Political Wisdom from “Tres Amigos”

The RCNPB February Meeting at Frenchman’s Reserve delivered an assortment of political tidbits along with an amazing Sunday brunch.

After the Pledge and a prayer delivered by Angela West, the first “amigo”, County Commissioner Hal Valeche went through his top 3 list of accomplishments for the year just past:

Baseball will remain in the county, thanks to a deal to place the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals at a new location on 45th street after the Palm Beach Gardens venue was soundly rejected by the neighborhood. Using a $50M grant from the state and county money in the form of the bed tax, the taxpayers will be building a fine stadium for the teams. Hal explained how this will bring in tourist dollars and keep the teams at Roger Dean from bolting to greener pastures.

Uber, the disruptive technology company that is giving the established taxi companies heartburn, is allowed to operate in the county under a deal that Hal helped arrange. The state is now moving to regulate the new businesses (including Uber and Lyft) and will supersede local ordinances, but county action was necessary in the meantime to allow them to operate without the regulatory overhead required of the taxi companies.

Verdenia Baker, who was deputy to former County Administrator Bob Weisman, was hired to replace Bob after a nationwide search involving 80 candidates that ultimately came down to Verdenia or Assistant County Administrator Shannon LaRocque.

Hal also spent some time explaining the upcoming proposal to increase the county sales tax (possibly up to 8% from the current 6%) if the county, the school district, and Fire / Rescue are all successful placing them on the ballot and getting them passed. To compensate for several years of underspending on county infrastructure, each 1/2 cent of the sales tax would generate over $1.1B in its ten year life to pay for building refurbishment, drainage projects and road striping. Many believe the county has yet to make their case that this is necessary. Hal and the other commissioners will be discussing the options on Tuesday 2/9.

The next “amigo” was county GOP Chairman Michael Barnett who spoke of the readiness for upcoming elections. With a new office on the first floor of the building they have been in on Palm Beach Lakes, there is lots of room for candidates to bring in their volunteers to meet and make calls. He also brought us up to date on minority outreach, an example of which was the party’s participation in the MLK day parades in Riviera Beach and Lake Worth, and the kudos from the black community about the good work in the community.

Fundraising in going well with a sold out Lincoln Day event with Donald Trump, and vice Chair Tami Donnelly is hard at work training a grassroots army. With special interest in the municipal elections on March 15, Michael offered help to Republican candidates and reached out to Gardens Council candidate Carl Woods and Jupiter’s Wayne Posner who were present at the meeting.

Third “amigo” was former county Chair Sid Dinerstein who spoke of the “shifting of tectonic plates”.

Describing Donald Trump as an “American Firster” rather than a conservative, Sid explained how Mr. Trump is running for the job as “top cheerleader for America” – something very different from most of the candidates in the race in either party, and why he has a strong appeal among those who blame the political classes for the decline of our country.

With insights not heard often from our party, Sid explained that black voters know that the Democrats have reserved all the low wage jobs for the illegals, and would be open to Republican candidates who used that fact to gain support.

Perhaps Sid’s most interesting observation however was that “conservatives never take back ground”. In other words, most conservatives when elected, work to keep the problems from getting worse, but NEVER try to roll back the damage that the Democrats have done. In this election cycle, perhaps the success of Donald Trump may suggest that this is changing.

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Also at the meeting were CD18 candidates Rebecca Negron, Carl Domino and Rick Roth.

JTRO Meeting February 9

RCNPB Co-Hosts Palm Beach Gardens Candidate Forum on 2/25

Los Tres Amigos – Valeche, Barnett, Dinerstein at February Brunch

RCCPBC Hosts Dan Bongino

NPB Republican Club Hosts Senate Candidate Ron DeSantis

Sunday afternoon brunch at Frenchman’s Reserve was an excellent opportunity for the club to introduce Florida Senate Candidate Ron DeSantis. The brunch was something new for the club, and the expansive array of delicious food was a grazer’s delight.

First elected to Congress in 2012, Ron represents Florida district 6, a coastal district stretching from south of Jacksonville to New Symrna Beach. An outspoken member of the House Freedom Caucus, which was instrumental in booting John Boehner from the Speaker’s chair, he gets a well-earned 89% on the Heritage Action Scorecard, highest in the House.

As a 2016 Senate Candidate, he will face Representative David Jolly (Heritage Action 41%), Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantero, and former CIA and Army Special Forces Veteran Todd Wilcox in the August Primary. The winner of that contest will go on to face either our own Patrick Murphy (Heritage 16%) or Allan Grayson (also 16%).

Describing the country’s mood as “malaise”, and a feeling that neither party has a clue, Ron suggested that if Obama had been President during World War II, we would have lost.

Militant Islam, he said, is not limited to a few terrorist groups like ISIS, but a wider problem – witness the reaction at the Turkish Soccer match when calls for a moment of silence for Paris were met with chants of “Allahu akbar”. And ISIS is not the only Muslim Caliphate – there is a Shia version spreading from Africa to Asia led by Iran. Obama’s weakness has demonstrated to them that we can be attacked with impunity.

Ron then ran down his thoughts on a number of issues of the day, including:

• He sponsored a bill with Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton to eliminate aid to any country that accepts Guantanamo prisoners and then lets them return to the battlefield.
• With Ted Cruz he pushed a bill to put a pause on the import of Syrian refuges.
• He would arrange it so any home-grown Jihadi who leaves the country to fight for ISIS could not return.
• He opposes Ethanol subsidies as crony capitalism.
• He supports articles of impeachement for IRS Chief Koskinen.
• He opposes Common Core and voted against the NCLB re-authorization.
• He thinks Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted for her email server and its attempts to avoid Congressional oversight and FOIA request.
• He sees Obamacare failing before our eyes – much quicker than predicted, and thinks we should move to replace it with patient-centered healthcare.

Learn more about Ron DeSantis at his website: www.desantis2016.com

In other Club business, the slate of officers was elected for 2016:

Marilyn Parmet, President
Linda Stoch, Vice President
Bill Nelson, Treasurer
Jane Pike, Secretary

Holiday Party Brunch with Ron DeSantis

See below for Brunch Menu

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Three Takeaways from the Sunshine Summit

The Sunshine Summit, last weekend’s gathering of the Republican grassroots in Orlando, brought together 14 of the 15 candidates currently competing for presidential primary votes, along with most of the Senate candidates.

Unlike the events of the last two cycles in 2007 and 2011, which featured both televised debates and straw polls, this was mostly a candidate showcase – each was given 20 minutes to make their case. The extreme number of candidates this time, and the fact that Florida does not vote until March 15 – after 26 states will have already assigned their delegates, probably reduced attendance at the event. Still, there were upwards of 1000 in the hall, and the media presence was considerable. CSPAN covered the event live, and lots of recognizable on-air personalities could be seen roaming the halls.

External events played a role in what transpired, as reaction to the Paris attacks on Friday were integrated into the Saturday speeches, or in the case of Chris Christie, dominated their remarks. And the Democrat debate on Saturday night offered a unique opportunity to compare all of our contenders to Hillary Clinton and her two pesky sparring partners.

All the candidates remarks can be seen streaming on CSPAN.

After watching all the debates and attending the Heritage Action Event in South Carolina (with 10 of the candidates), I thought I had a good idea of the dynamics of the race and who was on my short list. That said, I left Orlando with a few new insights.

1. The outsiders have captured the imagination of large portions of the Republican base, even at an event comprised mostly of “insiders”.

As an event sponsored by the Republican Party of Florida, with a large number of blue-badged party officials in attendance, I expected a great deal of support and enthusiasm for the “favorite sons” Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and less for the outsiders Trump, Carson, Fiorina, and (some would say) Ted Cruz. This was clearly not the case.

While Jeb and Marco have strong support, it was the outsiders who were the rock stars.

Ted Cruz laid out the red meat with a flourish and hit all the hot buttons from Obamacare to the border, the Iran deal, a flat tax, and support for Israel, to thunderous applause.

Donald Trump, avoiding any criticism of his rivals this time, took on illegal immigration (need a Dream Act for Americans), winning again, incompetent leaders, and suggested that college students should be taught about the first amendment. The response was widespread and overwhelming.

Ben Carson, after a quiet start discussing his upbringing, lit into an extensive litany of all the things he would do if he wanted to “destroy America” – all of which Obama has put into motion. His was the most complete and devastating attack on the incumbent President of all the candidates and the crowd responded with enthusiasm.

Carly Fiorina, the last speaker of the event, focused on the Paris attacks, the feckless and dangerous foreign policy of Obama/Clinton, and what she would be doing about ISIS. It seemed like Margaret Thatcher channeling Winston Churchill and left no doubt that she would be a serious and effective commander-in-chief. The response was loud and enthusiastic.

2. Almost all of the Republican contenders are displaying the vision, determination, skill and experience that could believably repair the damage that 7 years of Obama have wrought. Clinton is clearly not in the same league with these people, in spite of her over 25 years on the national stage, and tenure as Senator and Secretary of State.

One thing that has become obvious to many people is that there are many kinds of relevant experience besides being an elected official. The office of President is a unique job, unlike any other, and it takes a generalist to oversee a diverse set of tasks, a communicator to inspire the country and lead it in a positive direction, and a visionary to see our potential as a people and set the wheels in motion to carry us forward. Governors, Senators, Business Leaders – all have skills that are relevant to the job, and all of the candidates now in the race have been successful in their lives and bring serious qualifications and abilities to the table.

Some would say that the terrible state that the country is in – anemic growth, unsustainable debt, corruption at all levels, an abdication of world leadership – is a result of professional politicians and insiders (lobbyists, big donors, etc) having screwed everything up. Hillary Clinton, who is unarguably the stereotype of all those things, would represent more of the same, as could be seen on the debate stage in Des Moines. It was apparent in Orlando that our candidates (to a greater or lesser extent), reject the status quo and will lead the country in a different direction.

3. The weeding out process is going to be long and arduous, as very few of these contenders can be counted out, despite their current standing in the polls.

Until the first delegates are selected in the Iowa caucuses on February 1, the polls will be unreliable, as most likely voters appear to be making tentative selections. Many people, until they have to commit, will lean to the candidate that meets their ideological goals, appears to speak “for them”, says the “right things”, or wins debating points. When the rubber meets the road though, issues of electability, consistency, honesty, ethics, contrast with the Democrat candidate, and other issues will rise in importance. As this year is unusual in the number of candidates and the widespread dissatisfaction with elected officials, predictions are hard.

Some weeding out has already begun, as few would expect Lindsey Graham or Jim Gilmore to become the nominee, and two candidates have already left the race. But all the rest have ardent supporters and judging by the enthusiastic response at the summit to most of the candidates, there are many “acceptable alternatives”. It is truly a deep bench.

CD18 Meet and Greet

PBCTP Candidate Forum Highlights CD18 Candidates

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