Voters will soon choose a new state attorney and public defender as the long dominance of prosecutor Dave Aronberg (12 years in office) and Public Defender Carey Haughwout (24 years) come to an end.

A similar transition took place in Broward four years ago. Voters chose Harold Pryor as state attorney and Gordon Weekes as public defender to replace two long-time incumbents, Mike Satz (44 years) and Howard Finkelstein (16 years). Facing re-election this year, Pryor and Weekes both won new terms without opposition.

The point is, these powerful positions rarely change hands.

When they do, voters have a responsibility to get it right. That’s especially true in the race for Palm Beach public defender, the hotter one at the moment.

The outcome will be decided in the primary on Aug. 20 between Democrats Daniel Eisinger and Adam Frankel.

But it is open to all voters, including Republicans and independents, who together far outnumber Democrats in Palm Beach, because the Republican Party did not field a candidate for the position.

This greatly alters the political dynamics, and that comes through most clearly in Frankel’s tough-on-crime talk. So clearly, in fact, that it looks as if Frankel is in the wrong race. He should be campaigning for state attorney.

Eisinger, who has been Haughwout’s chief assistant for six years, is more experienced and better qualified for public defender, which is why he has her support, and the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board’s endorsement.

Frankel is a defense lawyer and former Delray Beach city commissioner who touts his endorsements from Aronberg and from local police organizations — the groups whose members arrest people represented by the public defender.

Cozying up to cops is not the P.D.’s job. They are natural adversaries.

Frankel is making false, inflammatory accusations against Eisinger and cuddling up to Trump’s MAGA base to win.

He’s making the election a test case as to whether Republicans can decide the outcome of a countywide office long held by Democrats. (The office should not be partisan to begin with, but that’s another debate.)

Eisinger co-authored a Palm Beach Post essay four years ago in which he argued for ending a cash bail system that forces poor people, many of them Black, to languish in jail while others, often white, go free solely because they have money. Courts could impose other conditions that don’t involve money, he wrote.

“People (should) not sit in jail just because they are poor,” Eisinger wrote.

Frankel is texting and robo-calling voters with scare tactics that accuse Eisinger of wanting to put “dangerous individuals back on our streets faster.”

A Frankel flyer falsely makes it appear that the Sun Sentinel said Eisinger would let “some accused felons back on the street faster.”

A disclaimer below cites an endorsement interview in which both candidates participated (it’s online). Eisinger advocated for bail reform in the interview, but the scare tactics about felons walking the streets is purely Frankel’s invention. Yet the piece makes it appear as if we said that. We didn’t. Don’t fall for it, voters.

The Palm Beach Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers called Frankel’s claims especially troubling. “Attorneys have an ethical duty to advocate for the client’s best interest, as stated by the Florida Bar and the American Bar Association. For pre-trial clients who are presumed innocent, this means lowering cash bail,” the group said in a letter to the Sun Sentinel.

Eisinger says Frankel is skipping Democratic forums and “leaning way into the MAGA right.” The Florida Jolt, a blog aimed at the same MAGA right constituency, took the bait, calling Frankel a “moderate” and Eisinger an “extreme leftist.”

Eisinger attacked Frankel’s claim to be a “champion for public safety” as a misread of what a public defender is about.

“He clearly has no understanding about the role of the defense lawyer in our criminal justice system,” Eisinger posted on Facebook. “He believes that the police, prosecution and the defense should be ‘allies.’ The Public Defender is a constitutional officer charged with the duty of advocating for the poor (and) must fight for individualized treatment of their clients. Justice only occurs when the police, prosecution and defense fulfill their ethical obligations in their respective roles. This is something my opponent either doesn’t understand or chooses to forget in order to win an election.”

By the way, to dispel any confusion, Adam Frankel is not related to the popular and better-known member of Congress, Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach.

The name association cuts both ways. Adam Frankel will benefit from voters who recognize his name and who like Frankel, but it will turn off Republicans who would not vote for the Democratic congresswoman, a long-time liberal champion.

Are Democratic voters in Palm Beach willing to sit idly by while Republicans choose the county’s next public defender, possibly for the next two decades?

Let’s hope not.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @stevebousquet.

This is probably not the ideal way to choose the people who will represent us in public office, but it is what we have, and it’s always encouraging to see voters who take it seriously.

The campaign trail in Broward goes through John Knox Village, a popular retirement community in Pompano Beach. It’s a nostalgia trip, a throwback to how political campaigns in Broward looked in the 1970s and ’80s.

The place was packed on Monday afternoon as about 200 highly attentive older voters filled the auditorium.

Many of them scribbled notes about individual candidates as they made their political pitches, one after another, in intervals of exactly three minutes, after which they were interrupted and told “Thank you!” and then politely ushered away.

So many candidates showed up passing out so much campaign literature that one woman stacked up her flyers on her walker.

For weeks, I’ve been hearing from candidates disappointed by light turnouts at political clubs across Broward. They were a magnet for grassroots activism in decades gone by.

Clubs that could draw crowds of 500 or more during the heyday of the condo boom are now lucky to draw 30 people.

It’s because the demographics have shifted dramatically. Those New Deal Democrats in the condos are gone, and so is the sense of cohesion that they brought to local politics.

John Knox remains a notable exception.

For decades, the retirement haven near Dixie Highway has been a treasure trove of votes — both Republican and Democrat — and a dream come true for all those attention-starved candidates, making this forum a must-attend event for candidates.

Well, most candidates.

Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony was nowhere to be seen, even though public safety is a big concern of older voters, and even though Pompano Beach contracts for its police protection through the sheriff’s office, and even though crime is a major concern on the city’s west side, not far from John Knox Village.

All three of Tony’s Democratic rivals showed up for their three minutes on stage. One of them, former BSO Col. Al Pollock, told the crowd: “He (Tony) could not get another job because of his history.”

Judicial candidates spoke first. Most were there, but not ghost candidate Christina Arguelles, who’s trying to hoodwink enough voters to get on the bench even though she lives in Orlando. It’s an act believed to be unprecedented even by the standards of Broward, which has a history of wild judicial races.

Her opponent, the well-respected, widely endorsed (including by this newspaper) Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips, was there.

In a race for an open seat on the county bench, lawyer Corey Friedman (another Sun Sentinel endorsee) asked rhetorically if anyone would fly on a plane with a pilot who has not flown before.

“Why should we treat our courtrooms any differently?” Friedman asked.

An experienced litigator, Friedman said he has tried cases before juries all over the state, and his opponent, lawyer Tamar Hamilton, told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that she has never tried a jury case.

Hamilton, who followed Friedman to the stage, said: “We need someone who has been in the community, working with the people,” and besides, she said, most county court cases are tried by a judge, not a jury.

And on it went all afternoon. As school board and judicial candidates left the stage, they were replaced by candidates for Congress, sheriff, clerk, tax collector and supervisor of elections.

“Trust me,” Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott told the crowd. “I know it’s not easy to sit through all this.”

But they stayed, they kept taking notes, and without question, they’re all going to vote.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a staff columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.

Good luck, people. If this “voter guide” was meant to unify Democrats behind their candidates, it had the opposite effect. Some people are furious at party leaders.

Candidates, volunteers and operatives are scrambling to figure out why some Democrats were listed and others were not. Some complained directly to state party chair Nikki Fried.

Operatives who cried foul suspect that one factor — money — determined why some Democrats in contested party primaries were listed and others were not.

“I don’t think the DEC (Democratic Executive Committee) should come out with a card,” said Barbara Effman, long-time president of the West Broward Democratic Club in Sunrise. “It’s very divisive.”

The most glaring case of the party not playing straight with its voters is the race for a state Senate seat.

The guide initially listed Barbara Sharief as the only Senate candidate in Southwest Broward’s District 35. Neither of her opponents, Rodney Jacobs and Chad Klitzman, were listed.

Why? No one’s talking.

We asked Democratic Party chairman Rick Hoye why, and he texted this reply: “We are of course sorry that not all candidates are happy with the recommendations we posted. (They) were decided by the campaign committee and in accordance with the Florida Democratic Party’s bylaws.”

But a Democratic source questioned that, noting that the Broward party has lacked a quorum at four straight meetings in the past year as bylaws require for any endorsement action, and that less than 80% of its precinct committee positions are filled. Just as outrageous, the party membership never approved this guide — just a few insiders in a proverbial smoke-filled room.

Under intense pressure, party leaders reportedly scrubbed the list and added Jacobs and Klitzman.

But the version on their Facebook page still excluded them and listed some judicial candidates who are not registered Democrats. Florida judicial races are officially nonpartisan, and judicial candidates are prohibited from discussing their party affiliation or from making partisan appeals.

Parties have no business endorsing candidates in contested primaries or playing favorites by listing some candidates and shunning others. This is a party that supposedly stands for fair elections? Voters should demand answers from Hoye.

Political parties typically endorse their incumbents, but the Democratic guide makes no mention of Clerk of the Court Brenda Forman, who has twice been elected countywide and is the only Black woman holding countywide office.

The guide lists only Charles Hall Jr. for clerk. (For the record, the Sun Sentinel endorsed Hall, but fair is fair. It’s outrageous for the Democratic Party to ignore Forman or a third Democrat for clerk, Annette Daniels.)

The guide looks like an endorsed slate, but it isn’t. It’s a mess. It lists all four candidates for sheriff, but only two of four for U.S. Senate. It’s not a slate card by a traditional definition, because it does not favor only one candidate in each race. It’s not a true voter guide, either, because it ignores some candidates.

As a result, the guide lacks credibility. But it will be given out at early voting sites starting Aug. 10 and circulated by volunteers.

By comparison, the Broward Republican Party’s voter guide lists its endorsed candidates only. It’s more straightforward.

It’s impossible for voters to be familiar with every candidate in every race. A fair voter guide would list every Democrat on the ballot, or at least explain to voters in clear, transparent terms why some Democrats were left out. This is precisely why some voters are suspicious of party insiders and their antics.

The “Official Democratic Party Voter Guide” was approved by a county party campaign committee, based on its “endorsement policy” that defines whether a candidate is in “good standing” in the party. One nebulous standard is “actions taken by the candidate in support of issues core to our values.”

Klitzman was outraged that his name was initially left off the guide, even though he’s a board member of a party caucus, the Broward Democratic Jewish Caucus, and has personally donated money to numerous Democratic candidates.

Alfredo Olvera, the party’s state committeeman and a campaign committee member, declined to discuss the internal workings. Nor did he defend the guide — another sign that this fiasco never should have happened.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240, and follow him on X @stevebousquet.

On his Facebook page, a candidate for a Broward County judgeship, Scott R. Shapiro, falsely boasted that he’s “endorsed by those who know justice best.”

“Honored to receive the endorsement of the County Court,” Shapiro’s Facebook page said. “Their support is a testament to my dedication to justice and fairness.”

What?

To begin with, “the County Court” does not endorse judicial candidates under any circumstances. It’s a lie.

Second, it would be highly unethical for any individual judge to make an endorsement. Broward’s chief circuit judge, Jack Tuter, told me on Friday that he had contacted the Florida Bar about the false endorsement claim.

But with a Florida Bar review certain to drag on far beyond the Aug. 20 election, Tuter said the circuit would send Shapiro a brief and blunt cease-and-desist letter, telling him to knock it off.

“What he’s doing is clearly improper and illegal,” Tuter said. “We’re going to get a letter out to him.”

When I called Shapiro Friday afternoon, he said he had no idea what I was talking about.

“What’s this all about?” he asked. “I didn’t put it up there.”

Shapiro said a California vendor runs his Facebook campaign account and that he had not looked at it lately. (The post was there since Tuesday. No payments to a California vendor appear on his campaign reports.)

Every campaign ad must carry a disclaimer that it’s paid for by the campaign, the point of which is that the candidate approved it and stands behind it. Shapiro said he hadn’t.

Shortly after our brief talk, the “County Court endorsement” was gone, replaced with this: “It appears the company my campaign uses for social media posted that I received an endorsement from the court. This is FALSE. I did not receive such an endorsement and I am fairly certain the court would never make an endorsement. I take full responsibility for not monitoring the page more frequently to avoid a mistake like this. It will not happen again.”

How stupid do some people think voters are?

At least Shapiro took full responsibility. But is this the level of attention to detail we should expect from a judge?

Shapiro, a Tamarac lawyer, is challenging County Judge Kathleen Mary “Katie” McHugh, who’s seeking a third term.

The Sun Sentinel endorsed McHugh in an editorial that revealed a shocking truth: Shapiro said he picked McHugh at random for one reason: She was the first judge assigned to the court’s civil or non-criminal division whose name he saw among judges up for re-election this year.

Now for something completely different.

Gregory Tony is the sheriff of Broward County — and don’t you ever forget it.

The county commissioners who approve his budget recently attended the dedication of the new gymnasium and training center, and some were taken aback by how Tony’s name is plastered all over the building on the floors, the walls, and even in light fixtures overhead (complete with the reference to “Ph.D.” to note his recent doctorate from Nova Southeastern University).

Tony is not the first Broward sheriff to make the agency an extension of his ego.

But all that self-promotion costs money, and the next sheriff will have to remove every bit of it.

The grandiose seven-story training center, originally proposed to cost $34 million, will end up costing more than $70 million, according to a report by the county auditor, the Sun Sentinel has reported.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.

The MAGA manifesto was produced by the Heritage Foundation, dozens of right-leaning groups, and well-known conservatives who either served in the Donald Trump White House or support his bid for a new term.

In an age when truncated text messages and emojis constitute communication, Project 2025 is a conservative blueprint on a massive scale, covering everything from climate change to Medicaid to public television.

“Whether it be mask and vaccine mandates, school and business closures, efforts to keep Americans from driving gas cars or using gas stoves, or efforts to defund the police, indoctrinate schoolchildren, alter beloved books, abridge free speech, undermine the colorblind ideal, or deny the biological reality that there are only two sexes, the Left’s steady stream of insanity appears to be never-ending,” the report says.

This is a roadmap to reinvent the federal government by radically shrinking it and making it a political arm of the president — Trump, obviously.

For the record, yeah, Trump has said he had nothing to do with Project 2025’s creation.

And how could he? The report runs on for 900 pages.

But it carries unmistakable Trump touches, such as mass deportations of immigrants and politicizing the federal workforce.

Every time control of the White House changes parties, a semi-permanent government-in-exile of true believers is lingering outside the White House gates.

They have tasted power and desperately want it back.

The so-called “Mandate for Leadership” calls for abolishing the Department of Education, gutting the Environmental Protection Agency, using public funds to pay for private religious schools, dismantling civil rights protection and eliminating climate protections. Project 2025 also questions the legitimacy of public employee unions.

The report says the next U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services should reverse the Biden administration’s focus on “‘LGBTQ+ equity,’ subsidizing single-motherhood, disincentivizing work and penalizing marriage.”

Project 2025 also calls for wholesale firings of federal civil servants, a ban on birthright citizenship, the elimination of PBS and NPR and the privatization of the National Weather Service, a lifeline for Floridians and others trying to steer clear of killer hurricanes and tornadoes.

The weather service is part of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, another target of Project 2025, in part because it has sounded alarms about climate change.

“Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity,” the report says.

You know that Project 2025 has penetrated the nation’s political consciousness when political groups start using it to raise money.

The Jewish Democratic Council of America, headed by Ron Klein, a former Palm Beach County congressman and legislator, told donors Friday: “The Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project is Donald Trump’s road map for the far-right to denigrate our democracy and freedoms and dismantle and weaponize arms of the U.S. government. It is not a theory — it’s more of a dark agenda, all mapped out in writing. When Trump tells you who he is and what he’ll do as president, we must believe him.”

Project 2025 paints a very frightening picture of the America that could come to pass in a second Trump term.

Despite legitimate concerns about President Joe Biden’s acuity, this subject deserves just as much attention as Biden’s terrible debate performance.

Biden was disastrous on the day of the debate in Atlanta. Project 2025 is disastrous for the whole country.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the South Florida Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.

He’s not on the August primary ballot, but he’s in the background. DeSantis altered the course of public education in Broward, and he could again.

Two DeSantis appointees to the Broward School Board will face voters for the first time on Aug. 20. Republicans Torey Alston and Daniel Foganholi were both appointed by DeSantis to represent solidly-Democratic districts (the elections are officially nonpartisan).

Alston replaced one of four board members DeSantis suspended in 2022 following release of a grand jury report that sharply criticized the board’s record on construction and school safety.

Foganholi was appointed in place of a candidate who won his election but whose eligibility was challenged because of a past felony conviction.

Alston and Foganholi have credible, well-financed opponents with deep roots in their districts. Neither Alston nor Foganholi is registered to vote in their districts, which opens both men to criticism that they are not closely connected to the people they want to represent.

A 2023 state law relaxed residency requirements so that school board members don’t have to live in their districts until they take office.

Foganholi represents southeast Broward’s District 1, and records show he lives in Coral Springs. Alston represents southwest Broward’s District 2 and is registered to vote in Fort Lauderdale.

The financial disclosure form Alston was required to file as a candidate lists a house worth $1.4 million, but not its address.

As the son of a former law enforcement officer, Alston can legally shield his home address from public view, even though he’s a public official.

When he filed candidacy papers with the elections office, he legally had his address blacked out. Yet, with no trace of irony, Alston told the editorial board: “I’ve always been very open and candid and transparent. That’s what voters want.”

Simply put, neither candidate can vote for himself because they don’t vote in the districts where they’re running.

Despite not living where he’s running, Alston is confident of victory on Aug. 20, and says a series of high-profile political endorsements will soon send “shock waves” across Broward.

Alston said he owns “multiple properties” in Broward and that he’ll register in District 2 by the election deadline.

“I will vote for myself,” Alston said in an hour-long online Sun Sentinel editorial board interview with his opponent, Rebecca Thompson, 34, of Pembroke Pines.

Thompson is already making Alston’s non-residency an issue.

“They (voters) don’t know where Mr. Alston is,” she said. “He doesn’t respond to their concerns.”

Alston also filed a conflict-of-interest form over the School Board’s belated decision to share $108 million in voter-approved tax money with charter schools, as directed by the state. Alston initiated an April 16 board vote to pay the money, but abstained from that vote in an abundance of caution, he said.

His wife owns Interim Healthcare, a Pompano Beach medical staffing company that does business with charter schools. “Not here, just in general,” Alston told the editorial board.

Thompson said Alston should not have initiated helping the charter schools in the first place if he had a legal conflict.

Foganholi has two opponents, Maura McCarthy Bulman of Hollywood and Chris Canter of Hollywood. As a School Board member, Foganholi has been at times outspoken on fiscal matters, and he tried without success to fire the school district’s top lawyer, Marylin Batista, in April.

Managing the district’s $6 billion budget is demanding work, and Foganholi’s own finances are open to serious question.

He was sued last month in Broward Circuit Court, allegedly for defaulting on a JP Morgan Chase personal credit card. The company wants a judge to force Foganholi to pay the entire past due amount of $6,228.43.

“At some point,” Foganholi said in an emailed statement, “many people experience hardship and mounting debt in the midst of higher education. This is a pending debt consolidation matter being handled by my legal team that should be resolved soon.”

In the 2022 election, while DeSantis was running for a second term, he interjected himself into local school board races across the state and was highly successful, as 24 of 30 DeSantis-backed candidates won their races, a success rate of 80 percent.

That winning streak is in danger in Broward. Let’s see if DeSantis helps his two Broward appointees in the weeks ahead.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.

It might rain cats and dogs on election day, prompting voters to stay home. Inattentive voters can mistakenly choose the wrong candidate. The layout of the ballot itself can prompt some voters to miss it and skip it.

The most haunting case in Florida history is the “butterfly ballot” in Palm Beach County in the 2000 presidential election, in which a misaligned design led an unusually high number of people to vote for Pat Buchanan for president on their punch-card ballots instead of Al Gore, who lost by 537 votes.

In an effort to avoid these problems, county election supervisors circulate a draft sample ballot, first to candidates and party leaders and then to all voters by mail. The sample ballot needs to reach voters soon, because the real thing, the vote-by-mail ballots, will be sent out the week of July 11-18.

The deadline was Thursday to send comments about the sample ballot to Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott. “If we do not hear from you by then, we will assume there are no objections to the ballot format as drafted,” Scott said in a memorandum.

A sample ballot familiarizes voters with the names of candidates and who’s running for what. But it won’t mean much if voters don’t bother to look at it.

In the upcoming primary election on Aug. 20, there are dozens and dozens of ballot layout combinations in Broward alone, one of several counties where ballots also must be in three languages: English, Spanish and Creole.

Some closed primaries are open to Democrats only, others are open to Republicans only, and still others are open to all voters.

Some contests, such as for Congress and the state Legislature, are open only to party voters in specific districts, unless only one party fields candidates in that race. All voters, regardless of party, can vote in School Board and judicial races.

In the coming weeks, as we publish candidate endorsements, we will also remind readers which candidates are running in which districts.

Every voter has an information card that lists their district numbers for Congress, Legislature, County Commission and School Board.

If you read or hear about a controversial race and it’s not on your ballot, there’s a reason for that.

We have editorialized in opposition to closed primaries because they disenfranchise too many voters, but when people had a chance to change the system and open all primaries, it fell short of the required 60% threshold.

Contests are listed in specific order, by law. Federal races for U.S. Senate and Congress appear first, then statewide races, legislative elections, county-wide constitutional officers, judges and School Board elections. By law, candidates are listed alphabetically.

Every election has unique characteristics. This will be the first-ever election in Broward for the newly-created office of Tax Collector.

All three candidates, Abbey Ajayi, Dwight Forrest and Perry E. Thurston Jr., are Democrats, and because no Republicans are running, the race is a “universal primary,” meaning all voters can vote regardless of party.

The layout of the ballot matters.

Six years ago, Broward’s confusing layout cost Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson thousands of votes in his close loss to Rick Scott, because that race was at the bottom of a page, listed below a long set of ballot instructions in multiple languages that most people probably ignored.

A study later found that the design cost Nelson 9,658 votes in Broward. He lost by 10,033 votes statewide.

Nobody questioned the layout at the time, but state law was changed to prevent that kind of oddity.

The draft of Broward’s sample ballot lists every candidate in every race in every district, and something caught my eye.

The last race on this primary ballot is a nonpartisan county-wide School Board race, open to all voters, between Debra “Debbi” Hixon and Tom Vasquez.

It’s listed after an unusually long list of five down-ballot races for county judge that some voters may skip because they don’t recognize the candidates.

Hixon holds one of two county-wide School Board seats; seven others are elected from districts. Some voters will also vote in the School Board District 3 race between Sarah Leonardi and Jason Lee Loring.

The Hixon-Vasquez race looks awfully lonely all by itself in a right-hand column on some ballots, and I brought that to the attention of the elections office.

Some voters who vote at the polls are in a hurry. Haste can lead to sloppy or innocent mistakes.

It’s another reason why people like the convenience of voting by mail, because they can take as much time as they want to review their ballots. These choices are too important to not get right.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (*50) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.

Trump was dismantling conventional democratic principles and needed to be defeated. There was evidence he was the preferred candidate of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. What more do we need to know?

After Trump lost, many Republicans joined to condemn the attack on the U.S. Capitol. It seemed clear that Republicans needed a more stable candidate if they expected to remain a major party. But somehow, Trump has returned to avenge his loss to Biden.

What we saw at the Biden-Trump debate is that with all of his evident faults, Trump is positioned to fully recover politically.

The Joe Biden who saved us from Trump is not the same person four years later. The pressures of the office and his clear decline from aging demand that Democrats find a place-holder among their supply of capable future candidates to save Biden from an ignominious defeat.

Pending federal and state indictments against Trump and his collaborators will never be adjudicated if Trump wins.

Thanks, Joe Biden, for being there when the country needed you. It’s time to step away and help Democrats consolidate behind a younger, more energized candidate to defeat a revitalized, determined and more dangerous Trump.

Sheldon I. Saitlin, Boca Raton

Trump the clear winner

At the start of the debate, Joe Biden couldn’t seem to get his words out fast enough.

Then again, it may have been a result of “the juice” which Donald Trump supporters suggested he was given before the debate.

At times, Biden appeared to be confused, almost like a lost child. He came across as weak as he mumbled and stumbled through questions.

His raspy voice made it more difficult to hear and understand him.

On the contrary, former President Trump was not only strong and articulate, but he remained cool, calm and collected and didn’t take the bait of Biden’s provocations. Most importantly, Trump shared his plan of how he’ll make America great again.

It’s apparent that Biden has no such plan. Hands down, the winner and champion and our next president is Donald J. Trump.

JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater

‘Suckers and losers’

Retired General John Kelly, a four-star Marine, said during Trump’s 2018 visit to France for the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I that Trump did not want to visit the graves of American soldiers buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris.

“Why should I go to that cemetery? It is filled with losers,” Trump is said to have declared.

During the same trip to France, The Atlantic magazine reported, Trump said the 1,800 US Marines killed in Belleau Wood were “suckers” for getting killed.

Trump now says there are 19 people who will testify that he never said it. Who are these 19 people? Since this was reported, why have none those 19 come forward to support Trump? By the way, as a veteran, I enlisted to protect Americans including putting my life on the line to do so.

Mario Signorello, Port St. Lucie

A new awareness in America

We arrive at adulthood blindly confident that despite the tumult engulfing us, some things are unchanging and everlasting: Mountains, rivers, glaciers, oceans.

Then we see mountains decapitated for coal, rivers polluted by chemical runoff, glaciers melted by global warming, and oceans choked by man-made debris.

We realize that this permanence does not exist without constant and reverent caretaking. So too it is with our democracy.

It is porous, vulnerable to destruction by humans’ lust for wealth and power. Our institutions are only as strong as the character of the men and women who inhabit them. As a result, we must exercise our vote with a new awareness.

Jeff Kleiman, Elizabethtown, N.Y. 

That’s where Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott was Thursday, defending his refusal to let Pembroke Pines hold a special election in August to fill a city commission vacancy.

Forced to play defense, Scott won — and rather convincingly.

An obscure state law says Broward cities must hold local elections in March or November. All but a few prefer November, when vastly more people are voting, especially in presidential election years like this one.

The elections officer can make exceptions, and Pembroke Pines asked Scott to do so, citing unusual circumstances. Scott said no, so the city sued him.

When Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo resigned to run for mayor in March and won, it left an empty seat at City Hall. The city charter is clear: A vacancy must be filled by special election within 180 days, or the city could be accused of violating its charter.

The vacancy occurred April 3, which puts November beyond the 180-day window.

Scott strongly objects to what he calls “one-off” city elections held other than in March or November. State law says a special election can be held at other times, but only if the supervisor approves.

The city pointed out that Scott’s predecessors — Brenda Snipes, Miriam Oliphant and Jane Carroll — readily agreed to them, 10 times in the past 30 years.

But Scott said no, even though he did agree to one two years ago in Lighthouse Point. He called that a unique case because a mayor died in office.

“Why? Why won’t you do it?” Pines attorney Chris Stearns grilled Scott on the witness stand. The lawyer called Scott’s refusal “arbitrary and capricious.”

Scott, a West Point graduate who was elected in 2020, says many voters don’t even know when their cities are holding elections. He said it’s because they jump all over the calendar, confusing voters.

“I believe that I’m doing what’s right for the electorate,” Scott told me.

Tacking a nonpartisan Pines special election onto the Aug. 20 primary ballot would add a “layer of complexity” to the ballot, making life harder for poll workers, Scott testified.

The city argued for a “right of ballot access” to an election when every city voting precinct will already be open.

In an April editorial, we sided with the city for three reasons. Its request was reasonable. The elections office has approved similar requests. The 180-day deadline in the city charter should be respected.

Listing the four candidates for the District 4 city commission seat would add only a few lines to the ballot, the city argued, and the city would pay the extra costs.

But Circuit Judge Keathan Frink was not moved.

The judge quickly rejected the city’s request for a temporary inunction to force Scott to approve its request, ruling that the city failed a four-part legal test.

He said the city did not show it would suffer irreparable harm, that it likely would not prevail on the merits, that no other remedy exists, or that an injunction served the public interest.

“The court can’t find that it is in the public interest to grant the relief requested by the city,” the judge said.

Watching from a front-row seat was Castillo’s interim replacement, Commissioner Mike Hernandez, who wants to run in August and was upset by Scott’s actions.

“I thought it was disrespectful. I think this is personal animosity,” Hernandez said. “We have a countywide elected official who’s saying, ‘I don’t care what your charter says.'”

Pembroke Pines could appeal the judge’s ruling. But City Manager Charlie Dodge, the city’s only witness, shook his head at the possibility of another fight.

“I don’t think that would be a smart move,” Dodge said.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850 567-2240 and follow hi on X @stevebousquet.

The deadline arrived Friday for local and state candidates to qualify for the fall ballot, and there were lots of last-minute surprises.

Statewide, Florida Democrats fielded candidates in all 140 legislative seats that are up this fall. It’s not easy to pull that off, and they did.

It’s true, many Senate and House districts are shaped to maximize Republican voting strength and the GOP holds a formidable lead in voter registration. But the first step to being competitive is to get in the game. The presence of a “D” on the ballot will force Republicans to spend resources they otherwise would not have to spend.

More broadly, people will have options they didn’t have two years ago. That’s progress.

Too few competitive elections for the Legislature is the result of term limits (in which candidates simply wait until a seat is open); gerrymandered districts; and the power of big money. It’s a major contributor to all that’s gone wrong in Florida.

One-party control breeds arrogance and corruption and inevitably leads to illicit, power-hungry schemes like recruiting “ghost” candidates to deceive voters and manipulate elections.

The presence of a Democratic alternative on the ballot forces Republicans to defend their many votes to put outdoor workers at risk, eviscerate local government home rule, undermine public education, make it harder to vote, harm the environment, promote sprawl, criminalize homelessness and weaken ethics laws.

Another surprise was that the only legislators who won without opposition were Democrats — something right out of 1984.

Two state Senate candidates won unopposed in open seats, Mack Bernard in West Palm Beach and Carlos Guillermo Smith in Orlando.

Smith, a forceful, well-informed, media-savvy lawmaker who lost a House re-election bid two years ago, immediately gives Democrats a stronger voice in Tallahassee.

His quick return to prominence is a lesson for everyone, not just in politics. Don’t quit. Don’t get discouraged. He didn’t, and he’ll be Senator Smith.

Smith and Bernard will represent Democratic districts. That’s the easy part. It’s much harder to flip a district from Republican to Democrat, which involves luck, timing and boatloads of money.

The best chance for Democrats is in a North Florida Tallahassee-based district, where Republican Sen. Corey Simon will face a spirited challenge from a prominent civil rights attorney, Daryl Parks.

Nine Democratic House members won new terms without opposition, six from our region: Reps. Jervonte “Tae” Edmonds of West Palm Beach, Kelly Skidmore of Boca Raton, Dan Daley of Coral Springs, Hillary Cassel of Dania Beach, Lisa Dunkley of Sunrise and Christine Hunschofsky of Parkland.

“I love the work. I love representing my community in Tallahassee,” Hunschofsky said. “I’m incredibly grateful that I get to continue to do that.”

Friday was a bittersweet day for Hunschofsky. The former Parkland mayor joined many others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as demolition began of the 1200 Building where 17 students and school staff members were killed in 2018.

For the record, true two-party competition means that all those Democrats should also have gotten Republican challengers.

But candidates aren’t fools; not all of them anyway. With one or two exceptions, the chances of Republicans flipping a House seat in heavily Democratic Broward are slim to none.

Broward is assured of getting two new legislators, a senator and a representative.

Three Democrats will compete in Southwest Broward’s Senate District 35, where Lauren Book is term-limited, and four Democrats are running in Northeast Broward’s House District 98, where Rep. Patricia Williams is termed out.

Only Democrats filed there, which sets up a rare universal primary on Aug. 20, when every voter can participate.

In local politics, there were more surprises.

In the final hours before the deadline, Broward School Board member Torey Alston filed to run for the District 2 seat in southwest Broward to which he was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis two years ago.

Alston listed a Fort Lauderdale post office box as his official residence on his filing papers. Can an appointee who’s politically joined at the hip to DeSantis, win an election in deep-blue Broward? I seriously doubt it, but we’ll find out.

Sunrise Mayor Mike Ryan drew a last-minute challenge from Commissioner Mark Douglas.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis drew four challengers: Kenneth Cooper, Jim Lewis, Christopher Paul Nelson and Barbra Anne Stern, a lawyer who represented City Commissioner John Herbst when the mayor questioned the legitimacy of Herbst’s impressive victory in 2022.

Having so many opponents might work to the mayor’s advantage, as his four competitors could divide the anti-incumbent vote.

Stern, the daughter of Judy Stern, a high-profile lobbyist and political consultant, intends to make the election a referendum on overdevelopment and quality of life in Broward’s largest city.

“The residents of Fort Lauderdale need a choice,” Stern said.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.