Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee Serves Bread & Circuses! – JP

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Doral, Florida – When Julius Caesar and his heir Octavian Augustus ended freedom in the Roman Republic, they tried their best to cover up the deed. Accordingly, they preserved the customs from time immemorial of the Roman Senate, and bribed the people of Rome with bread and circuses. Today the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee avoids the real work of expanding the Republican party and advancing the conservative cause in this county. Instead, they provide the local Republicans with plenty of bread and circuses. This weekend they hosted former Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska for a crowd of around 300 people. She spoke for some 20 minutes, but took no questions from the audience.

Sarah Palin is a very respectable “has-been.“ She was elected Governor of Alaska in 2006, ran as the Vice Presidential candidate in the failed Presidential campaign of Senator McCain in 2008, and resigned her governorship in 2009. Since then she has been out of public office, failing even to win the seat in Congress from Alaska in 2022. She was done in by the ranked-choice voting system in her home state, and she should focus on dismantling that woke machination instead of touring the country. She is rumored to have sought a post in the Trump 2.0 administration, but they would not have her.

So instead she has turned to the rubber-chicken speakers’ circuit to pay her bills. Last year she endorsed the MAGA challenger in the Republican state senate primary election around St. Augustine, Florida, but the candidate she supported came in third place.

What is to be done?

Meanwhile, the local Republican leadership neglects the challenges and opportunities facing them in Miami-Dade County:

1. The county has slightly over 1.5 million registered voters, registered around 33% each for Democrats, No Party Affiliation, and Republicans. In the general election of November last year, with around 72% turnout, some 55% of local voters went for President Trump. This means that more than 20% of those conservative voters are not registered Republican, and thus are not able to participate in Republican primaries. Nevertheless, the local Republican party does not mount voter-registration drives.

2. In last year’s non-partisan election during August, the incumbent Democrat County Mayor, a woke progressive, won an outright majority in the first round, without having to go to a runoff. This happened in a county where 55% of voters in the general election went for President Trump. The Republican party did not field any strong candidate against her, and after the election, the strongest Republican candidate accepted a paid position in the administration of his opponent. The fix was in.

3. But that was not all. Last year, seven of the 13 County Commissioners were required to run for re-election. Their positions are non-partisan, but everyone knows their party affiliations. The three Republican Commissioners running for re-election all had Democrat campaign opponents, and all three Republicans prevailed. On the other hand, none of the four Democrat Commissioners running for re-election had any opponent. You win exactly none of the races that you don’t run!

4. In addition, the incumbent Democrat State’s Attorney, who has held her office since replacing Janet Reno in 1993, as well as the incumbent Democrat Public Defender, did not face an opponent at all. She is said to have the goods on every attorney in the county, but come on, man. There were 11 candidates in the Republican primary for Sheriff, and some were lawyers. One of two of them could not have run for State’s Attorney? They would have won in the general election riding Trump’s coat-tails!

5. Meanwhile, at the School Board, three conservative Republican candidates in the non-partisan elections did not receive any support from the state or county Republican party. The lone incumbent Republican, who had been appointed by Governor DeSantis, prevailed in her runoff election by riding Trump’s coat-tails and with support from local Christians.

6. Growing up in Chicago, your correspondent learned that the core of any successful political party is the team at the precinct level. See Dan Schultz’s Precinct Strategy: www.precinctstrategy.com. Miami-Dade County is divided into approximately 755 precincts. However, the Republican Executive Committee has divided the county into 40 artificial Districts, with four Committeepersons each, for a maximum of 160 Committeepersons. In practice, however, the party has around 100 working Committeepersons to cover 1.5 million registered voters, far fewer than are needed or that sound political tactics call for.

7. Finally, in the afternoon of the last Friday before the two weeks of early-voting for the general election of November last year, the Republican Executive Committee denied poll-watching credentials to 26 veteran lawyers and laymen, and in protest another 12 veteran poll-watchers resigned. This denial was implemented without notice, hearing or other due process. As a result, the Republican poll-watching effort was a shambles, but Republican candidates won anyway throughout the county because President Trump swamped the vote!

This Sarah Palin event was attended by three times as many Republicans as there are effective Republican Committeepersons working the precincts.

In conclusion, there may be a lot of fun to be had enjoying bread and circuses, but a serious political party would focus on the work that is there to be done.

Don’t Tread On Me!