Pat Rooney at the May 24th Lunch

The May 24th meeting of the Republican Club of the Palm Beaches featured Pat Rooney, Jr. as our guest speaker. Pat is the President of the Palm Beach Kennel Club (PBKC) and has served our community in many ways including a six year stint as a State Representative in the Florida House from 2010 to 2016.

Pat’s topic was “Business and Government: Not Always on the Same Page.” Mr. Rooney began his presentation with an overview of the history of PBKC. The Club opened in 1932 and Pat’s grandfather Art Rooney bought the track in 1970. Dog Racing was one of the most popular sports in Florida from 1970 until the late 1980’s. Dog racing ceased in 2020.

Mr. Rooney discussed the factors contributing to the demise of dog racing including the states introduction of the lottery in 1986 and Indian Reservation gaming being legalized in 1987. Most recently the state convened its once in every 20 years Constitutional Revision Commission, a unique to Florida entity comprised of 37 selected individuals who propose amendments to the Florida Constitution. One amendment (Amendment 13) was placed on the ballot specifically eliminating dog racing at the end of 2020. It passed with over 70% of the statewide vote. Mr. Rooney questioned the legality of putting a specific taxed and regulated business on the ballot.

The Florida Legislature, at the direction of Governor DeSantis, recently negotiated a new compact with the Seminole Indians. This compact primarily would allow sports betting to take place throughout the state. However a district court judge found the compact in violation of another amendment which passed in 2018 (Amendment 3) which stated that only the states citizens through a referendum could expand gambling in the state. Mr. Rooney argued that since the bets would be taken on a Hard Rock App (property of the Seminoles) and since the servers for the app were on tribal lands, no citizen vote would be needed to ratify sports betting. However the district court disagreed and now the compact is on appeal and sports betting is in legal limbo.

Mr. Rooney further discussed the current viable parts of PBKC’s business: simulcast betting (authorized in 1991) where bets could be placed at PBKC on tracks across the country and poker (authorized in 1996). PBKC has the largest poker room in Florida at 64 tables. These two revenue streams have kept PBKC operational since the end of Dog Racing in 2020.

Business continually struggle with local, state, and federal regulations. Many regulations need to be reviewed to be business-friendly. For example, The Palm Beach Kennel Club can only have 3 outside events a year, and there doesn’t appear to be any Rhyme or Reason for this limitation.

For more than three decades, Pat Rooney, Jr. has been a successful businessman and respected community leader in Palm Beach County. Pat Rooney’s presentation was very informative and we appreciate his continued support. Pat has been a gracious host of the Paddock Restaurant for the Republican Club of the Palm Beaches.

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Note: We won’t be having a June lunch in favor of the President’s Council BBQ at the South County Civic Center on June 25th.

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.

Representative Rick Roth on the Accomplishments of the 2022 Session

We codified many conservative aspects of the culture war in the recently ended session, but the bad news is why we had to do it. That was how Representative Rick Roth started his session review at our March meeting. “We are no longer at the edge of the abyss, we are in it!” There are those of us who are making things happen (door #1), watching what is happening (door #2), or wondering “what just happened??” (door $3). We all need to move to door #1 as quickly as we can.

With that he listed for us his “top 10” accomplishments of the session, most passed along party lines:

1. HB7 – Individual Freedom. This bill bans the teaching of Critical Race Theory, along with any other classroom discussion that could make students feel guilt or anguish because of their race. For critics who say it limits the teaching about race in American history, Rick says “bring it on”. Let’s talk about the Democrat instituted Jim Crow laws, and Woodrow Wilson’s showing of Klan movies at the White House.
2. HB1557 – Parental Rights in Education. This bill is about “age appropriateness” when discussing sex and gender topics. The critics who call it “Don’t Say Gay” are in fact agitating for the sexualization of children in grades K-3.
3. HB7051 – Post Secondary Education. This bill aims to make colleges and universities transparent, accountable and affordable. It also requires “post tenure review” for faculty every five years.
4. HB1467 – School Board Accountability. This bill makes it easier for parents and others to have input on teaching materials. It also institutes a 12 year term limit on School Board members.
5. HB5 – Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality. This is the post 15 week abortion ban that also provides money for adoptions.
6. HB539 – Nursing Home Financial Reporting. This requires nursing homes to report similar data as hospitals.
7. HB7065 – Child Welfare. The bill encourages responsible fatherhood and increases services to children that age out of foster care.
8. HB3 – Law Enforcement Officer, Benefits, Recruitment and Training. Provides compensation for LE officers as well as relocation assistance for out-of-state applicants.
9. HB524 – Election Administration. The bill takes proactive measures to strengthen election security, and ensure vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot integrity. It also creates the Office of Election Crimes and Security and requires annual voter roll cleansing.
10. HB1355 – Immigration Enforcement. This bill provides for enhanced cooperation between FL law enforcement and ICE, and prohibits a state or local governmental entity from entering into a contract with a common carrier who is transporting a person in Florida knowing that the person is an ‘unauthorized alien’.

Rick also spoke about the $112B budget that includes $33B from the federal government and provides $9M in reserves. Some of his highlights were: a $1B “inflation fund”, $2B for Medicaid programs, $2B for water resources, $125M for nursing education, $664M for state employee raises and to support a $15/hr minimum wage, money for rural broadband, a gas tax holiday in October and other goodies.

On redistricting, he pointed out that the Senate and House maps are done and approved, but the Governor is expected to veto the Congressional Map passed by the Legislature over gerrymandered districts in the north. In his guess, the veto will likely be overridden and the Congressional Districts will remain as proposed. (The club will be doing a session on redistricting and what it means in Palm Beach County in May).

For and in depth look at these bills and others, plus a budget analysis, see Rick’s written report at: Roth_Legislative_Report

Candidates at the meeting included Rob Astorino who is running for Governor of New York, and Bill Wheelen, candidate for CD21.

Candidate Forum – The importance of Local Government Elections

If you live in one of the 39 municipalities in Palm Beach County, about 25% of your county property taxes is levied by your city, town or village government. Your police and fire / rescue services may be provided by city employees, or by the county (PBSO and county fire/rescue) but you are paying for them through these taxes. Many municipalities have their own park systems, sports leagues, water systems – even in one case an electrical utility. Building codes, planning and zoning, sign ordinances, code enforcement, traffic management and strategic development plans – all are managed by your local officials.

• So do you know who your Mayor and City Commission or Council members are?
• Is your city being run the way you would like?
• Do you know what happens at your City Council or Commission meetings?

A typical resident may not know the answers to these questions and choose not to participate in the municipal elections as turnout is typically around 10%.

There is a municipal election coming up on March 8. At our next lunch meeting on February 22, we will be introducing you to some of the candidates for these offices who share your values.

Since these elections are non-partisan, you may not know to which party an official belongs, and most decisions they make are not particularly ideological. As Republicans though we believe in smaller government, lower taxes, fewer regulations on business, and free speech. If a municipal candidate is also a Republican, they are likely to share our values. Consequently, the Republican Party of Palm Beach County seeks out these incumbent officials and candidates, and provides them with assistance in the form of voter data, email support and monetary assistance. Currently about 37% of incumbent municipal officials are Republicans, as are about a third of the candidates on the ballot in March.

We are inviting candidates from the north and central municipalities to introduce themselves to you, say a little about what is important in their town or city, and what they will do if elected. They hail from Jupiter, North Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, and Boynton Beach.

We hope you will get to know these candidates, and support them in their campaigns, even if you do not live in their town. What happens in the local communities affects us all and actions by these local leaders tends to spread. You may also see some of these folks running for higher office in the future.

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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.

2022 Ann Roberts Scholarships

The Republican Club of the Palm Beaches’ Scholarship was named after a long-standing and active member of our Club, Anne Roberts.

The Anne Roberts Memorial Scholarship is available to any resident of Palm Beach County who is a full or part time undergraduate or graduate student seeking to further their education. Students must have a GPA of 3.0 or above and plan to attend an accredited college. Applicants must be registered (or pre-registered under 18 yrs. of age) Republicans. Current members of our Club may refer applicants for this scholarship. The deadline for this application is May 31. The recipient will be eligible to receive up to $500 to be sent to the school they will attend. Award will be presented at the monthly luncheon June 28, 2022.

RCPB Scholarship application 2022

Previous Year Winners

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Covid precluded our scholarship program in 2021, but in 2020, our winners were:

BEN DEHAAN was a senior at Palm Beach Atlantic University majoring in Business Management and Political Science. He is an honor student, serving with the Student Body, has volunteered with the Republican Executive Committee Offices, and spent working hours during high school and college working in small business in West Palm Beach and his home state of Michigan. He hopes to run for office one day.

KEELIE HANLEY, who graduated from SunCoast High school locally, began her college career at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with her twin sister, Rileigh, who has since been appointed to the US Air Force Academy. Keelie is continuing at Embry-Riddle with a focus on Computer Engineering. Many in our Club watched Keelie grow to adulthood as she attended our meetings with her family or volunteered for Congressman Brian Mast. She was honored to be an escort for a Korean War Veteran on one of our Palm Bach County Honor Flights to Washington DC.

RCPB Scholarship application 2022

Holiday Cheer and Place of Hope at December Lunch

On 12/14, we were joined by Jamie Bond, director of advancement and development for Place of Hope Treasure Coast, and vocalist Monique McCall.

Monique performed some of her own songs, including “I feel like Florida today“, and “I wanna live like everyday is Christmas” as well as a stirring rendition of “O Holy Night“.

Jamie gave us a snapshot of some of the programs at Place of Hope, including their safe houses for the victims of sex trafficking. For more information, she directed us to their youtube channel at: www.youtube.com/c/PlaceofHopePBG

Club Treasurer Betty Anne Starkey presented Jamie with a donation on our behalf in support of the Place of Hope programs.

Candidates in attendance were Jen Showalter (SB6) and Jeff “Bongi” Buongiorno (CD21).

Sid Dinerstein – Playing by the “Gretzky Rule”

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretzky

In politics as in hockey, leading the target is always a good idea.

Applying this rule at our November lunch, pundit Sid Dinerstein gave his views of the puck’s location in January of 2025.

With the overwhelming disaster that is the Biden Administration continuing on its destructive path, Sid predicts that the next Presidential election will see the “end of the communist era” in America. With another Biden term practically impossible in the current environment, and a Kamala Harris candidacy a joke even to most Democrats, who will the candidates be?

Plotting their ideological leanings on a virtual baseball field, all the current Democrats (with the exception perhaps of Tulsi Gabbard) are way down the left field foul line. On our side, he sees Donald Trump as center-right, along with Mike Pompeo. Ron DeSantis is a little more right, Nikki Haley and Mike Pence a little less so.

Will Trump run again? A lot of events are coming together to suggest a run and a win are likely. The election audits continue under the MSM radar, and people don’t like cheaters – perhaps willing to right a wrong. The Durham indictments are ramping up and we should see more light shown on the Russia collusion conspiracy. The Virginia results (in which Trump played an important role even if not campaigning for Youngkin) are a harbinger, and his role in the 2022 midterms will be significant.

America is rejecting the communist movement, and the GOP will likely pick up 50 House seats and a few in the Senate. Desantis will win in a landslide, and the “Squad” will be crushed. Steve Bannon will kick ass against the “January 6th Commission”, and a Biden impeachment in the next Congress is a real possibility.

Virginia showed us the trends: momma bears and freedom up, AOC, BLM, CRT and Biden down.

To capitalize on all this, we need new Congressional leadership. McCarthy and McConnell are good people but not the warriors we need. Sid would rather see the ascendancy of Brian Mast and Rick Scott.

Prediction: Trump gets second term.

How can we help? Show up, speak up, pay up!

Also at the meeting we heard from candidates Sara Baxter (CC6), Jennifer Showwalter (SB6), and Jeff Buongiorno (CD21), a spokesperson for Bailey “Fiona’s Mom” Lashells (SB3), and Caneste Succe who offered us contacts in the Haitian community.

Club Hosts Panel Discussion on Cancel Culture and Intimidation is Schools and Business

How much does the “Cancel Culture” and “Wokeness” affect you? If you’ve ever had a social media post removed or restricted you have felt its effects. If you are a student or teacher in the woke education system, or a professional needing to maintain a certification you have likely experienced it also. In addition to Education, the Government, Media, Sports, Entertainment, Corporate America – even sometimes our neighbors are all engaged in the process of throttling thoughts about which they disapprove.

On September 28th, we invited some members of the community to share their thoughts about this growing threat to our liberty.

Melissa Tellez is an Engineering student at PB State College, and founder of their Turning Point USA chapter and has been politically involved since her high school days. She gave us a feeling for the difficulty in getting students to speak up about their beliefs in the face of peer pressure to conform to the liberal orthodoxy.

For a long time, she accepted the narrative that President Trump was all the bad things that CNN and others said about him. When she started to do her own research though, the misinformation became clear and she became a fan of the Trump policies. Now she tries to spread that word to her peers.

Audrey Friedrich is a practicing Psychologist who deals with anxiety disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive behavior, particularly among the young. In recent years she has seen a significant uptick in the number of gender dysphoria cases. As many parents are learning after distance learning gave them a window into their children’s classrooms, the schools have been pushing the message that it is perfectly normal to be confused about your gender identity, and that there are many options to effect a change in the gender to which you were born. Hence the uptick in young people seeking counseling in that area.

Audrey has also experienced the leftist bias in training courses she has taken in the field, where transgenderism is all about an agenda and not “evidence based treatment”. She found that good to know as she can counsel parents of gender dysphoria children what to expect from the “establishment”.

Christian Acosta is an Adjunct Engineering instructor at PB State who gave us some reason to be optimistic, at least about the State College system. Since many of his students are returning to school from the workplace, they are more grounded in life skills and less susceptible to indoctrination. Also, since state funding is in play, and our state education system is less tolerant of biased behavior on the part of their schools, there is more freedom of expression than you may find in a private University.

There was a goodly number of candidates who came to the meeting to introduce themselves to the members. Shown below from left are Jeff Buongiorno (CD21), Peter Noble (Greenacres Council), Brian Norton (SD29), Jason Mariner (CD20), Michael Caruso (HD89) and Rick Roth (HD85).

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.

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