a session on the outlook in Palm Beach County and what the GOP is doing to prepare.

Fred will will explain how the new PBC districts are affecting our candidates, and how we plan to address election integrity and support our slate. Pam will describe the new REC Regional organization and how her northern region is gearing up to work the coming elections. They will also talk about what YOU can do to help.

The primary election is only 4-1/2 months away. Let’s make this a winning year!

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Fred Scheibl provides data, analysis and digital messaging for the candidates and leaders of the county GOP as Political Director. He is also a co-founder of the Palm Beach County Tea Party, Vice President of this club, and a 30 year IBM veteran.

Pam Wohlschlegel is one of seven Regional Directors of the Republican Executive Committee, responsible for the northern part of the county. A retired product manager and engineer at Hewlett Packard and Agilent who was the original President of the Palm Beach County Tea Party, Pam has been active in PBC politics for many years, most recently in supporting the winning candidates in the Jupiter Municipal races.

Optimism About the 2022 Elections

Our January meeting featured our county GOP Chairman Michael Barnett, with good news on our readiness for the 2022 elections.

Referring to former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s insight that having multiple candidates on the ballot helps to get out the vote, he pointed out that we have Congressional candidates running in all 4 of the county districts, and state-wide we may pick up a seat. Lots of candidates have come forward to run at the state and local level as well, and our candidate recruitment efforts are going well.

Fundraising, locally and statewide, has gone through the roof (Lincoln Day on March 12 is about sold out), and the party has money to support all the Republicans who emerge from the primaries. (The party does not take sides in primaries).

In 2020 the party had 4 branch offices running in the county and this year we may have 5 or 6, counting the DeSantis and Mast offices. We are one of the few parties in the state with both federal and local campaign accounts, so support for the candidates for Congress as well as state and local can be intermixed in the offices.

Governor DeSantis only won by about 30,000 votes in 2018, but this year his popularity is high and he is doing great things so we expect a much better margin. The Democrats really have a weak bench (Charley Crist is a multiple times loser, and Nikki Fried is under investigation.) We cannot drop our guard however. The county DeSantis person, Natalie Fisher has opened an office at our HQ location on Palm Beach Lakes.

The Republican Executive Committee (REC) has been greatly expanded over the last year and now has 323 members, with some months seeing up to 50 new swearing-ins. The precincts have been organized with seven regional directors based on the school board districts working with vice-chairman Tami Donnally.

All in all, Michael is optimistic about our likely success this year.

Also at the meeting were candidates Peter Noble (Greenacres council), Steven Chess (CD22), and Angela Templeton spoke for Jennifer Showalter (SB6).

Next month we will have a special meeting on the March municipal elections, with participation by candidates running in the north and central county. Many of these are incumbents and need your support.

Jennifer Showalter on CRT and What Ails the Palm Beach Schools

In the process of restarting the club for 2021, we decided to bring focus on some of the critical issues that currently threaten our way of life. Cancel culture, compromised elections, open borders, economic insanity, and the total politicization of media, corporations, academia, K-12 public schools, cultural institutions and most of the federal government are all things we must understand in order to fight against them.

This week our topic was one of the most insidious of these threats and one that is not easily observed – the indoctrination of our children in K-12 public schools. If there was a silver lining to the pandemic, it was that “distance learning” let parents see for themselves what was being taught in the classrooms. Many did not like what they saw.

Presumably with the goal of creating a whole new generation of citizens sympathetic to Marxist ideas, our school systems are being taken over by the radical left. Critical Race Theory, teaching that the color of your skin is more important than the content of your character, is taking root like an invasive species, and seeks to divide us into warring camps.

Jennifer Showalter, our speaker this week, has been bringing the heat of public scrutiny to the Palm Beach School system through appearances at school board meetings and demonstrations in the streets. Joining her counterparts nationwide, she is asking the tough questions and bringing accountability to those who would poison the minds of our children. Here is a synopsis of what she had to say in her riveting half hour lecture on the state of our schools:

Calling it the “fight of our time”, Jennifer showed us how CRT and other Marxist projects are seeping into every corner of society. In the schools specifically, we are seeing homogeneous “anti racist” training seeded into all subjects using resources provided by such groups as “Brain Pop”. One result other than overt indoctrination is a reduction in proficiency levels for the skills that count – math, language, history and science.

This is not an isolated problem. Backed by the teacher’s unions and groups of the teachers themselves who have vowed to teach this stuff in spite of laws being passed against it, the local system is pushing forward. Teachers are taking action to prevent parents from hearing what is said in the classrooms by requiring student headsets for distance learning, and stopping the lessons if parents are observed in the room. The School board for its part, is trying to deal with the overwhelming opposition by labeling it a “faction” and limiting public input to one speaker for 3 minutes. At workshops, they are looking for ways to exclude the public altogether. This is not transparency or representative government in action!

Some of the specific ills that Jennifer is fighting against include the sexualization of children and the focus on gender identity, the “dumbing down” that occurs from the remnants of common core where everything is subjective, and the focus on “emotional learning” that shuts down the right-brain. There is no “objective reality” anymore and even science is performed by “consensus”. All people are to varying degrees “oppressed” or “oppressors” and their privilege or disadvantage is ranked by their “intersectionality”. “Equity” is to be favored over “Equality”, so that we seek equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities.

The school district’s mission statement became a public discussion over the words of “white advantage”, but what remains of it seeks conformity, not individuality. We are graduating clones – conditioned to respond to stimulus (ie. obey) rather than those capable of independent thought.

Now that these programs in the classroom are coming to light, we must bring the fight to them. Get informed and engaged, show up, wave signs, come to meetings and spread the word.

Jennifer Showalter is an announced candidate for School Board District 6, the seat currently held by Marcia Andrews. For information about her campaign, and to volunteer or donate, click HERE.

Municipal Candidate Exposition at February Meeting

Along with the Presidential Preference Primary (PPP) on March 17, is a non-partisan election for municipal officers – Mayors, Councilmen and Commissioners in the cities, towns and villages in Palm Beach County. When you go out to vote for President Trump in the Republican primary, look toward the bottom of the ballot and vote for your municipal officials as well.

Since the municipal races are non-partisan, the candidates are not allowed to campaign as members of a political party. We as a Republican Club on the other hand, can offer our support to those candidates that share our Republican values. Those who meet that criteria have been invited to this forum. Some are running against each other, others are facing Democrats.

As of February 22, Wayne Posner, Cameron May, Darryl Aubrey, Rick Maharajh, and David Katz have agreed to participate.

City Councils and Commissions are the entry points for many civic leaders who go on to higher office. Even if you do not live in one of these cities, come and hear from the leaders of tomorrow talk about the issues in their jurisdictions. They all need volunteers, contributions, and overall support.

In the table below, click on the candidates’ picture to access their website (if available).

Boynton Beach Seat 4 D + 25	Incumbent	Rick Maharajh	David Katz
Jupiter Seat 1 R + 13	Wayne Posner (incumbent)	Cameron May
North Palm Beach Seat 3 R + 14	Darryl Aubrey (incumbent)	Kathleen Wallenhorst (Conflict)

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Large Field of CD22 Candidates Take the Stage

On December 5, the extremely large field of Republicans looking to retire Ted Deutch in Congressional District 22 took the stage at the South County Civic Center. The event was sponsored by the Republican Party of Palm Beach County.

This D+15 district is comprised of northern Broward County (413K voters, D+18) and a small part of Palm Beach in Boca Raton east of the turnpike (100K voters, equal number of R and D). Whoever emerges from this field will have a tough road as Deutch is sitting on a war chest of $488K while none of the Republicans have posted any funds.

That said, with many Independents and even Democrats strongly opposed to the partisan impeachment farce which Deutch is supporting, this may be the year to turn CD22 red.

Moderated by MaryAnna Mancuso, a moderate Republican strategist who appears on WPTV’s “To the Point”, the forum gave each of the candidates a chance to stretch their political legs and make an impression.

At the left of the stage was Kevin Boyle of Boca Raton. A “law and order” candidate, Kevin would like to close the southern border until it is under control, impose maximum penalties for human trafficking, and curb Iranian aggression through military force if necessary.

Next up was Jessi Melton of Delray Beach who has an interest in health care. She supports health insurance across state lines and reducing the power of the FDA.

Jim Pruden, also from Boca, would push to pass Kate’s Law, reduce the national debt, and support the Trump Administration’s plans for the middle east.

To Jim’s right was Christine Scott of Boynton Beach. She would reduce our trade with China as we “don’t really need them”, applauds the “Right to Try” legislation and allowing drug importation from Canada. Seeking to qualify via petition, Christine has been out and about in the district since August, meeting thousands of voters.

Next was Joe Smith. His interest is criminal justice reform and supporting medical innovation.

To his right was Darlene Swaffer. Darlene is known as the “Medicare Lady” (her registered trademark) and runs a large Insurance agency in Deerfield Beach. She is interested in stopping the Algae Blooms in our waterways and revising Obamacare. Noting the Democrat lean to the district, she has already won the support (including endorsements) of some Independents and Democrats in Broward.

At the end of the stage was Dr. Eddison Walters of Boca Raton, a financial professional who believes that the 2008 real estate bubble was a hoax. His interesting hypothesis is backed up by a paper he wrote for the Journal of International Business and Economics. He believes that concern for the national debt is overblown, and focusing on growth is what we need to do.

With, eight months to go before the August primary, it will be interesting to see how this field shakes out. Besides these candidates and Ted Deutch, there is also an NPA candidate in the race, Omar Reyes, and Imtiaz Ahmad Mohammad is challenging Deutch in the Democrat primary.

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