South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Changes coming to political parties
Asthe political world continues to dissect data from the election, point fingers over what went wrong, and claim credit for what went right, the Democratic and Republican parties in Broward County are about to choose leaders.
The new party leaders selected incoming weeks could impact the 2022 elections for Florida governor and U.S. Senate — with many Democrats concerned and Republicans optimistic.
Democrats and Republicans are turning to their major bases of support for new county party chairmen.
The next Broward Democratic chairman will be from Generation X, either Rick
Hoye, who is African American, or Alfredo Olvera, a gay Hispanic immigrant.
Broward Republicans are turning to a member of the Baby Boom generation: Tom Powers, a white retired law enforcement agent and former Coral Springs city commissioner.
Hoye or Olvera for the Democrats and Powers for the Republicans is “certainly reflective of what is happening within the parties today,” said Kathryn DePalo-Gould, a political scientist at Florida International University, who lives in Weston. “Look at the demographics of the voters, the political activists and the candidates.”
Democrats “can’t continue to say ‘We stand with Black Lives Matter’ and ‘We stand with the LGBTQ community’ without having that representation at the top.” (Broward Democrats had a Black interim chairwoman who served briefly a quarter century ago but this is the first time the party will elect a top leader who isn’t white.)
Powers’ background is “reflective of the ideology and the makeup of the party today, especially in Florida,” DePalo said.
Democratic troubles
A casual look makes it seems as if things are OK for Democrats in Broward County:
50% of the registered voters are Democrats and just 21.3% are Republicans — more than 6 percentage points behind no party affiliation/independent voters.
Democrats haven’t lost a countywide election since
2008 and haven’t lost a County Commission race since 2014. Every member of Congress and 13 of the 15 state legislators who live in the county are Democrats.
President-elect Joe Biden won 64.5% of the vote in Broward to President Donald Trump’s 34.7% even as Trump won statewide with 51.2% of the vote. And Biden’s 618,752 Broward vote total is 65,432 more than Hillary Clinton received in 2016.
But Democrats aren’t in such good shape:
Trump’s gain over his
2016 total in Broward was much greater than Biden’s improvement over Clinton. The president’s
333,403 votes represented an increase of 72,458 — in Florida’s most overwhelmingly Democratic county.
Although Biden won among Hispanic and Black voters, Trump made significant gains, especially in communities with growing Hispanic populations.
State Rep. Tom Fabricio, R-Miramar, defeated state Rep. Cindy Polo, D-Miramar. City elections are technically nonpartisan, but the political parties brag when their members win. Democrats suffered some losses in Broward.
State Rep. Chip LaMarca, R-Lighthouse Point, won re-election against a wellfunded challenger along the coast in northeast Broward.
On the eve of the election, Democratic strategists were asserting they would defeat LaMarca. Not only didn’t that happen, but LaMarca did much better than 2018 — even accounting for higher turnout in a presidential year.
LaMarca received 35% more votes than he did in 2018. Democrat Linda Thompson Gonzalez received just 26% more votes than 2018 Democratic candidate Emma Collum.
Mitch Ceasar, who was chairman of the Broward Democratic Party for 20 years until stepping down in
2016, said there are “warning signs the party must deal with.” Foremost, he said, are the gains Trump made among Black men and in the Hispanic community.
Democrats Steve Geller and Melissa Ward said Democrats were hurt badly among Broward’s growing number of Hispanic voters by Republicans’ branding their candidates as socialists.
They represent different wings of the party. Geller is county mayor, a former Florida Senate Democratic leader and founder of the Real Solutions Caucus of county elected officials who pushed for a moderate presidential nominee, like Biden. Ward, the recording secretary of the county party, was a supporter of progressive U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s unsuccessful presidential candidacy.
Why it’s important
Broward is the biggest Democratic stronghold in Florida. If Democrats don’t produce a huge number of votes in Broward County, the party has no hope of winning statewide elections for president, governor or U.S. Senate. Republicans know they’ll never win the county, but their objective is to produce enough votes that the Democratic margin in Broward isn’t enough to overcome more Republican parts of the state.
In reality, the political parties aren’t as important as they were during the decades when Broward’s population rose and the county developed in a major metropolitan area. Decades ago, party leaders used to be able to determine nominees, and Democratic titans in vast condominium communities filled with northeastern Democratic retirees could deliver thousands of votes.
Even though campaigns have become much more candidate-centric, and less about an overarching philosophy, the political parties can do important work, like voter registration, building networks of activists that can be deployed when campaigns get under way, and developing relationships with everyday voters.
The parties are making their leadership choices in a period that may not be as dominated by Trump, who was a unifying force for both sides, DePalo-Gould said. “The parties, not just in Broward and not just in the state of Florida, are trying to figure out their direction because they have factions in each party trying to vie for power. And now that Trump is gone, I’m not sure what is going to keep them together.”
Local leaders
The party chairman or chairwoman is the face of the county political arm.
Besides visibility, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want the job. It comes with long hours, requires scrounging for money, and brings constant carping from critics. And it doesn’t pay a salary.
“Most people overly romanticize the position,” Ceasar said. “If you’re going to do it right, it’s a tough deal every single day…. In the current climate, it’s tougher than ever.”
On the Republican side in recent years, few people have wanted to continue in the job. When Powers is elected next month, he’ll become the 10th Broward Republican chairman in 10 years. George Moraitis, chairman for the past three years, is stepping down after diffusing party turmoil and helping it regain solid financial footing.
The Democrats have had less turnover because Ceasar was in office for two decades. Cynthia Busch, Democratic chairwoman since 2016, isn’t running again.
Who decides
Decisions about the party officers are made by precinct committeemen and committeewomen elected from districts throughout the county in the August primaries.
Broward has 577 precincts and both parties have many vacancies. There are about
360 Democrats eligible to vote, Busch said, and about
230 Republicans. Elected lawmakers who live in Broward also may vote for the party officers.
Democrats will elect a chairman, first vice chairwoman, second vice chairwoman, recording secretary, corresponding secretary, and treasurer. (The chairman election is first. If a man is elected first, the first vice chair must be a woman under party rules. If the party elects a chairwoman, the first vice chair must be a man.)
Republicans elect a chairman, vice chairman, secretary and treasurer.
Democrats also elect a state committeeman and a state committeewoman. Republican voters picked their state committeeman and committeewoman in the August primary.
Additional candidates can come forward until voting begins.
The voting for party leaders reflects the styles of Biden and Trump when it came to campaigning during the coronavirus pandemic.
Broward Democrats will hold their elections Dec. 6 via Zoom video conference. Republicans will gather the next day in a large meeting room for in-person voting.