Litt easily defeats Russo to take council’s Group 5 seat
Pharmacist, 61, says life experience key in win over younger foe, 27.
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Pharmacist Rachelle Litt soundly beat political scion Joe Russo Jr. for the Cit y Council Group 5 seat Tuesday.
It’s been a tight race between Litt, 61, who lives in PGA National, and Russo Jr., 27, a Midtown resident who is executive director of Palm Beach Tech and son of longtime Council Member Joe Russo.
Litt att r ibuted the win to a well-organized campaign and to the advantage she had over the younger Russo in life experience.
“In the community that we live in, where the average age is 55, that probably resonated quite a bit,” she said.
Litt and Russo advanced from a four-person field March 14. They received 37 percent and 34 percent of the vote, respectively, which amounted to just over 2,000 votes each in that race.
The candidates and their families spent runoff day at various polling places.
Russo Jr. said his father, who held a council seat from 1989 until he was term-limited-out last year, and his mother were out supporting him Tuesday.
Litt’s physician husband, Jeffrey, stationed himself outside the public library polling place Tuesday afternoon, despite having spent the previous night delivering three patients’ babies.
“I’m sure he mentioned it (her candidacy) while they were under anesthesia,” Litt joked.
Quality of life issues dominated the campaign in the affluent city of 50,000.
Among the top concerns articulated by the candidates: increasing traffic, uncontrolled proliferation of sober homes and the prospects of new Interstate 95 interchanges and All Aboard Florida tie-ups.
The city’s limited ability to curb the proliferation of unscrupulous sober home operators, especially in older residential areas, was a common theme during the campaign.
Litt said she’s learned about drug addiction since she started pharmacy school and understands how the Affordable Care Act and Fa i r Housing Ac t have made money available for addiction treatment, creating the opportunity for people to take advantage of the system.
She said she’s attended about three of the countywide Sober Home Task Force meetings and has spoken several times with Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg. She said she’s also talked with state Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, who has proposed legislation to crack down on the sober home industry’s questionable practices.
Litt said having a pharmacist on the City Council also makes sense because health care is a big economic sector.
Litt also cited the need to mitigate the ill effects of growth. But she saw her biggest advantage