Ellyn Bogdanoff highlights June Lunch

The June meeting at Bear Lakes featured Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff.

Ellyn currently represents the Palm Beach and Broward coastal district 25, that has been busted up in the new redistricting scheme. The new district 34 contains a shorter piece of coastline and some heavily Democrat inland areas (including King’s Point), and the Republican nominee will face another sitting Senator, Maria Sachs. Senate redistricting went through several iterations, and ultimately the Florida Supreme Court forced the change that turned a reasonably safe Republican district to a D+9 uphill challenge.

One of the Supreme Court Justices that is on the ballot for retention this year, Barbara Pariente, a proponent of the changes, ended up at a table with Ellyn at an event earlier in the year and the Senator had some amusing remarks about how that went.

Ellyn talked about the race and the advantages she brings over Maria Sachs, in spite of the deficit in party registration. If you remember the effective 2010 campaign she ran against Carl Domino in the primary and Kelly Skidmore in the general – both with a margin of 16% or more, she will be a formidable competitor.

The Senator then gave a short legislative update, and took a few questions. One controversial bill with which she was closely associated involved the expansion of casino gambling in the state. The bill, called it the “largest expansion of gambling in Florida History” by much of the media, was ultimately withdrawn. Ellyn cast it in a different light, expaining that it was about tourism and an expansion of the convention business in the state, by building a set of resorts in which gambling was only one factor. The Orlando area (the guy with the glove and three fingers), was not too keen on the idea of building a convention magnet in the Miami area that would compete with them, and that was the backdrop against which it was decided. Given the new Senate President is not a supporter, she did not think the bill would come up again in the next session.

Also at the meeting were candidates Tami Donnally (H86), Fran Hancock (State Committeewoman) and Cindy Tindell (State Committeewoman), and a surrogate for Pat Rooney (H85).

County Commission Forum – District 1 Primary Candidates

The Republican Club of the Palm Beaches was a co-sponsor of this event.

Pat Rooney Anchors May Lunch

A good crowd of committed Republicans and many candidates for office turned out for the May club meeting featuring State Representative Pat Rooney and a special appearance by Senate candidate Marielena Stuart.

Introduced by Carol Hurst who along with many of us had heard Ms. Stuart’s excellent speech at the Jupiter meeting of the PBC Tea Party, she did not disappoint. Drawing understanding from her background growing up in Castro’s Cuba, Marielena knows Communism and its early stages of socialism like we are seeing today in the US. Casting our politics as a struggle between good and evil, she “takes no prisoners” in her battle against the UN, the dangers of “sustainable development”, and the feckless foreign policy of the Obama administration.

Following Ms. Stuart, Pat Rooney gave us a legislative update of the recently concluded session. He touched on redistricting, which has now passed its court test and been cleared by the Justice Department, and pointed out that the House map was so well done that it was not seriously challenged, although it has made life difficult for many legislators of both parties. In spite of the $1.8B budget shortfall this year, he was still able to get reasonable funding for some of his priorities including beach replenishment, libraries and Everglades restoration. He also assured us that the current House will “stand its ground” to protect the law of that name that has come under fire in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting.

As a special surprise, long time club member Bette Anne Starkey was honored with a birthday cake, and we were treated to a patriotic song by Monique McCall.

Participating in the candidate introductions were: Fran Hancock (state Committeewoman), Tami Donnally (House district 86), Gary Nikolits (Property Appraiser), Melanie Peterson (Senate district 25), Dina Keever (State Attorney), Calvin Turnquest (House district 82), Geoff Summers (Senate district 25), and Brad Gary (Port Commissioner). A surrogate also spoke for Cindy Tindell (state Committeewoman).

Some pictures of the event:

Adam Hasner anchors March Lunch

Former Florida House Speaker and current CD22 candidate Adam Hasner brought his message of America at the tipping point to the RCPB March lunch at Bear Lakes today. Adam will likely face Democrat candidate and former West Palm Mayor Lois Frankel in November in the newly constituted D + 9 District.

“Children born today could likely see the arrival of the 22nd century,” he began. What kind of a future will they experience? We are close to a tipping point now with less than half of the country paying any income taxes, food stamps at an all time high, and 99 weeks of unemployment insurance payments dividing us. What kind of world are we leaving for our children? People are scared.

This next election (“the most important in our lifetime”), is not about ideology – it is about math. Without getting our debt under control, the future will be very different.

“Both Democrats and Republicans are to blame for this situation and it must stop,” he said to applause from the group. In answer to the question about whether he would have voted (as current CD22 member Allen West did) for the debt ceiling deal last summer that led to the feckless “super committee” and the sequestration that could likely gut the military, he answered a definite NO! We must stop spending more than we take in, and we should not raise the debt ceiling any farther. Eliminating the debt should be a primary focus of the Congress.

Prior to Hasner’s keynote, we heard from CD23 candidate Joe Kaufman. Nationally known for his work against radical organizations in the US who raise money for terrorist groups, he hopes to defeat DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. A self described conservative, he says he will have strong Democrat crossover in the district. He will need it, as the district is D + 23 (49% Democrat, 26% Republican). He must first dispatch Republican rivals Karen Harrington and Ozzie deFaria in the August Primary. Harrington faced off against Schultz in 2010, in the old CD20 (which has a lot of overlap with the new CD23) and managed to win only 38% of the vote to Schultz 60%.

Other candidates in attendance were Mike Lameyer (Senate 34), and a surrogate (his sister) for James O’Hara (House 81), as well as State Committeeman candidate Fran Hancock.

Encouraging Words from Ralph Reed

Faith and Freedom Foundation Founder Ralph Reed rallied the troops with an inspiring pep talk at Binks Golf Club. Jointly hosted by Palm West Republican Club, the Republican club of Central Palm Beach County, and the Republican Club of the Palm Beaches, the event was a good kickoff to election season in this very important year.

Club Presidents Janeen Capizola, Tami Donnally and Melissa Andrews respectively welcomed Ralph to Palm Beach County and GOP Chair Sid Dinerstein gave an interesting introduction of Mr. Reed, going back to their collaboration during the 2000 contested election in the county.

Ralph Reed is no stranger to south Florida, having grown up in Miami, and he gave good description of how important swing state Florida is to the outcome of the Presidential election. Touching on a number of issues, he particularly examined the recent administration salvo in the war on religion.

Although Barack Obama could very well repeat his win here as in 2008, there is a path to victory for the GOP if we all work together. In a break out session after the main event, he went into more detail about the technology that F&F is bringing to the table and what will be required to win the day.

Some pictures from Delia Menocal and Carol Porter:

Senator Nelson Calls for Investigation of Conservative Activists

Conservative Solutions to Illegal Immigration

Our October meeting featured a debate on solutions to illegal immigration in Florida. Moderated by Rick Kozell, the panel consisted of Florida 82 Representative William Snyder, Brewster Bevis of Associated Industries of Florida, and two local business owners who confront the issue on a regular basis, Richard Roth of Roth Farms, and Sean Rooney of Link Staffing. A synopsis will follow.

Pictures from Delia and Fred.

September Lunch with Slade O’Brien had a Focus on Activism

Today’s RCPB Luncheon was focused on activism.  After the Invocation and Pledge led by Sid Lanier, Club President Melissa Nash welcomed Honoraries – Gary Nikolits, PBC Property Appraiser and Bill Diamond, Palm Beach City Council.  Melissa then had several club members briefly comment on their experiences at Presidency 5 and CPAC-FL in Orlando the prior week. 

Melissa then introduced Slade O’Brien, Florida State Director of Americans for Prosperity.  While Slade covers all of Florida, he lives in Palm Beach County.  He has been leading several seminars on activism and  GOTV in the area and folks should take advantage of the next ones when available.  For more information on AFP Florida go here..

Slade also mentioned a few other organizations:  True the Vote was one of them.  Also he suggested joining Liberty Linked  as an activist website that enables one to connect with fellow conservatives.  He talked about the importance of social media in the upcoming election cycle, and touched on Anita MonCrief and her whisteblower role in the Acorn scandals.

Melissa also pointed out that future REC meetings will be held at the Vista Center and that October’s RCPB meeting will be a Special evening meeting with a panel discussin Illegal Immigration in Florida.

Pictures by Delia

Herman Cain Walks Away with P5

At 37%, Herman Cain collected more votes at the Florida Straw Poll than both Mitt Romney and Rick Perry combined. How did this happen?

Most delegates came to the P5 convention with a pretty good idea of who they were going to support, and like the national polls would indicate, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney were the overwhelming favorites. In my case, I had pretty much decided to join the Perry campaign after the convention and was seeking a confirmation of that decision.

On Thursday, all the candidates appeared at Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom gathering. Perry did OK, giving a variation of his stump speech (“First, don’t spend all the money..”). Most of the others were predictable and although Cain was inspiring, he didn’t really register with me. That evening, at the Fox/Google debate, most candidates held their ground, but Perry faltered badly in two ways. First, he insulted many people on the in-state tuition for illegal aliens issue by saying that if you opposed it you “didn’t have a heart”. Second, a seemingly rehearsed attack on Mitt Romney over flip-flops dissolved into a puddle of incoherence. Not good. Herman Cain again did very well but did not register as I was still working out how to overlook Perry’s problems and rationalize my support for him.

On Friday, at the CPAC conference, Perry had ample opportunity to better explain his tuition stance but declined to do so. He could have explained that unlike the federal Dream Act, in Texas it involves no amnesty and simply applies the in-state rules to “residents”. Furthermore, it was passed with an overwhelming majority in the legislature and many other states provide the same kind of program. (I was still rationalising my support). Once again, Herman Cain was impressive.

On Saturday morning, we attended the Rick Perry breakfast. This would be the fourth time to see him and another chance at redemption. The breakfast was impressive – a full fancy buffet, and there was seating for over 1000. By my count, about 500 were in attendance and many of the seats were empty. After a while, the candidate entered from the corner of the large room and was immediately mobbed by press and eager supporters as he slowly made his way toward the center of the room. It had been announced that he would “greet everyone personally” and many of us waited for him to make his way to our side of the room. After 45 minutes of this he had not crossed the center line of the room and those on our side were visibly annoyed that they were sitting on their hands waiting for the guy. Finally, he makes for the stage and delivers 8 minutes of warmed over remarks (“First don’t spend all the money”). Four chances, four flops. Finally we have crossed the line and start thinking about which other candidate to support, but we will give him one more chance in his afternoon speech before the straw poll.

Not. By the afternoon, Rick Perry was on his way to Michigan and left a “surrogate” to speak for him. Scratch Rick Perry from further consideration.

That left (for me) Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. Mitt Romney stopped being a choice long ago for many reasons too long to go into here. The others are clearly not in the same league. So we listened to the speeches with an open mind. Cain, Santorum and Gingrich had stayed to deliver their closing remarks, others had surrogates, Bachmann and Romney did not participate. Many around us were having second thoughts about Perry as well, particularly those with a “tea party” orientation. The more mainstream Republicans were comfortably in the Romney camp.

When Herman Cain made his remarks, the room came alive. This is what we were waiting for since Thursday. In my notes I wrote: Broad coverage of the issues, executive style, ARTICULATED VISION, powers of persuasion, and projection of leadership. He pressed all the right (conservative) buttons, but did it in a way that was clear, concise, motivating and persuasive. You could see this guy standing next to Barack Obama and wiping the stage with him. The excitement was palpable.

At that point I decided to vote for Herman Cain. Taking to heart Andrew Brietbart’s advice to not let the media define who is “electable”, I voted my heart. He may not win the nomination or even the Florida primary as there is a rough ride ahead, but now, today, this is a man who can be President.

Watch the video from the Saturday event and decide for yourself:

Part 1

Part 2

Senate President Haridopolis Highlights July Lunch

The July RCPB lunch featured Mike Haridopolis who was well received as President of the Senate, even if he has ended his Senate campaign.

As previously reported, he recognized that the importance of leading the FL Senate would require more time than allowed by being a candidate for US Senate. He vowed that he would not be running for any office while holding his present position.

Of interest to many in the group, he answered a question about the disposition of the E-Verify bill that did not pass the legislature, or even emerge from the Senate committees for a vote. This was the perfect segue into the fact that our club will present a program on Thurs. Oct 27 on the merits of E-verify with organizations and local businesses who are pro/con.

The event was attended by several new members who enjoyed the program enough to comment: “I am so impressed with your speakers and programs that I want to be a part of your club.”

Here’s a few pictures from Delia:

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