GOP elects divided leadership group

The Broward Republican Party elected a deeply divided leadership team Monday night, narrowly re-electing its two top officers and adding two critics of the way the party operates to their ranks. The splintered group now must shepherd local Republicans through the 2018 elections. The results: Bob Sutton was re-elected chairman, with 90 votes to 85 votes for challenger Rico Petrocelli.

Celeste Ellich was reelected vice chairwoman, with 86 votes to 83 for challenger Lauren Cooley.

Dolly Rump, who was Donald Trump’s Broward campaign chairwoman, was elected secretary, with 92 votes. Rump ran on the Petrocelli-Cooley slate. Daniel Diaz, who lost a race for Pompano Beach City Commission last month and ran for secretary on the SuttonEllich slate, received 72 votes.

The previous secretary, Kristin Matheny, didn’t run for re-election.

Kevin F. Moot, who lost a race for Weston City Commission last month, defeated Treasurer Roger Gingerich of Pompano Beach, a certified public accountant and owner of tax preparation services. Moot, who ran on the Petrocelli-Cooley slate, won 85 votes to 62 for Gingerich, who ran with the Sutton-Ellich team. Before the voting, Sutton delivered this advice: “We need to remember as we leave tonight, we are all one family.”

But the evening was contentious. One sign: When Petrocelli had his turn at the mic and hit the five-minute mark in his speech to the voters – Republican committeemen and committeewomen from throughout the county – people in the audience started yelling “time!”

Sutton, a teacher from Coral Springs was elected chairman in 2015, filling a vacancy. Petrocelli, a retiree and former member of the Plantation City Council, has held a variety of party jobs. He served previously as chairman, a post he quit in 2013 after holding it for 12 weeks, citing “irreconcilable differences” with the party’s board of directors.

Each candidate touted his background and pledged to improve the standing of Republicans in the county. (The party is in third place, behind Democrats and no party affiliation/independents in registered voters.) They also went after each other.

Contrasting himself to Petrocelli, Sutton said he wasn’t a quitter. And he skeptically raised the $75,000 that Petrocelli has been paid for services to the party over several years, most when he was the executive director, part as fundraising commissions.

Petrocelli accused the Sutton-led local party board of directors of mismanagement and poor strategic decisionmaking. He said palm cards giving voters recommendations were late, the program to encourage people to return their absentee ballots was late, and contributions from the county party to local candidates were late and doled out haphazardly.

After Sutton and Ellich were re-elected, Rump and Moot offered criticisms of the way the party has been run during the incumbents’ tenure.