Tip O’Neill, who was speaker of the U.S. House from 1977 to 1987, famously said, “All politics is local.” He even wrote a book with that title.
Robert Weinroth’s campaign for Congress shows how outdated O’Neill’s philosophy is.
Weinroth served on the Boca Raton City Council from 2014 to 2018, after which he served one term on the county commission, running as a Democrat. He expected to serve a second term, but Weinroth lost to Marci Woodward in 2022, when Democratic turnout across the county plummeted.
After that defeat, Weinroth became a Republican. He filed papers to run for the school board, but dropped out in December and announced that he would seek the GOP nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, whose District 23 includes Boca Raton, West Boca and parts of Broward County.
Not that long ago, first-time congressional candidates would start with a message tailored to their district. Weinroth might have talked about Social Security, since 115,000 District 23 residents are over 65—like him. He might have talked about a national catastrophic insurance plan, which could reduce hurricane insurance policies. A former congressman from this district, Ron Klein, got such a plan through the House in 2007.
Instead, Weinroth’s campaign page reads as if he could be running in Georgia, Oklahoma or almost anywhere. The only change would be the name of the Democratic opponent.
As a council member and commissioner, Weinroth says, he “resisted wokeness.” Since the definition of “woke” is awareness of racial inequity, I wondered what “wokeness” Weinroth “resisted.” Having covered Weinroth throughout his political career, I couldn’t recall any examples. Weinroth did not return my voicemail asking for them.
Weinroth doesn’t stop there. Moskowitz supports “WOKE EDUCATION.” Weinroth switched parties because of “woke Democrats hopelessly tied to a radical ‘squad’ of extremists who hate America and want to change our country into a Socialist nightmare.” Public schools, Weinroth says, are filled with “groomers, grifters and woke bureaucrats.”
Though District 23 is among the top 10 in percentage of Jewish residents, Weinroth makes only one, brief reference to Israel as the war in Gaza rages on. He accuses Moskowitz—who, like Weinroth, is Jewish—of “CAUCUSING” with “ANTI-SEMITES” such as Rep. Rashida Talib.
In fact, Moskowitz accused Talib of spreading “misinformation” last November with comments about a hospital bombing in Gaza. As for “CAUCUSING,” Moskowitz has no choice. He’s part of the Democratic caucus, just as Weinroth would be part of the GOP caucus.
Primary voters are among the most extreme in both parties. Only one other Republican has filed, but there may be more before the qualifying period—April 22-26.
Still, Weinroth is staking out the far-right ground early—falsely accusing Moskowitz of supporting everything from “OPEN BORDERS” to “UNRESTRICTED ABORTIONS UP TO BIRTH” to ‘SEX CHANGED OPERATIONS” for minors. Weinroth expressed no similar sentiments on those topics before running for Congress.
Also not that long ago, there were all types of congressional representatives in both parties —liberals, moderates and conservatives. Especially among Republicans, there now seems to be just one type. And all politics is national.
Volnick contract extended
At its Wednesday meeting, the Board of Governors approved the contract extension for Florida Atlantic University Interim President Stacy Volnick. She will stay on through the end of the year or until a permanent president is chosen. There is still no date for the start of a new search.
Boca to streamline development projects
I have written recently about changes Delray Beach made to streamline review of development projects. Boca Raton has the same priority.
On the agenda for Monday’s city council workshop meeting is a staff proposal to further reduce the number of projects that would have to go to the community appearance board. It is the first stop before the planning and zoning board and finally the council.
Applicants and council members had complained that too many small decisions, such as paint color, had to undergo community appearance board review. According to the staff memo, changes over the last three years already have cut the average number of monthly agenda items from 80 to 20. The board no longer must meet weekly – just twice a month.
The new proposal would give the staff even more discretion, especially with smaller projects. The community appearance board still could hear appeals from applicants who disagreed with the staff decision.
According to the memo, further proposals would eliminate board review of all landscaping. For that to happen, the city would have to adopt a new landscaping code.
Boca gets a new deputy city manager
Boca Raton now has two deputy city managers.
Chrissy Gibson joins Andy Lukasik in that role. She has worked for the city since 2010, when she became director of the newly acquired Mizner Park Amphitheater. Gibson started the communications and marketing department and most recently served as assistant city manager.
With this move, new City Manager George Brown has assembled his top management team. A spokeswoman said there are no plans for now to hire another assistant city manager.
Florida ranks high for cyclist fatalities
Even before a car collided with a group of cyclists in Gulf Stream seven weeks ago, Boca Raton had been discussing ways to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians. The incident also sparked discussion in Delray Beach.
Safety remains a problem in Florida. According to a survey by Bader Scott, a Georgia-based personal injury law firm, seven Florida counties ranked in the top 10 for rates of cyclist fatalities between 2017 and 2021. The survey covered the country’s 200 most populous counties.
Yet Palm Beach County wasn’t on that list. It didn’t rank even among even the 20 most dangerous. The most dangerous counties in the state are on the west coast—Pasco, Sarasota and Manatee. Broward County ranked 17th.
And just to show that surveys can be subjective, the League of American Bicyclists in 2022 ranked Florida eighth best for bicycle-friendly policies. This state was just behind Virginia and just ahead of Delaware. The league based its rankings on such factors as infrastructure, traffic laws and education.
Rising sea levels cause insurance price hikes
Also in the Things Could Be Worse Department:
Rising seas are driving up insurance rates in Florida and forcing coastal cities to adopt expensive mitigation strategies. One priority is protecting wellfields against contamination by salt water pushing in from the coast. Climate change also is making previously one-in-100-year rainfalls more common.
According to the Census Bureau, however, Palm Beach County does not rank among the 100 most flood-prone areas of the country. Many actually are in New York City and Texas. Florida’s most flood-prone area is in Jacksonville.
Because of a geological quirk, coastal elevation rises about four feet just north of Deerfield Beach and into Boca Raton. The Southeast Regional Climate Compact has forecast that sea level rise in Palm Beach County will be six to 10 inches by 2030 and 14 to 26 inches by 2060.
