She’s in.

Kristin Jacobs

Broward County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs will run for the northeast Broward congressional seat being abandoned by U. S. Rep. Allen West.

“I’m going to do it,” she told Browardbeat.com Friday. “I’m jumping in with both feet. It would be crazy not to try.”

Jacobs is entering a field that is fast becoming crowded.

Democrats include Former Florida House member and West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, who has been running almost a year and has more than $1 million.  Businessman Patrick Murphy is also campaigning. Jacobs’ fellow Democratic commissioner John Rodstrom is considering running, too.

On the Republican side, former state representative Adam Hasner is ending his U. S. Senate campaign to run for the Broward-Palm Beach County seat.

Jacobs said the campaign would be hard starting so far behind the two Democrats who are already in the race.  ”It’s nothing to sneeze at,” she said.

But as a pro-choice woman, she hopes to siphon away some of the Emily’s List money that has been flooding into the Frankel campaign.  Emily’s List is a national organization that supports pro-choice female candidates.

She already has good relations with the group.  It tried to get her to run for the seat earlier, and they had talked about her running in 2014 when her term on the Broward County Commission ends, she said.  Then West switched seats earlier this week.

Jacobs has a history of being an underdog. She won a come-from-behind victory against the better-funded incumbent Commissioner Sylvia Poitier to win a seat on the commission in 1998.

Not termed out until 2014, Jacobs said she will stay on the commission if she loses the congressional race.  She wants to complete the work she has started on various national and area environmental and sustainability boards, such as the National Ocean Council Governance Coordinating Committee.

“I’ve got work that I want to continue as long as I can,” she said.

Jacobs is the county commission’s environmental specialist, but has also been at the forefront of such solid Democratic issues as the living wage law, which sets the salary of county employees above the poverty line.  She has also been a major supporter of mass transit, serving as chair of the Tri-Rail governing board.

Expect an official campaign announcement from Jacobs sometime next week.

Here is an earlier story on Jacobs.

County Commissioner Kristin Jacobs is the second Broward politician who is considering running for the congressional seat being abandoned by U. S. Rep. Allen West, according to several sources.

Kristin Jacobs

Jacobs has expressed interest in running for the seat in the past.

A commissioner since 1998, Jacobs styles herself the voice of the environment on the usually pro-development commission.

Commissioner John Rodstrom is considering a run for the same congressional seat.  But Rodstrom is termed out this year, while Jacobs has two years left on her term.

The Miami Herald reports that Republican Adam Hasner is about to drop out of the U. S. Senate race to run for West’s congressional seat.

Jacobs has been repeatedly romanced by national Democrats, who have tried to prod her to run for Congress. She lives in Pompano Beach in West’s district.

An attractive woman, she would be a stark contrast in any primary debate to Patrick Murphy and  former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, other Democrats running.

(Frankel, an Old School progressive, reminds me of a Bella Abzug retread with her thick New York accent and her FDR-style politics.   However, while being attractive helps in broadcast situation, it is no guarantee of anything, especially of the candidate can’t cut it in other ways.  Remember Michelle Bachmann?

And before women start writing me saying I’m sexist, this goes for good looking men, too.  Many pundits believe the campaign of U. S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass, two years ago was aided by him being a former male model and Cosmo’s “America’s Sexiest Man.”)

Jacobs could not be reached this morning to confirm reports from several sources inside the Government Center.

Her departure could leave an open seat in Northeast Broward if she decides to resign. I’m not sure she could run for office full-time, hold the commission seat and keep a straight face. If she did resign, it would prompt a number of candidates to enter the race for that commission seat.

Does County Commissioner John Rodstrom dream of becoming Congressman John Rodstrom?

“It’s not the night to talk about it,” Rodstrom told me while at a Fort Lauderdale City Commission reelection campaign celebration for his wife, Charlotte Rodstrom.

But Democrat Rodstrom’s name immediately surfaced Tuesday after Republican U. S. Rep. Allen West said he was abandoning his seat to move north to a more friendly district.

West’s district is anchored on the south by a big piece of Fort Lauderdale, Rodstrom’s base for two decades.

House District 22, which stretches from Northeast Broward through Palm Beach County, already has two Democrats running in it – former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel and environmental firm executive Patrick Murphy.  They have already raised more than $3 million between them, which would make Rodstrom’s entrance into the race daunting.

“I’m familiar with the district. A couple of people have come to me about it,” Rodstrom said.  “I can’t give you an answer today.”

A personal aside:  I believe Rodstrom would make a great member of Congress.  He is smart and has a solid background in local government. He is a moderate who is well-grounded in finance, which is the country’s biggest issue.

He really has little to lose, since he is term limited from the county commission later this year. Too bad such a race would be so tough for the Broward veteran.

Meanwhile, talk continues to circulate about Charlotte Rodstrom running for John’s current commission seat.  She has a good, solid  record on the Fort Lauderdale commission.  She won a major victory Tuesday night, crushing her opponents with almost 80 percent of the vote.  She would make a very credible candidate.

The problem: Former County Commissioner Ken  Keechl is already running for the seat. Thus, Charlotte Rodstrom would be the second major Fort Lauderdale area Democrat in the race.

But 60 percent of the seat after redistricting is now south of State Road 84. It’s an area largely represented by the third Democrat about to jump into the race, state Rep. Evan Jenne of Dania Beach. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaigns in that part of the district in the last few years.

Would Keechl and Charlotte Rodsrom divide the Fort Lauderdale vote, leaving Jenne the bulk of the rest?

And 2012 is just getting underway!

It’s time for Wilton Manors Mayor Gary Resnick to leave politics.

Gary Resnick from campaign literature of his opponent

The reason?

His pathetic attempt to overturn the county’s ethics law in his city.  It’s on tomorrow’s ballot.

I think he is motivated by naked self interest:  He is a lawyer who told Mike Mayo in the Sun-Sentinel that he sometimes lobbies Broward cities.

Oh, he doesn’t call it lobbying.  He calls it representing a client in front of government. Using Resnick’s definition, there are almost no lobbyists since most are lawyers representing clients.

Regardless, Resnick would be forbidden to lobby in Broward under the new law.

Now I don’t want to cost anybody his livelihood.  So I’ve got a better idea for Resnick: Quit.

Resnick told Mayo that the new law would result in a lot of “very good, qualified elected officials” leaving.  I say if the reason they are leaving is they can’t lobby their buddies on other city commissions, good riddance.

Nobody needs ethics laws more than city officials.  It is always helpful to remember that State Attorney Mike Satz has prosecuted more city officials than County Commissioners and School Board member combined.

City Halls, which have largely been abandoned by the financially beleaguered media, are filled with special interest dealing.

Resnick engineered tomorrow’s referendum to throw out the ethics law in Wilton Manors.  Of course, the language of the ballot question is highly misleading and makes it look like voters are just ratifying the state’s ethics law.  No mention of replacing the county law with the weaker state law.

Isn’t the ballot language what we would expect from a lawyer who has a self interest in seeing the law tossed out?

The one who should be tossed out is Gary Resnick.

]]> http://www.browardbeat.com/toss-out-wilton-manors-mayor-gary-resnick-not-ethics-law/feed/ 14 http://www.browardbeat.com/democratic-candidate-seeks-appt-from-gov-scott-really/ http://www.browardbeat.com/democratic-candidate-seeks-appt-from-gov-scott-really/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:14:51 +0000 Buddy http://www.browardbeat.com/?p=14839 BY BUDDY NEVINS

A Browardbeat.com spy spotted Northeast Broward Democratic House candidate Barbra Stern going into the governor’s office in Tallahassee this week.

Barbra Stern

Wazzup?

Stern was there for a 10-minute interview with Gov. Rick Scott.  She applied for an appointment to the Florida Elections Commission and Scott wanted to talk to her.

Was this Democratic candidate really seeking an appointment from the Republican governor?  Or was Stern just jumping at the chance for face time with Scott?

Here is the sequence of events:

Stern filed her application for one of the six openings on the commission before deciding to run against incumbent Republican George Moraitis.  Once she started running, she never bothered to withdraw her application.

Now that she is running, she really can’t serve, according to the commission website. State law forbids a candidate for “any public office” from being appointed to the commission.

She seemed to indicate she used it as an opportunity to meet the governor, although she wouldn’t say that flatly.

“He was very polite,” Stern says. “He was very kind.  He has a real interest in younger people getting involved in politics.”

When asked if  some might call her hypocritical for running a campaign filled with anti-Republican rhetoric while seeking an appointment from one of the state’s GOP leaders, she said: “It’s a bi-partisan board.”

The nine-member board is appointed to four-year terms by the governor from three applicants each from the Speaker of the House, President of the Senate and leaders of the minority party in the Legislature.

Is this a picture of lobbyist Judy Stern texting a Fort Lauderdale commissioner?

So says activist Art Seitz, who happens to be a photographer.

The texting by lobbyists to commissioners on the dais is a widespread practice in many city halls and at the county Government Center. It is a way to discuss an issue with the commissioner without anybody knowing it.

In this case, Seitz caught Stern texting a commissioner during a political debate.

I wasn’t there.  So I can’t verify these pictures. But Seitz has a pretty good track record.

You decide.

Not so fast, Frankllin.

Franklin Sands of Weston hoped he would walk into a countywide School Board seat when he was termed out of the Florida House later this year. His dream of not getting an opponent ended Tuesday.

School Board member Donna Korn, who was appointed last year to fill a vacancy in Northwest Broward, opened a campaign against Sands for the countywide seat.

Although the seat is non-partisan, Sands is expected to emphasize his role as Florida Democratic House leader during the campaign…surreptitiously.  He will also remind voters that Korn was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott.

Sands, however, will have to counter charges that he is just looking for a job and health coverage because he must leave his legislative seat because of term limits. And his stepson, Alex Heckler, should be an issue since Heckler is a registered lobbyist at the School Board.

Heckler is registered to represent a vending company, while his partner is registered to lobby for a health care firm.

Korn, who is a moderate Republican,  will campaign as a new, fresh face in politics. She also has extensive education experience as a parent activist and now a School Board member.

Sorry Debbie.

President Barack Obama had little, if anything, to do with the expansion of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International.

But if you listened to the speech by U. S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, at the groundbreaking of the long-delayed project, you would believe that Obama had a key role in the project.

Obama is responsible for everything good in Debbie’s eyes, but none of the country’s problems. If the president were a little older, she would probably say he invented the planes that will be using the runway!

I can understand where Debbie is coming from.  She’s chair of the Democratic National Committee. She’s a leader of Obama’s hit squad for the upcoming election.

So I can excuse Debbie.

(Wasserman Schultz frankly gave lukewarm support to the project because of opposition from inside her district, i.e., Dania Beach.)

What about the rest of them?

Like the Florida Secretary of Transportation who praised the leadership of Gov. Rick Scott – Rick Scott, for God’s sake!   He wasn’t even in office when the project was approved. The only thing he had to do with Fort Lauderdale Airport is maybe he lands his private jet there.

Or U. S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, who apparently discovered she represented part of Broward in enough time to show up. Wilson was there to take credit for something approved before she took office, too.

How about County Mayor John Rodstrom?  He drove the backhoe at the groundbreaking to turn the ceremonial first shovel dirt. That’s particularly ironic since Rodstrom voted against the project. 

Let’s get this straight:

Six county commissioners voted to approve the project. They took intense heat from bitter, vocal runway opponents who lived near the airport.

Of those, three remain on the commission – Kristin Jacobs, Ilene Lieberman and Stacy Ritter.  These commissioners are much maligned, but the airport runway expansion is something they truly helped accomplished.

Jacobs, Lieberman and Ritter are responsible for the $1 billion project and the 11,000 jobs it supposedly will create.

Rodstrom, Lois Wexler and Sue Gunzburger may have applauded the project today but they can’t rewrite history. Five years ago they voted against it.

The Republican fight for president has moved to the Sunshine State.

But despite the hype: The primary is no indication of how the state will vote in November.

The reason is Florida’s closed primary system.  Only registered Republicans can vote Jan. 31.

So as big and crowded Miami-Dade and Broward are, they are an afterthought in a GOP primary because they have so many Democrats and independents.

Around 45 percent of Republican voters live in the Tampa-St. Petersburg or Orlando area, the so-called I-4 Corridor.  Only 16 percent live in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, according to research done by renowned Florida political analyst Dr. Susan MacManus.

In the Panhandle, 51 percent of the voters are Republican. Only 27 percent of them are registered with the GOP in Miami-Dade and Broward.

Our area largely the tail on the dog in a primary. That’s not the case in the general election.

Eligible to vote in the closed primary will be approximately 36 percent of the state’s voters who registered Republican, according to figures from the state Division of Election.

Thus, any decision in the primary will be the choice of only about one third of the state’s voters.

Two thirds won’t participate. When they do in general elections, these results are sometimes very close.

That’s why they call Florida a swing state.

In 2010, Gov. Rick Scott beat Democatic nominee Alex Sink by a razor thin margin – 48.9 to 47.7 percent.

In 2008, Barack Obama won the state by 3 percentage points, far from a landslide.

In 2006, Republican Bill McCollum won a seat on the Cabinet as Attorney General in a 6-percentage point win.  On the same ballot, Democrat Sink won the Chief Financial Officer job with a 7-percentage point margin. Swing state.

The presidential race in 2000 was within a few votes, as everybody knows.

Republicans, of course, hope that running against Obama will be like running against President Jimmy Carter in 1980.  That year Ronald Reagan beat Carter in Florida 55.5 to 38.5 percent.

Republicans can only hope.

Open Florida House seats are doing what the Broward Democratic Party has been unable to do – recruit new young candidates.

Two candidates running for open seats are the new face of Broward politics.  They are Katie Edwards of Plantation (District 97) and Louis Reinstein of Plantation (District 98).

Both are 30-Something. Both are terrific candidates.

Although Edwards and Reinstein are impressive, she is the one who has most D’s talking.

Charismatic,whip-smart and photogenic, she has years of Tallahassee experience. Her job as the former executive director of the Dade County Farm Bureau required her to be in the Capitol frequently.  It’s a job she had at 22.

Katie Edwards

Two years ago, state Democrats recruited Edwards to run for the House in South Dade where she lived at the time.  The race, always an uphill fight for a Democrat, quickly got nasty.  Vicious TV ads and mailers flooded the district. A Republican Cuban-American ended up winning by 8 percentage points.

Edwards moved back to Broward, where she grew up (Her father is Bruce “Dead Bug” Edwards, a former Plantation Commissioner) and entered law school.  Then she began looking at House seats, eventually landing in the one now held by outgoing Democratic state Rep. Marty Kiar.

Since she’s started campaigning, local Democrats tell me they are thrilled Edwards is running.

Reinstein is a young trial lawyer who is new to politics, which is a good thing.

Louis Reinstein

He is running for the district now held by Weston Democratic state Rep. Franklin Sands, who is term limited.

Although he is short on Tallahassee experience, Reinstein has been involved in major issues.

He has been a member of the Broward County Planning Board, which deals with land use. Before becoming a lawyer with a civil practice, he was a middle and high school teacher at the David Posnack Center for four years.  He knows education from inside the classroom.

He has a master’s degree in, get this, Jewish studies. Not bad when you’re running in a Democratic primary in West Broward.

Reinstein is exactly the kind of fresh, young candidate that local Democrats have been unable, or unwilling, to recruit.

Edwards and Reinstein are part of the new generation of Democrats. And they are welcome additions to Broward’s political scene.

Her website is here.

His website is here.