florida house - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T00:57:32Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/florida+houseElection results: State representative - District 91https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/election-results-state-representative-district-912022-11-09T03:16:09.000Z2022-11-09T03:16:09.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10877933064,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10877933064,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10877933064?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>SOURCE: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections (<em>unofficial results</em>)</p></div>Election results: State representative - District 87https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/election-results-state-representative-district-872022-11-09T03:12:47.000Z2022-11-09T03:12:47.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10877930056,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10877930056,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10877930056?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>SOURCE: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections (<em>unofficial results</em>)</p></div>Election results: State representative - District 90https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/election-results-state-representative-district-902022-11-09T02:29:28.000Z2022-11-09T02:29:28.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10877913858,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10877913858,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10877913858?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>SOURCE: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections (<em>unofficial results</em>)</p></div>Along the Coast: Gossett-Seidman, Thomson vie for South County House seathttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-gossett-seidman-thomson-vie-for-south-county-hous2022-09-28T14:29:57.000Z2022-09-28T14:29:57.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Joel Engelhardt</strong></p>
<p>A Boca Raton Democrat takes on a Highland Beach Republican in the most competitive of several legislative contests awaiting barrier island voters on Nov. 8.<br /> Andy Thomson, a Boca Raton resident since 2016 and City Council member since 2018, is running for the open House District 91 seat against Peggy Gossett-Seidman, a 31-year Highland Beach resident and town commissioner since 2018. Instead of a single House member, as in years past, the barrier island — from Boca Raton to South Palm Beach — will be represented by three House members under newly drawn maps approved by the Legislature in February.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10829707870,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10829707870,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="217" alt="10829707870?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>In Boynton- and Delray- dominated District 90, Democrat Joe Casello takes on Republican Keith Feit. In District 87, which runs north of the Boynton Inlet, Republican Mike Caruso faces Democrat Sienna Osta.<br /> The Boca-centered District 91, formerly represented by Emily Slosberg-King, used to run entirely inland. Now it encompasses all of Boca Raton and much of west Boca, as well as the coast nearly to the Delray Beach line.<br /> The 2020 presidential results, with District 91 voters going 52% for Joe Biden and 47.5% for Donald Trump, offer Thomson an advantage. He calls himself a moderate able to work across party lines in the Republican-controlled Legislature.<br /> Gossett-Seidman says her ability to get legislative approval for three bills providing $1.1 million for Highland Beach projects indicates her ability to work in Tallahassee. <br /> “This isn’t just a popularity contest in Boca Raton,” she said. “It’s about how you get things done.”<br /> Thomson countered that Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the spending.<br /> “I’m not sure I buy that she will be able to bring more resources back,” he said. “It’s not borne by recent history.”<br /> However, in July, the town received $375,000 toward a new fire station and $275,000 to rehabilitate sewage lift stations from a joint legislative committee. Gossett-Seidman said the governor anticipated that money being available when he made his vetoes. <br /> Gossett-Seidman, 69, a former newspaper reporter, defeated Christina DuCasse with 52.5% of the vote in the August primary. She credited her victory to knocking on doors and her work in Tallahassee.<br /> She said she would focus on fighting inflation by reining in property insurance costs and fighting high housing costs. She pointed to her “reporter’s mentality” for helping to save Highland Beach $2 million a year by severing its decades-long relationship with Delray Beach for fire rescue services. <br /> On abortion, Gossett-Seidman supports the state’s 15-week ban but said she doesn’t expect the Legislature to seek an outright ban.<br /> Thomson, 40, a lawyer with a degree from the University of Miami, points out that the Florida Supreme Court has upheld the right to abortion through a privacy right in the state Constitution, making it difficult for Republicans to enact an outright ban. He said he would not support criminalization of abortion. <br /> Thomson, who did not have a primary contest, is a father of five children, ages 1 to 10. He jogs 3 to 4 miles several times a week, picking up litter along the way and challenging himself to cover all 500 miles of city streets every year. <br /> He said he would press for action on housing affordability. One key is to do more about property insurance than what emerged from a special legislative session this year. <br /> Gossett-Seidman too anticipates more action on insurance, saying legislative leaders already have indicated an interest in reconsidering the issue. <br /> “That the Legislature is looking at it again tells you everything you need to know about how effective it was,” Thomson said.<br /> He also would push for stricter gun background checks and red flag laws that would allow family members, not just police, to seek gun confiscation. <br /> Through Sept. 9, Thomson had raised nearly $208,000 plus a $30,000 loan from himself. He still had more than $200,000 to spend. <br /> Gossett-Seidman raised $95,000 and lent her campaign $200,000, about the amount already spent as she heads into the general election.</p>
<p><strong>District 87: Caruso vs. Osta</strong><br /> Republican state Rep. Mike Caruso has represented the South County barrier islands since 2018. That ended with redistricting based on the 2020 U.S. Census. <br /> Now he’s running in Republican-leaning District 87, which includes the barrier islands north of the Boynton Inlet, hugs the coast northward through Palm Beach and Singer Island and takes in half of Palm Beach Gardens and a slice of Jupiter. <br /> The change forces him out of his longtime Delray Beach base. Caruso is keeping his oceanfront Delray home but moving into a downtown West Palm Beach condo to live in the district. <br /> Caruso, 64, an accountant, beat back an August primary challenge from his political right, winning two-thirds of the vote against Jane Justice.<br /> He’ll face Democrat Sienna Osta, who in her only previous race ran unsuccessfully for Florida House District 88 in 2020.<br /> Osta, 34, is a first-generation Lebanese-American lawyer who lives and works in downtown West Palm Beach. Spurred by the media attention to the Gabby Petito missing persons case and lack of similar attention for cases involving Black and brown women, she is ready to propose legal requirements that police must meet within the first 48 hours of a missing-person report.<br /> “We have Amber Alerts for minors up to 18 years old,” she said. “What about the rest of us?”<br /> She also would focus on support for women’s rights and fixing Florida’s unemployment compensation system.<br /> Caruso said he would emphasize measures to combat rising prices. <br /> “This election comes down to inflation, inflation, inflation,” he said. “Whether gas, rentals, food or interest rates, people are concerned that if they’re feeling the pinch, their young adult children are really feeling the pinch.” <br /> Steps the Legislature can take include suspension of the state gasoline tax, which it agreed to do for October, and reducing the commercial lease tax. Other actions: raising salaries and bonuses for teachers, police and firefighters. <br /> Caruso said House leadership has asked him to examine ways to reduce property taxes and he’s confident Republicans can find a way to keep property insurers from canceling policies over such items as the age of a roof.<br /> He supports the GOP-enacted 15-week ban on abortion as “good law.” <br /> Through Sept. 9, Caruso had raised about $186,000, with about $61,000 remaining, to Osta’s $4,500.</p>
<p><strong>District 90: Casello vs. Feit</strong><br /> Joe Casello has never campaigned in Delray Beach before. <br /> He’s a fixture in Boynton Beach, where he served five years on the City Commission before jumping in 2018 to represent the city in the state House. <br /> But newly drawn District 90 splits his district between Boynton and Delray and adds the barrier island from the northern tip of Highland Beach through Ocean Ridge.<br /> As a Democrat, Casello, 70, is realistic about what he can accomplish in the state House. <br /> “One party dominates,” he said. “To get things done, I take pride in working across the aisle, earning their respect. In the end, it’s the agenda of the House speaker or Senate president and DeSantis. That’s just how it goes.”<br /> While he says he won’t “bad-mouth” Gov. Ron DeSantis, he criticized actions he called “self-promoting,” like sending migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. <br /> “I will never be a Ron DeSantis supporter. I think he has control to do a lot more good than what he’s doing,” Casello said.<br /> He objected to the Republican bill capping abortions at 15 weeks without exceptions for rape or incest and said he expects next year’s fight to revolve around a six-week ban, as approved in Texas.<br /> He called his opponent, Keith Feit, “a far-right Republican.”<br /> Feit, 47, a middle-school teacher at The Weiss School in Palm Beach Gardens with a home in Boynton Beach, took issue with Casello’s voting record. <br /> “I’m not in this race because of any personal animosity toward Joe Casello. My concern is the way he voted,” Feit said. “He’s not representing the people.”<br /> He cited Casello for opposing the Parental Rights in Education Act, educational choice and keeping critical race theory out of classrooms.<br /> “I believe parents need to raise our children, not the government or administrators,” he said. “My representative votes against legislation that would keep that (sexual orientation) out of kindergarten to third grade. That’s not looking out for the kids. It’s a war on parents.”<br /> DeSantis, he said, “hit it out of the park” on education. <br /> Feit said he supports the recently enacted 15-week abortion ban, although he would make exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. “Four months is enough time for a woman to decide whether or not to keep her baby,” he said.<br /> While Casello raised $26,000 through Sept. 9 and spent $21,000, he has a political committee, JC PAC, that has raised $90,000, mostly from firefighters, and spent $11,000.<br /> Feit has raised $20,450 and spent nearly $7,000. </p>
<p><strong>Senate races</strong><br /> Democratic-leaning District 26, which runs from Glades Road to the Boynton Inlet and spreads as far west as Belle Glade, pits state Sen. Lori Berman, a Democrat, against Steve Byers, a Republican. Berman, who has served in the Legislature since 2010, has raised $134,000. Byers raised $1,700 and lent his campaign $54,800.<br /> Democratic state Sen. Tina Polsky is running against Republican William Reicherter in Broward-dominated District 30, which includes Boca and west Boca south of Glades Road. Polsky has raised $150,000 while Reicherter has raised $11,500.<br /> The barrier islands north of the Boynton Inlet fall into Senate District 24. Those residents will choose between Democratic state Sen. Bobby Powell, who has raised $103,000, and Republican Eric Ankner, who has raised $3,300.</p>
<p><strong>County Commission</strong><br /> The barrier islands from Boca Raton to Palm Beach fall into Palm Beach County Commission District 4, which features Democratic incumbent Robert Weinroth, a former Boca Raton councilman, against Republican Marcia “Marci” Woodward. <br /> Woodward, who wrote on her website that she is running because she opposed county coronavirus pandemic mandates, raised about $45,000 through Sept. 9. Weinroth raised $314,000. </p></div>Along the Coast: Caruso didn’t expect to sweat out winhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-caruso-didn-t-expect-to-sweat-out-win2018-11-28T19:10:44.000Z2018-11-28T19:10:44.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960836099,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960836099,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="500" alt="7960836099?profile=original" /></a><em>State Rep. Mike Caruso won the District 89 seat by a mere 32 votes. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:24pt;">Bonfiglio has no regrets about narrow defeat</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>Lawsuits. Machine recounts. Protests. Overheated ballot machines. Manual recounts.<br />November’s general election again had all the elements to push the state into the national spotlight. But while most people across the country focused on Florida’s U.S. Senate and governor’s contests, an even closer race was being decided in south Palm Beach County.<br />In the end, Republican Mike Caruso defeated Democrat Jim Bonfiglio by a slim 32 votes out of 78,474 cast, but not before the totals went to automatic machine recount, a state-required hand recount and a successful effort by Bonfiglio to have the Florida House District 89 results tallied before those of the governor’s race. <br />“I felt like I won twice,” Caruso said after leading Bonfiglio on election night by 37 votes only to see his lead shrink slightly in the following days.<br />“It was very stressful,” Caruso said. “I’ve never been charged with murder or anything like that, but it felt like I was waiting for a verdict from the jury. It was a tough process.”<br />Caruso’s 50.02 percent winning total was narrower than those for U.S. Sen.-elect Rick Scott (50.05) and new state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (50.04).<br />“A win’s a win,” said Caruso, a CPA from Delray Beach.<br />Bonfiglio, a lawyer who resigned as mayor of Ocean Ridge to run, said he has “no regrets” over how he conducted his campaign and that his 32-vote deficit was a strong showing for a Democrat in a typically Republican-leaning district, which stretches from Boca Raton to Singer Island.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960836684,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960836684,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="7960836684?profile=original" /></a>“Obviously my message resonated well,” Bonfiglio said, citing his calls for raising teacher pay, expanding Medicaid and protecting women’s rights.<br />“The process worked,” Bonfiglio said. “The point is, every vote matters. That is the essence of representative democracy.”<br />Caruso said he was shocked that the results were so close.<br />“We knocked on 29,000 doors, we made 9,000 phone calls, we won the sign war 1,000 to one,” Caruso said. “I thought I had outworked my opponent by far.”<br />But he did not foresee the enthusiasm generated by Democrats for their gubernatorial candidate, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who narrowly lost to Ron DeSantis.<br /> “I can’t control the Gillum wave of excitement,” Caruso said.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960837074,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960837074,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="450" alt="7960837074?profile=original" /></a><em>Mike Caruso (in tie) celebrates with (l-r) his campaign manager Auston Molina, strategist Blake MacDiarmid, attorney Robert Fernandez and staffer Nick Cannon after Susan Bucher, county supervisor of elections, declared him the winner in state House District 89. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p>One of the first issues Caruso plans to tackle at the state Capitol is fixing problems he saw in his election.<br />“I understand why people stand out in front of these [elections] offices and protest,” Caruso said. “We’ll be trying to revamp the system so we don’t have this debacle every two years.”<br />Even though he won, Caruso said candidates and voters deserve a better process.<br />“When I see ballots being transferred by staff without supervision, making decisions on voter intent without the canvassing board reviewing them, in the back of the warehouse, it’s alarming,” Caruso said. “It breeds contempt by the public.”<br />Bonfiglio said he will “keep an eye on” the Legislature to make sure the issues that got him almost 40,000 total votes are addressed.<br />“Right now I’m sitting back enjoying my life and not having to run around campaigning,” he said.<br />Bonfiglio said voters might consider amending the state constitution to change the swearing-in date of legislators and give election offices more time to count ballots. “There’s no real need to swear in representatives on Nov. 20,” he said.<br />Andy Thomson, who won his seat on the Boca Raton City Council in August, also by a 32-vote margin, empathized with Caruso’s having to wait out a recount.<br />“It’s territory that I’m very familiar with,” Thomson said.<br />Thomson trailed rival Kathy Cottrell by about 200 votes most of that Election Night; the margin narrowed to 37 votes, then shortly after midnight he was three votes ahead. He said nobody remembers that after three days of “nerve-racking” recounts, he won by 32 votes.<br />“They all remember the three,” Thomson said. “I cannot tell you the number of people who said, ‘I saw that you won by three and I came, I dragged my college-age daughter out to vote, she wasn’t going to vote otherwise, so me, my husband and her gave you the three-vote margin.’”<br />Thomson said he’s never had the heart to tell people his true margin.<br />“You know what, they’re right. You take those three, and you add another three and you add another three, and all the people who combined to say that my household was the three-vote margin, they added up to 32 votes,” he said.<br />Thomson said close elections like his and Caruso’s convince people that their vote matters.<br />“A number of people have said that ‘You, Andy, and your election was like a civics lesson for my kids or my class or the young people who had disengaged,’” Thomson said. “Because to them, that election reflected the fact that every vote does matter, and that never, ever think that your vote won’t make a difference because it can, and in my case did.”</p></div>Election: Differing priorities in District 89 race for state Househttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/election-differing-priorities-in-district-89-race-for-state-house2018-10-31T17:19:58.000Z2018-10-31T17:19:58.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>The race for District 89 in the Florida House may well come down to which party gets more voters to the polls Nov. 6.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960822482,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960822482,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="97" alt="7960822482?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960822678,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960822678,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="96" alt="7960822678?profile=original" /></a>The ballot features two barrier island residents: Ocean Ridge Mayor and lawyer Jim Bonfiglio, the Democrat, and Delray Beach accountant Mike Caruso, the Republican. <br />The Aug. 28 primaries were close, party-wise, with 12,437 Democrats casting ballots compared with 12,028 Republicans. District 89, which typically leans Republican, stretches along the coast from Boca Raton to Singer Island.<br />A third candidate, business owner Deborah Wesson Gibson, a Delray Beach mainlander, was not affiliated with a party and dropped out of the race in August.<br /> In a letter to the state Division of Elections, Gibson, 55, said she was withdrawing to not peel off votes from the Democrat in the race. “It is not my intent to split the party’s votes and effectively lend a hand to whoever wins the Republican primary,” she said. <br />Bonfiglio, 65, who has campaigned on making life “easier, safer and better,” has been on the Ocean Ridge Town Commission since 2014 following 14 years on its Planning and Zoning Commission. He had $84,258 in campaign contributions through Oct. 19, the latest numbers available. He also lent his campaign $270,000 and added $5,368 in in-kind donations. <br /> Bonfiglio, who was named mayor by his fellow commissioners in March, received only $2,003 from six donors with Ocean Ridge addresses. He had $311,975 in expenses and $47,651 cash on hand.<br />Caruso, 60, a forensic CPA who qualified to run for the House by collecting 1,241 signatures, says he will bring “real, experienced, community-based leadership” to the state Capitol. He has been a member of the Delray Beach Police Advisory Board and president of his homeowners association. As of Oct. 19 he had collected $227,787 in contributions, lent his campaign $204,125 in cash and given $304 in kind. His 51 donors with Delray Beach addresses contributed $25,662. Caruso’s expenses were $374,212 and he had $58,004 cash on hand.<br /> Caruso, a self-described fiscal conservative, says now is not the time to raise taxes. “Instead we need to allow [everyday Floridians] to keep more of their money in their own pockets to help continue to fuel our robust Florida economy,” Caruso told the League of Women Voters.<br /> Bonfiglio says the state needs to find more equitable and reliable revenue streams. <br />“I support 1) legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana, 2) legalizing and taxing sports betting, 3) look more to corporations, LLCs and businesses to pay their fair share for the costs of government based on their revenue and degree they draw from our education system and use/over-use our infrastructure and threaten our environment, 4) claw back some of the tax breaks given to large businesses and corporations, especially the most recent federal income tax breaks,” he told the league.<br /> Caruso has the endorsements of Boca Raton Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers, departing District 89 state Rep. Bill Hager, the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce and the county firefighters union.<br /> Bonfiglio is endorsed by U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, Boynton Beach City Commissioner Justin Katz and School Board member Frank Barbieri, as well as the county Classroom Teachers Association.<br /> Hager, who first won the District 89 seat in 2012, is leaving office because of term limits.</p></div>