Kroske is the better Republican contender
Michael Kroske and Carla Spalding are the two Republicans seeking their party’s nomination in Congressional District 23, which serves south Broward and part of eastern Miami-Dade. Neither candidate appears to be realistically grounded in current national issues, but there is a significant difference in their personas.
Kroske impresses us as having a mind more open to cross-party cooperation. Both of them are partisan and supportive of Donald Trump’s misused presidency, but Spalding is more so. That would make her the weaker nominee in a heavily Democratic district that re-elected Debbie Wasserman Schultz with 58.5 percent of the vote two years ago.
We think Kroske would make a more competitive nominee for the Republicans and, if elected, a more responsible member of Congress.
Kroske, 60, lives in Plantation and works for Nations Rent in corporate procurement. This is his first campaign for political office. When we asked him to cite the top three issues facing our country, he specified immigration, drugs and Iran, which we doubt correspond with the most urgent concerns of this district’s voters. But he was more specific than Spalding.
Refreshingly, he says Trump “should be more concerned with presidential items and not what people think of him.” He also differs with the president over voting by mail, especially when ballots are very long, as they often are in Florida because of constitutional amendments.
Like several other neophyte candidates, he touts term limits for Congress in his Sun Sentinel candidate questionnaire. Given what that feel-good mischief did to the Florida Legislature, Congress would become worse, not better. It’s a diversion from significant campaign finance reform, which would make Congress better.
Kroske didn’t offer any significant health care proposals beyond more competition among insurance companies and allowing imports of prescription drugs. He had no serious proposals about the national debt or climate change. He doesn’t support gun control. He said he was “not familiar” with the controversy over the Army Corps of Engineers delaying Everglades restoration by declaring the southern reservoir as a “new start.” Anyone proposing to represent South Florida who can’t answer that question hasn’t done his homework. Spalding, however, just ignored it.
But politics is an exercise in relativity, and Spalding’s shortcomings are greater.
Spalding, 51, is a registered nurse and military veteran making her third attempt for Congress. Her last attempt, two years ago, was noteworthy primarily for the disclosure that she paid herself a salary totaling $17,500 over the course of the campaign. It’s legal, but unusual. A consultant said she “works full-time on her congressional campaign.” She finished third, with 21.6 percent of the vote, in a three-way Republican primary. She says she has raised $186,000 this time, almost ten times as much as Kroske’s $19,505.
Spalding was unable to join Kroske in what was supposed to be a joint interview with our editorial board. Her written questionnaire was studded with rightwing tropes and demagogic innuendo, as in this sentence: “Congress is consistently ranked just below cockroaches, and above Satan, and for good reason.” The district, she says, “deserves a trustworthy corruption-free representative who will put people first.” She did not offer any evidence of corruption on the part of the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Her top three issues were glaringly nonspecific. In her words, “Our country is in a major crisis and a fork, whereby we must proceed down a path of prayerful peace and unity, not chaos, violence and anarchy. We need to get our economy restarted, recovered and soaring again quickly. Our politicians are displaying FAR too much selfishness and power drunk policies. Congress deserves leaders who can unite us, not divide us.”
To our question on ensuring free and safe elections, she replied without evidence that “mail in ballots in Broward County have been scientifically proven to be fraudulent.” Broward, she said, is “the national ‘poster child’” for voter fraud. Recent elections were mismanaged with seriously delayed counts, but there has been absolutely no evidence of fraud.
Spalding opposes the Affordable Care Act, accuses the “radical left” of asking for “tens of trillions of dollars for illegal aliens, those who refuse to work, the New Green Deal, etc.” She’s skeptical of climate change, clueless on congressional ethics reform and on how to aid the people of Venezuela, and immune to gun control.
She might be a perfect candidate for President Trump, but not for Florida’s 23 rd District.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.
EDITOR’S NOTE
With mail-in ballots going out July 9, the Sun Sentinel editorial board is working hard to research, write and publish our recommendations for the August 18 election in Broward and southern Palm Beach counties. You can follow along at sunsentinel.com/ endorsements. We will publish a summary box during Early Voting and on Election Day. The deadline to register to vote is Monday, July 20. To request a mail-in ballot in Broward, call 954-357-7050; in Palm Beach, 561-656-6200.