Michael Gottlieb’s Pathetic Fla House Campaign

 

BY BUDDY NEVINS

 

 

 

Michael Gottlieb latest brochure for his State House campaign is everything that is wrong with those political ads that are starting to fill mailboxes. 

It features endorsements by “our leaders” who are really not today’s leaders. It is freighted with emotionally loaded generalities, but no specifics. It deliberately hides Gottlieb’s past. 

The brochure cynically treats voters like idiots who can be swayed by a lot of meaningless endorsements, pretty pictures of Gottlieb’s family and a selectively crafted resume. 

 

 

Michael Gottlieb

 

 

The expensive-looking, four-page ad mailed last week features “our leaders” who have endorsed Gottlieb. His definition of “our leaders” is extremely narrow — either from the courthouse or from politics. No charity, religious or community-based leaders. No business leaders. 

They include a collection of Democratic retreads like former School Board member Maureen Dinnen (2004-2012) and former Democratic Chair Mitch Ceasar. In fact roughly 40 percent of those “leaders” listed as endorsing Gottlieb use the title “former” or “retired” on the flyer.

The rest are a bunch of city officials including Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell and Coconut Creek Mayor Josh Rydell, both living far outside the Davie/Plantation-based open House District 98.

On the piece Gottlieb calls himself as “champion for people.” He trumpets that as an attorney and activist he has “built a reputation for giving people a needed helping hand.”

But what kind of people has he helped? 

His law office website proclaims an expertise in defending those accused of drug crimes, DUI, violent crimes, property crimes and sex offensives. 

He has had some of Broward’s most odious criminals as clients.  One was the teen who was caught on a surveillance camera beating a homeless man with two friends in downtown Fort Lauderdale a few years ago.

So it is no wonder that Gottlieb carefully avoids detailing his profession on the brochure. But he also avoids specifics on issues. 

“I know that Tallahassee has failed us on issues including education, gun safety, women’s rights, the environment and more. I am running for office to bring real change by using my experience, skills and passion to improve our state and community,” the brochure states. 

Blah, blah, blah.

Or what about his picture emblazoned with the words “Moms Demand Action” and “Gun Sense Candidate.”  Just what does that mean?  Some National Rifle Association members would consider a “gun sense candidate” as somebody who would allow everybody to have bazookas.

 

 

 

 

 

Gottlieb’s piece is nothing but glittering generalities, which are emotionally appealing words with no supporting information. The flyer has not one word on his actual positions. 

Contrast Gottlieb’s vagueness with one of his Democratic primary opponents, Andrew Dolberg. There are three other Democrats running, too. 

Dolberg says he will back buying back extended clip magazines and bump stocks “because banning them alone doesn’t get them off the streets.”

Specific. 

Dolberg says he supports expanding Medicare to “everyone in our state.”

Specific.

He says he is for a teachers raise and will “strongly oppose any efforts” to arm classroom teachers. 

Specific. 

He will work to ban fracking in the Everglades. 

Specific.  

I don’t know Dolberg.  

I do know a whole slew of former candidates like Gottlieb.  Candidates who want to win so badly that they will do anything to avoid offending any part of the electorate. So they duck taking any real positions. 

Instead, they fill their campaigns with vaporous words that will evaporate after the election.

Gottlieb’s flyer is a nothingburger wrapped in a pretty package. 

It states Gottlieb offers “leadership we can trust.”

Maybe not so much.



6 Responses to “Michael Gottlieb’s Pathetic Fla House Campaign”

  1. City activist Robert Walsh says:

    Ok- here we go.So its ok for Dolberg to c-c Mayor Trantalis resident email list hustling for 25 bucks but mailer is just repulsive.Also we knock Gottlieb an atty.in which he took an oath to preserve.Client .# 1.Win Atty.Gottlieb.

  2. Just Saying says:

    Two things (and I don’t live in the district and have no favorite in this race … maybe my choice is neither)…..

    1. Moms Demand Action is a national gun control organization. Not a made up name. See https://momsdemandaction.org

    2. Dolberg supporting “Medicare for all” is specific ….. but it is also another name for single-payer, government-run socialized medicine. California and Vermont both explored and abandoned it because it would have bankrupted each of those state governments.

  3. Fredo says:

    Obnoxious.

  4. Broward Voter says:

    Does Dolberg know for which office he is running? The state has zero jurisdiction over Medicare. That’s a federal program.

  5. Ha Ha Ha says:

    @2 – California and Vermont pulled out of their health care reform plans because, as Forbes Magazine observed,

    The basic problem with any kind of state-based health reform—right or left—is that the federal government is by far the primary player in U.S. health care. The federal government subsidizes employer-sponsored health insurance to the tune of $500 billion a year, through the tax code. It spends even more on Medicare for the elderly, and finances the majority of Medicaid for the poor.

    The Vermont plan aimed to replace employer-sponsored and individually-purchased private insurance with a single, state-run insurer. But the state couldn’t preempt Medicare, or military health care, or large companies that directly pay for their workers’ health care using a process called self-insurance. Indeed, the Hsiao-Gruber report makes clear that for the Vermont plan to work, the state would need to gain waivers from Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare.

    In addition, the state couldn’t prevent people from getting private health insurance in neighboring states like New Hampshire.

    Hence, one of the key purported advantages of single-payer health care—that doctors and hospitals would only have to work with one insurer, simplifying their paperwork—turned out to be impossible.

    Dolberg’s support for “Medicare for all” does make sense because that reform happens at the federal level, which is exactly where health care reform needs to be done in order to be successful.

  6. Ha Ha Ha says:

    @4 – Medicare is a state issue because states can (and most do) choose to participate in Medicaid expansion, in which states accept federal money which ensures that low-income families have access to Medicaid health insurance.

    Currently, 31 states have expanded Medicaid. But as Governor, Rick Scott (under whose leadership the Columbia HCA corporation was fined $1.7 billion dollars for committing literally the largest Medicare and Medicaid fraud in history…) has obstinately refused to accept federal $$$ for expanded Medicaid in Florida. As a result, 20% of Floridians now have no health insurance & Florida is now ranked 47th in the nation for health care.

    http://www.wctv.tv/content/news/Democrats-pushing-Medicaid-expansion-as-key-issue-in-2018-election-485603511.html

    https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2018/06/21/florida-health-advocates-take-aim-at-rick-scotts-98-million-medicaid-cut

    https://www.urban.org/research/publication/implications-medicaid-expansion-remaining-states-2018-update