Political Discontents Continue their Offensive

Several strong Republican candidates won their races in Palm Beach this November, turning the County red for the first time in decades. 

Palm Beach County’s GOP, under the leadership of Michael Barnett, put together an impressive machine. Win or lose most candidates express gratitude crediting funding assistance, tools and ground game support. Joe Budd, candidate for U.S. House, ran in FL District 23, which spans two counties; Broward and Palm Beach. He won Palm Beach County by more than 51% of the vote. However he lost to outgoing Broward County Commissioner Jared Moskowitz (D); Broward voters pushed Moskowitz to an overall total of 53%. In his concession speech, Budd thanked the Palm Beach GOP for its unprecedented support.

Republican William “Bill” Reicherter, first time candidate ran for Florida Senate District 30, which also spans the two counties. He led opponent Tina Polsky by a margin of 53 to 47% in Palm Beach County. However, when the bi-county totals were tallied, Broward pulled Polsky ahead with a 41 to 59% win. Again Broward Vote-By-Mail was the clincher. Reicherter cited ground game, tools and funding assistance from the Palm Beach GOP for his impressive numbers in Palm Beach County.

Despite impressive and historic successes, three candidates and a handful of Party members blame current Party leadership for their losses.

Primary candidate Jeffrey Buongiorno (R), aka Bongi, sought to unseat incumbent Republican Brain Mast for House seat CD 21. He managed less than 15% of the vote. Buongiorno raised less than $14K in cash donations according to REC reports. He made $7.5K in in-kind contributions to his campaign. A single donor, a Luis Torres of Edgewater N.J contributed $2,500 in cash. Luis’ relative, Natalie Torres, contributed $750.

In an upcoming Executive Committee meeting, set for December 14 2022, the Party will hold elections to determine whether to retain current leadership or replace it with newcomers.

Buongiorno is the loudest critic of the Palm Beach County GOP. A registered Republican, Buongiorno is not a member of the Party’s executive committee, therefore he cannot vote in the upcoming December election. So he recruited Wayne Posner, a new member of the Palm Beach County GOP Executive Committee, to run against Party Chair Michael Barnett. Barnett and three other Board Officials are up for re-election in December.

Mr. Posner comes to the Party with a posey of hot headed radicals as reported here in the Florida Jolt. PBInd uncovered a civil judgement against Posner by Chase Bank for over $700K (1993), the nature of which is not known, however since Posner may be the next Chair of the most successful GOP in Florida, possibly the country, we are looking into this further.

Meanwhile Chairman Barnett has been endorsed for re-election by Senator Marco Rubio and President Donald J. Trump

However Buongiorno, in this bulk SMS message, asserts the endorsement is a fake.

Mr. Buongiorno and Wayne Posner have chosen Charles (Chuck) Lynch, a member of the Palm Beach County GOP Executive Committee, to run against Incumbent Vice Chair Tami Donnally, also up for re-election in December. Mr. Lynch contributed $500 in cash and $2,300 ‘in-kind’ to the Buongiorno campaign.

Incumbent Chair Michael Barnett held a rally at a popular Latin Restaurant in Greenacres this week. In advance of the rally, Buongiorno published a call for his followers to “peacefully” protest the rally. At 6:30 PM Buongiorno and two others showed up outside the restaurant and heckled rally goers as they walked to the Restaurant from their cars. The group, which never grew larger than three, were gone by 7PM.

Lynch and Posner’s choice for Treasurer is Stephen (Steve) Byers. Mr. Byers, a Bee Keeper who ran for Florida State Senate (D26) this year, lost to Democrat Lori Berman by just over 10 percentage points. Given that Mr. Byers may be the next Treasurer, PBInd looked into his background. Mr. Byers was arrested for trespassing, obstructing, and resisting arrest in 2016. He has 10 Notices of Default spanning from the year 2007 through 2018, and three foreclosures; two from Venice, Florida (2013 and 2018) and one from Sanford, Florida (2022).

Meanwhile, a second challenger, Candace Rojas, tossed her hat into the ring for Party Chair. As reported here previously, Candace is aligned with Qanon conspiracy group Palm Beach Patriots.

She lists herself as the club’s Chair on her LinkedIn page. Ms. Rojas operates a catering business in Palm Beach. She ran for open Town Council Seat (Palm Beach Soil & Water) in 2021, receiving just 548 of 2,920 votes cast she lost to Democrat Ted Cooney. Ms. Rojas’ campaign promise, if elected as Chair of the PB GOP, is to put her track record as a major fundraiser to work for the Party. However, in her campaign for Town Council, according to VoterFocus she raised just $625 in cash from individuals. The rest she donated to herself from her various business entities. Ms. Rojas who proudly refers to herself and her fellow club members as Ultra MAGA Republicans accepted an endorsement from left-wing Sierra Club.

It is unclear to PBInd how replacing the current Board, with the candidates reported here, would be an improvement. The opposition’s tactics include slander, threats, lies and distortion.

The issues they promise to address are those the current leadership has long been addressing, such as Election Integrity (EI) Florida Bill SB524 spawned within the PB GOP.

Current leadership plans shared with PBInd, for 2023 and beyond, include additional EI measures headed for consideration in Tallahassee, new data-driven campaign technology that went into Beta with winning candidates this year include a candidate “toolkit,” website improvements; training programs, continuation of the matching-funds program for candidates, the largest of any GOP in the State of Florida, contributing $150K to Republican candidates in 2022.