GOP hopes to hang on where Democrats dominate
Among elected officials in Broward County, Republicans are an endangered species. Vastly outnumbered among registered voters, Republicans are lining up candidates they hope will allow them to keep their only two elected offices in the 2018 elections.
One prime spot will be an open seat in next year’s election because term limits are forcing state Rep. George Moraitis, RFort Lauderdale, to leave office.
The strategy among party members is for Chip LaMarca, the only Republican on the Democratic-controlled Broward County Commission, to run for Moraitis’ seat in the state House of Representatives.
Shari McCartney, a former Oakland Park commissioner who now lives in Fort Lauderdale, would be a Republican candidate for LaMarca’s seat on the County Commission.
Republicans have been talking privately for months about a possible Moraitis-LaMarcaMcCartney move. It was an undercurrent Tuesday night at a farewell party for Moraitis in Pompano Beach.
LaMarca, in a brief interview, said he was likely to make and announce a decision in five or six weeks.
“I’m very happy that I [live in] the one place in Broward County where I have options,” he said. “I’m strongly looking at George’s seat.”
LaMarca, a former Lighthouse Point city commissioner, lives in the northern half of Broward along the coast, the one area of the county in which Republicans have been able to still win elections even as the county overall continues to trend more Democratic and less