GOP ready to woo Democrat heavy Broward

Broward is the most solidly Democratic county in Florida, outpacing Republicans on almost every front: registered voters, candidates and elected officials.

Yet for the marquee 2018 races — governor and U.S. Senate — Republicans are counting on voters in the Democratic bastion.

The numbers are daunting. Democrats have 569,000 registered voters in the county. The 319,000 no party affiliation voters are in second place. Republicans are in a distant third, with

245,000 voters.

With those numbers, Republicans at the top of the ticket will get crushed in Broward on Election Day. But if they do well enough in the county, Republican-leaning parts of Florida can produce statewide victories for the party’s candidates.

“The turnout from Broward County is crucial to the success of our statewide candidates,” Richard DeNapoli, a county party leader, told a packed audience at a recent fundraising dinner. “If we can turn out the vote here in Broward, we can keep Florida a red state with an all-Republican Cabinet and we can make [Gov.] Rick Scott our next senator.”

Susan MacManus, who recently retired as a University of South Florida political scientist, said Broward can make that happen.

The state has a history of exceedingly close elections, with the last four big statewide races decided by about 1 percentage point. The 2000 presidential race was decided by just 537 votes of almost 6 million cast.

MacManus said there is every reason to believe 2018 could be just as close.

With the possibility of a big wave for one of the parties in 2018, MacManus said the “Democrats [are] playing offense and the Republicans playing defense.”

“Republicans have to pick up people all over, just like Democrats have got to get into some of the red counties,” she said.

Broward Republican Chairman George Moraitis turned up the heat at last month’s Lincoln Day fundraising dinner, urging a harder push on the basics of political organizing.

“We’ve got to get back to blocking and tackling,” Moraitis said, beseeching party members to “get out and meet those people and engage them and explain why they should vote for your candidate.”

But, he said, outnumbered doesn’t mean outworked. Moraitis knows something about winning elections as a Republican in Broward County. A member of the state House of Representatives, he’s the only Republican lawmaker who lives in the county.

DeNapoli, a former county party chairman and current state Republican committeeman, said if Republicans can get their turnout rate high enough in Broward, it will hold down the margin of the inevitable Democratic victory locally.

County Commissioner Chip LaMarca, a former Broward Republican chairman, said if Scott receives 35 percent of the vote in Broward, he’d be able to defeat U.S. Sen Bill Nelson. Scott can’t seek re-election as governor because of term limits.

“Our task is very simple: Turn out Republicans,” LaMarca said.

Local Republicans — especially LaMarca — are also counting on Republican pockets of strength in northeast Broward along the coast, as they attempt to hold their two local offices.

LaMarca is running for the state House, to succeed Moraitis, who can’t run again because of term limits. And former Oakland Park Commissioner Shari McCartney is running to succeed LaMarca, the only elected Republican in county government.

Democrats are hoping to wrest those two seats from Republicans. Pompano Beach Mayor Lamar Fisher is running for County Commission, and Emma Collum and Stephanie Myers are running for state House.

The Republican Party in Broward has been in disarray for years, plagued by infighting. Moraitis has begun patching the holes, and he’s receiving support from factions that have been at each other’s throats for years.

That progress showed at the party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner last month. More than 450 people bought tickets for the event. At the dinner-only price of $150, the party would have taken in $70,000 before expenses, but sales were brisk for the $300 a person VIP reception, and sponsorships — ranging from $1,500 to $10,000 — pushed the total much higher.

Income and expenses won’t be reported until second quarter financial reports are filed in July.

Last year, the party was so dysfunctional it didn’t even have a Lincoln Day. The year before, during the 2016 election season, about 350 people attended.

This year was different, said Republican analyst Myra Adams of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Adams, who writes frequently for conservative national publications and served on John McCain’s Ad Council during the 2008 presidential campaign and on President George W. Bush’s campaign creative team in 2004, is a veteran of political fundraising dinners.

Most of the crowd remained though the evening — long after dinner was over.

The significance, Adams said, is that “there’s a lot of energy in Broward County.”