When I first ran for public office, I went door-to-door and told voters my number one priority was to make health care a right, not a privilege. That’s why my proudest moment in public service was the vote I cast for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which enabled tens of millions of Americans to get their health security.

And two years ago this Friday, President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, which vastly expanded on that victory by lowering prescription drug costs, expanding ACA access, and making coverage more affordable.

Thanks to the new law, over 200,000 people in my district alone will buy ACA marketplace policies this year, a 104% increase from 2020. Four million Floridians will use the ACA, with average enrollees saving hundreds in premiums.

But in another critical way, this legislation is game-changing. After generations of failed efforts, the Inflation Reduction Act finally empowered Medicare to negotiate lower costs for some of the priciest prescription medications, including those that treat diabetes, heart failure and autoimmune disorders. Out-of-pocket Medicare savings to seniors will reach $1.6 billion in 2026, and taxpayers will save $6 billion, administration officials announced Thursday.

That’s not all. The law also caps monthly Medicare insulin costs for seniors at $35, provides free recommended vaccines, like for shingles, and ensures drug companies face penalties if prices climb faster than inflation. Also, starting next year, seniors will see their annual out-of-pocket drug costs capped at $2,000, bringing more financial relief to millions.

For too long, Floridians faced impossible choices, between paying for medicine or groceries. Now, because of this administration’s leadership, our families can breathe a little easier when it comes to health care costs.

This progress didn’t come without a fight. Republicans relentlessly attempted to repeal the ACA, and they will not stop trying to take it all away.

President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democrats in Congress like me took on Big Pharma and we won. Now, we must fiercely defend these gains and continue our progress.

These achievements face real threats, as clearly laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint, the playbook for a dangerous second Trump presidency.

Project 2025 would dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act and take Floridians and millions of Americans back to when health care costs were skyrocketing and millions were denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

Republicans like Sen. Rick Scott voted against the Inflation Reduction Act and tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and he’s coming after Medicare as well.

If that Trump-Scott agenda wins this fall, here’s what it means to you: higher prescription drug prices, soaring premiums and a return to the days when health care was a privilege for only the few.

If Project 2025 becomes reality, 45 million Americans could lose their coverage. Nearly 20 million would see premiums rise. Seniors on Medicare would see an exponential rise in prescription drug costs, while Big Pharma and insurance companies make unseemly profits — and all so Republicans can give billionaires more tax breaks.

But there’s another way. Vice President Harris and my fellow Democrats will build on our progress and ensure everyone can access the care they need.

As your representative, I will not stand by as Republicans try to rip away the health care my fellow Floridians and millions of Americans rely on, and I’m asking you to join me in that fight.

Let’s make sure that come November, we stand united, protect our health care, and continue moving forward. We are not going back.

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz represents Florida’s 25th Congressional District. 

One of the primary arguments against the Python Challenge is its inefficacy. Despite the hype and media coverage, the number of pythons actually captured during the event is relatively low. In August 2023, 209 pythons were caught during the challenge, whereas in July alone, professional contractors with the FWC managed to capture 307 pythons. The disparity in these numbers highlights the greater effectiveness of skilled contractors compared to the challenge participants.

Another major concern is the harm caused to native wildlife. The challenge attracts many amateurs, who, despite their enthusiasm, often lack the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively and humanely capture pythons. This lack of expertise can lead to significant collateral damage. High traffic on roads during the event increases the incidence of roadkill, with many non-target snakes and other wildlife becoming unintended victims. Out of about 1,000 participants, less than 100 will turn in even a single python, but they’ll kill countless native snakes like the green, brown and banded water snakes with their tires.

Professional contractors like me are reluctant to participate, further highlighting the challenge’s flaws. Out of 100 professional contractors, only a handful are willing to compete in the challenge. This reluctance stems from several issues, primarily involving the FWC. The FWC has a reputation for making constant mistakes regarding submitted pythons, including mix-ups, “administrative errors” and wrongful claims about euthanasia. These errors undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the challenge. Additionally, contractors find the chaos brought by the influx of 1,000 participants disruptive to their usual hunting process, making it less efficient and more hazardous for both hunters and wildlife. All that to be said, many contractors won’t hunt at all while the challenge is underway.

Most contractors wish that the Python Challenge would disappear, as we clearly see its counterproductive nature. Reducing the activity levels of the most skilled group, the contractors, while simultaneously causing more harm to native populations through increased roadkill, makes the Python Challenge a counterproductive event. Native alligator, turtle and bird nests are disturbed, native snakes are wrongfully submitted as pythons, and far more roadkill snakes are observed during the 10-day event.  The very goal of the challenge — to protect native wildlife and control the python population — is undermined by the methods employed and the consequences they generate.

Furthermore, the influx of participants can disrupt the delicate ecosystem of the Everglades. The increased human activity, noise and presence in previously undisturbed areas can stress native species and disrupt their natural behaviors. The ethical implications of such a disruptive event are considerable, raising questions about the morality of prioritizing an invasive species hunt over the well-being of an entire ecosystem. Especially an event with such minimal yield. We don’t offer the same type of challenge for iguanas, feral cats, feral pigs or many other accessible invasives, which raises questions about the selective focus and the ethics behind the Python Challenge.

Rather than relying on an annual spectacle, more effective and sustainable methods should be pursued. Professional wildlife management teams, trained in python detection and removal, could operate at an elite level to minimize collateral damage and maximize removal of the target species. As with most things, the private sector would do this far better than any government agency, especially with the current FWC python leadership in place. Public education campaigns could raise awareness about the issue without causing unnecessary harm to native wildlife.

In conclusion, while the Python Challenge may draw attention to the invasive species problem, its overall impact is more harmful than beneficial. A shift toward more scientifically sound and ethically responsible methods, combined with better education of participants, is crucial for the long-term health of the Everglades ecosystem.

Brandon Rahe, a nature lover and Florida native residing in St. Augustine, was a contractor in the FWC’s python program. 

1. College isn’t high school. If you managed to finesse your way through high school, staying up to all hours of the wee morning playing video games online, and you think you are going to continue this habit — forget it. You won’t make it. First of all, you need sleep to function in class. And second, the amount of study time required to get a good grade, especially in science technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses, exceeds anything you have attempted previously.

2. College requires sacrifice. Our campus is located in South Florida, a mile from the beach. While I have no problem with a student going to the beach for a few hours on the weekend, the fear of failure must loom larger than whatever it is your friends think is more important in the middle of the week than hitting the books. Learn to tell them “No” early on.

3. College requires time management. My assignments are date-sensitive; they open on a certain date and they close five days later. Once they’re closed that’s it — you’ll get a zero unless you have a valid excuse for missing a deadline.

4. College doesn’t give participation awards. In an era when everyone gets a trophy, sorry — you don’t get an award for simply showing up.

5. STEM courses require solving problems. My college physics teacher had a cartoon on his office door that showed a confused student explaining to his professor that he really understood the material, he just couldn’t do the problems. You cannot learn science by osmosis. Magic happens when the brain, eyes and hands all come together in beautiful synaptic choreography, guiding a pencil across a sheet of paper.

6. Put your cellphone away. When I went to college, there was no internet, no laptops and, of course, no cellphones. If we needed to look up a physical constant, we had the “CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics,” a tome that required two hands and a healthy back to lift. While the improvements in technology and instant access to information are largely positive for students, many are addicted to their cellphones and the instant gratification of likes on social media. If you want to impress your professors while succeeding in your coursework, put your cellphone away — at least during class — and learn how to use it as a study aid.

7. Date your books. Sorry, but as a freshman, you don’t have time to get involved with a boyfriend or a girlfriend let alone the emotional roller coaster that almost always accompanies these relationships. If you are serious about graduating with a degree, especially one in STEM, your love life can wait at least until you are an upperclassman.

8. Do every assignment, even the extra credit. Missed assignments become zeroes. And you never know when a few extra points will come in handy. More often than not, a student with a borderline grade would have been bumped up to the next letter had he or she just completed all of the assignments.

9. Don’t wait until it is too late to ask for additional help. Swallow your pride. College is hard. It is not an admission of intellectual weakness if you need to spend time with a peer tutor or come by the professor’s office for additional help. At Palm Beach Atlantic, we are a small enough university that I can offer generous office hours to reach out to struggling students. Take advantage.

10. Show me that you really care about my class. I go out of my way to help promising students who struggle with the material. However, if you frequently cut my class, blow off assignments and do none of the extra credit, don’t you dare come to my office in April sobbing, “What can I do to pass your class?” My response at that point will be, “Take it over.”

If you want to avoid just squeaking by, here’s your first assignment: Commit these suggestions to memory and put them into practice every day. You will be tested on them frequently throughout your next four years.

Gregory J. Rummo is a lecturer of chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences at Palm Beach Atlantic University and an adjunct scholar at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. He is the author of “The View from the Grass Roots,” “The View from the Grass Roots — Another Look,” and several other volumes in the series.

The proposed law in question, Senate Bill 280, would have made it far more difficult for cities and towns to deal with short-term vacation rentals that fail to respect the peace and quiet of their neighbors and negatively impact Florida’s families. The proposed bill hamstrung the ability of local communities to address market and public safety issues that may arise from vacation rentals. Cities have worked over the last decade to put in place sensible limitations on the frequency of rentals, regulations to limit noise and negative impacts, and other safety concerns. The bill imperiled many of these good-governance measures. DeSantis wisely safeguarded them, noting in his veto message that the “effect of this provision will prevent virtually all local regulation of vacation rentals even though the vacation rental markets are far from uniform across the various regions of the state.”

One of the biggest drawbacks of the bill is that it would have made it a heavy lift for governments to crack down on bad actors. While many vacation rental operators work alongside their neighbors, others do not. The bill would have significantly reduced the ability for local governments to respond to concerns of their constituents. Few things can be more in the local purview than efforts by one city to prevent a specific street or neighborhood from turning into a strip of vacation rentals with high turnover and noise.

DeSantis has consistently understood when statewide interests require uniformity and when local needs are best left to municipalities. He has ensured Florida’s economic engine has continued to thrive by stopping efforts by a single locality that would have had an undue or unworkable burden for the businesses that serve Florida statewide. While there is certainly a need for some statewide standards to ensure consistency and fairness, this bill overstepped by imposing regulations that could potentially harm property rights and undermine local governance — principles we as Americans hold so dear.

The governor’s veto is a clear message that localities should retain the right to tailor regulations that best suit their specific needs and circumstances. To his credit, the governor has recognized this principle in other actions over the years, vetoing legislation that would have prevented cities from encouraging new development and supporting a delegation of power that allowed cities to decide the issue of smoking in local parks.

While the federal government continues to impose more and more national regulations that take away state and local input, often with unintended negative consequences, DeSantis has led our state to record growth and prosperity with a nuanced approach that career politicians and bureaucrats in Washington would wisely mirror. DeSantis’ action reflects his understanding that local communities need a mechanism to address their own specific needs if problems arise in their neighborhoods with vacation rentals. It demonstrates a significant victory for both local governance and property rights in the Sunshine State.

If this legislation comes back next session, I hope that industry and government can work together to provide a more thoughtful framework. As vice chair of the of the Florida Republican Mayors Association, I know our members are eager to collaborate with legislators in crafting solutions that balance statewide interests with local autonomy. I remain grateful for DeSantis’ wise decision on this issue and his strong leadership for Florida.

Scott Singer is the mayor of Boca Raton and the vice chair of the Florida Republican Mayors Association.

In 2017, Republican lawmakers passed tax loopholes and cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy and big corporations. Then-President Donald Trump signed these giveaways into law, spiking inequality and setting off a wave of corporate profiteering.

Next year, parts of that law will begin to expire, which gives us the opportunity to make changes.

For decades, both parties have created an economy in which big corporations and the wealthy aren’t pitching in like the rest of us. We’ve been sold a bill of goods known as “trickle down” economics. Trickle down goes like this: Feed the rich the best cut of meat, and maybe we’ll get a bit of gristle that falls on the floor — and we’ll thank them for it.

The rich and most profitable corporations aren’t just contributing less and less to our collective coffers. They’re using their power to enrich themselves further while more of us struggle. Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently described this as a “doom loop” for our tax code: The wealthy and corporations get richer from tax giveaways, use their wealth and power to boost their profits, and then lobby for more tax cuts.

For example, the 2017 Trump tax cuts dropped the top corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%(compared to 40% in 1987). Supporters argued this would lead to better wages and supercharge economic growth. Instead, economic growth continued at about the same pace as before the tax breaks. And while 90% of workers did not see a raise, billionaire wealth has doubled.

In the same period in which corporations have enjoyed lower taxes, they’ve also raked in record profits. As my colleagues at Groundwork Collaborative have highlighted, lowering corporate tax rates actually incentivized corporate profiteering in the wake of the pandemic, as companies that overcharged us got to keep more of their winnings.

Trickle down theory says these windfall profits and lower taxes should encourage companies to invest more in workers and innovation. But in an economy run by big corporations with enormous market share, that money ends up being funneled to shareholders instead of increasing worker wages, investing in new or more productive technologies, or holding critical inventories in case of a crisis.

If we want corporations to invest more in wages and productive investments, we should raise their taxes, since wages and research are mostly tax deductible.

In other words, corporate profiteering is not a foregone conclusion. Raising corporate taxes has the potential to boost investment, productivity, and economic growth — and get Americans some of their money back.

The Biden administration has taken critical steps to push back against failed trickle down economics and corporate profiteering. It capped the price of essential drugs like insulin, empowered regulators to go after corporations abusing their market power, and made historic investments in a green future. But more can be done by raising taxes on the largest, most profitable corporations.

Fundamentally, the coming tax debate is about who holds the reins in shaping our economy: megacorporations and their wealthy shareholders, or the everyday people who keep the economy humming. Next year is an opportunity for Congress to stand firm against the rich and powerful and build the economy that we want to see.

Rakeen Mabud is the chief economist and a senior fellow at Groundwork Collaborative. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.

I am especially grateful for two things that have remained untouched in my memories over the decades: the underlying spirit of sports, and my respect for our flag.

Competing in athletics is not easy. The emotions athletes go through are immense and affect athletes differently. Some perform better than expected, while others fall apart under tough competition. Physical injuries can affect the outcome, but so can emotions. Some athletes — after years of hard work — lose or win by just hundredths of a second, or by a fraction of an inch.

Although there were many examples of athletes who performed in spectacular ways in the 2024 Olympics, I think the totality of the spirit of sports was best illustrated by the U.S. men’s gymnastics team. They won their first Olympic team medal since 2008, and while doing so, they exemplified the many trustworthy elements of sport: hard work, commitment, self-discipline, perseverance, excellence under pressure, pride in representing their country, love and support for each other, willingness to sacrifice for the good of the team, respect for the other competitors — and extreme joy over an earned accomplishment.

It took the men’s gymnastics team 16 years and individual sacrifices, to reach their goal. The wonder and magnitude of what they had done was seen in their faces and hugs — and touched so many watching them.

Stephen Nedoroscik, from Sarasota, competed in only one event, the pommel horse, but his performance was vital in helping his team win their bronze medal. Afterward, he said it was “the best moment of my life.”

What happened to Stephen and the gymnastic team was not a fluke or a lucky break. It was the result of years of hard work, a defined purpose, and a dedication to a goal. To be successful as an athlete, the nature of sport dictates that rules must be followed, that self-discipline has to be exerted, that you have to compete fairly, and that hard work, perseverance and sacrifice are part of the equation.

I was touched deeply by the instilled values Olympic athletes have, but dismayed that many of us have lost these values as citizens. Athletes can’t just show up and expect to be rewarded, nor can they obtain excellence and reach their objective without putting in the time and effort. Often, individuals have to give up their own desires and spot in the sun for the good of the team. This is also true for citizens when they want what is best for our country.

All of us should note the respect the Olympic athletes had for their opponents, congratulating the winners regardless of the pain they felt in their own loss. We should also note what a large role the American flag played in their competitive experience.

The 2024 Olympic athletes wrapped themselves in our flag with pride and jubilation — in sharp contrast to protestors who burn our flag because they do not respect the flag’s symbolic value.

Carrying the U.S. flag during athletic competition changes the way you look at your country. You no longer look at your country as being responsible for you — instead, you feel an immense responsibility toward your country.

The Olympics reminded me how fortunate we are as people of a free country — and how important a work ethic, teamwork and respect for others is in building a good and meaningful life as a free individual.

Albert Einstein said “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.” Somehow, the Olympics has managed to combine both of these goals — being a success and a person of value.

I hope our flag and the spirit of the Olympics will live forever.

Patsy Neal was a three time AAU All-American, represented the U. S. in the 1959 Pan American Games, and carried the American flag as captain of the U.S. team in the 1964 World Basketball Championship. She is an inductee in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She lives in Matthews, N.C.

Like Nicolás Maduro.

The Venezuelan dictator says he’s “breaking relations” with WhatsApp because it’s allowing folks to express too much criticism of the massive, brazen, knuckle-dragging election fraud he committed on July 28 — when he declared himself the winner of a presidential contest the world now realizes he lost by millions of votes.

That’s right, Maduro is severing diplomatic ties with the Republic of WhatsApp. It’s somewhere on the world map; just Google it, you’ll find it. Anyway, Maduro has expelled its ambassador. So no more arepas for you, WhatsAppians! (Is that what you call people from WhatsApp?)

Ah, if only Maduro’s bulla was the only bulla we have to listen to now, as Venezuelans and the international community try to figure out how to dislodge one of the most disastrous and despotic Latin American leaders of this or any century — and as those who defy him are getting rounded up and sent to prison camps.

Maduro’s opposition challenger, Edmundo González, won two-thirds of the July 28 votes. But Venezuela’s mafioso socialist regime, including the military, is digging in to keep Maduro in power. And so this is when we start hearing the lefty-loosey and righty-tighty bulla about how to solve the Venezuelan crisis — neither of which actually does.

Let’s start with the lefty-loosey bulla — the tiresome, Che Guevara T-shirt-wearing apologetics from the left exhorting the world to loosen pressure on Maduro right now because, well, as a socialist his heart is always in the right place and, besides, he wouldn’t have to act like a tyrant if the U.S. and other fascist forces hadn’t declared war on his country.

And who better represents the lefty-loosey dogma than Colombian President Gustavo Petro — the former leftist guerrilla who always checks his spine at the cloakroom when dealing with his ideological hermano next door.

Not only can Petro not bring himself to say publicly that Maduro’s victory claim is ludicrous; last week, Colombia abstained from an Organization of American States vote on whether to demand Maduro publish the July 28 vote tally — which Maduro disgracefully refuses to do.

Instead, Petro blathers that we shouldn’t “fall into the strategy of war and the separation of peoples” and urges Maduro and Venezuela’s opposition to pursue a rapprochement — even if that means leaving a brutal and ruinous autocrat unchecked in the Miraflores presidential palace for at least another six years.

And, oh yeah, the imperialista U.S. should lift all sanctions against said autocrat.

I’m all for dialogue — if it leads to Maduro conceding a democratic election result. What insults me and every democrat on the planet is Petro’s suggestion that Maduro and the two-thirds of Venezuelans who want him gone should hug and patch things up now.

It’s as if Petro were a 20th-century policeman telling a physically abused wife and her abuser husband to just work things out.

Petro has company — most notably fellow Maduro-coddling leftist presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico.

But there’s a legion of bulla counterparts on the righty-tighty side — like Florida’s own Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who’s leading conservative cries to have the Biden administration re-tighten the economic sanctions screws on Venezuela to make Maduro cry uncle.

Rubio asserts this crisis never would have happened under former right-wing President Donald Trump and the oil sales embargo he slapped on Venezuela.

That’s right — because under Trump, the Venezuelan opposition never even remotely approached the electoral corner it’s painted Maduro into now. And it has done so thanks largely to the electoral negotiations and agreements, which included an easing of oil sanctions, that Biden’s overseen.

Rubio’s right to condemn Maduro’s criminal betrayal of vote-respecting pacts like last fall’s Barbados accord. But the senator himself looks like a retro cop — telling us to punish the abusive father by heaping more suffering on his kids.

That’s essentially what re-applying the full Trump penalties package, rather than focusing on targeted sanctions, would mean at this point for already desperate — and emigrating — Venezuelans.

So please, all the lefty-loosey and righty-tighty Venezuela zealots, spare us your bulla — and try using your noggins now.

Tim Padgett is the Americas editor for WLRN, covering Latin America, the Caribbean and their key relationship with South Florida. Contact Tim at tpadgett@wlrnnews.org.

It’s important property owners review the information contained in this notice, as it will show their property’s 2024 just/market value and assessed/Save Our Homes value, tax-saving exemptions and a detailed breakdown of the proposed taxes as set by the taxing authorities listed on this notice.

The 2024 just value is what my office believes a willing buyer or seller would have paid for the property on Jan. 1, 2024. The assessed/SOH value, less your exemptions, determines the value you are taxed on. If you have any questions about your just or assessed values, we encourage you to first contact our office. If, after speaking with our office, you do not agree with the just value, you may file an appeal challenging your 2024 just value with the Broward County Value Adjustment Board. Information about the Value Adjustment Board appeal process is included with the TRIM Notice.

Property tax exemptions save people money. Property owners who are receiving the benefit of Homestead Exemption and any other tax-saving exemptions will see these exemptions listed on their TRIM Notice. You should review the exemptions listed on this notice to ensure you are receiving all the property tax exemptions you are entitled to. While Homestead Exemption and the Limited-Income Senior Exemption are the most common, residents can review all the exemptions available to qualified applicants at web.bcpa.net/bcpaclient/#/Homestead. Fortunately, applicants can still late file for any 2024 exemption until Sept. 18, 2024.

The TRIM Notice provides important information for property owners should they have questions about the tax rates and fees being proposed by the county, school board, municipalities and other taxing districts. Your local elected officials who set your tax rates want to hear from you. Property owners have the right to attend public hearings where the proposed tax rates and fees will be discussed. These public hearings allow property owners to voice their opinions and ask questions about the proposed tax rates and how these funds are used. Information about the dates, times and locations of these hearings are listed on the TRIM Notice as well.

I encourage property owners to carefully review the information included in their 2024 TRIM Notice. My office is always available to answer any questions property owners may have. We can be reached at 954-357-6830. Our office is in the Governmental Center at 115 S Andrews Ave., Room No. 111, in Fort Lauderdale and is open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also email me directly at MartyKiar@bcpa.net.

Marty Kiar is the Broward County Property Appraiser and previously served in the Florida House of Representatives and on the Broward County Commission. He is a lifelong resident of Broward County and lives with his family in Plantation.

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.

It could have been a straight-up contest of ideas between Democratic incumbent Ric Bradshaw and Republican challenger Mike Gauger.

But dirt is what Palm Beach County’s police union wanted.

So, dirt is what voters are getting.

In trying to manipulate the Republican primary for sheriff, the local chapter of the Police Benevolent Association put out an attack ad featured on a since-deleted social media post. The ad publicized Gauger’s private military-related health information while ignoring state rules designed to keep law enforcement officers safe by not revealing identifying information, including birth dates. And it made campaign contributions to Gauger’s opponent in a poorly disguised effort to keep Gauger, Bradshaw’s best-financed challenger, from facing the sheriff in November.

You could understand why the union thinks knocking Gauger off the Aug. 20 primary ballot will lead to a slam dunk win for the sheriff in the general election. Four years ago, Bradshaw easily beat Gauger’s current GOP primary opponent, Lauro Diaz.

Four years ago, there’s no campaign record showing the county’s police union gave Diaz a dime.

This year, with a credible challenger to the sheriff, the union is suddenly very interested in Diaz’s political health. Palm Beach and Broward county police unions, as well as three police union political action committees, each donated $1,000 to Diaz. Miami-Dade County’s police union followed suit, bringing police union support for Diaz to $6,000.

If the local union had only sought to finance Gauger’s opponent, that would be sketchy politics, but still: just politics.

But the union went further. Its political action committee obtained and distributed a restricted military document with Gauger’s health information and used it in a video. The video claims the discharge paperwork, which is not a public record, showed Gauger had presented himself as a veteran when the document proved he had never served at all.

In fact, it showed the opposite. Gauger, who was drafted during the Vietnam War, briefly served and was dismissed with an honorable discharge based on a health condition. That makes him a vet, according to Veterans Administration rules.

So why is the union kneecapping Gauger? Try money.

Gauger believes deputies get paid too much, PBA president John Kazanjian told The Palm Beach Post.

Not our job to fact-check, added Bradshaw’s campaign spokesman in a sort-of effort to distance the sheriff from the smear.

But that comment about deputy pay drags the sheriff and his budget right into the middle of this ugly fray.

Burgeoning spending is Bradshaw’s most obvious political vulnerability and has been for years. And for years, he has repeatedly cited rising wages to justify budget hikes. That includes wages his office negotiated with the union.

The sheriff’s budget has shot up by 51% from $630.7 million in 2018 to a proposed $952.3 million for 2025. In the new budget, personnel costs grow by $64 million, and of that increase, $42 million stems from union-negotiated wages and undefined benefit policies.

At $102,252, the starting salary for a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office sergeant is already the highest of any sheriff’s agency in the state, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The $133,212 starting salary for lieutenants is the second highest. Both are far above Broward and Miami-Dade wages.

And they are minimums.

The county foots the bill for this groaning board of a budget, but it has no real say in salary. A 2004 state law specifically limits Palm Beach County from cutting sheriff’s wages. That leaves it up to the sheriff’s office to hold the line.

True or not, the union clearly believes Gauger would not give them a good deal, just as it believes Bradshaw will continue to do so, even as local taxpayers will shoulder an estimated billion-dollar law enforcement budget by 2026.

And why wouldn’t the union believe that? Bradshaw announced his bid for reelection in the union offices.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board endorsement of Bradshaw in the Democratic primary came with requests: more budget transparency and more distance from the union. They are serious concerns and need to be addressed. Bradshaw is not a bad candidate, and supporters who have repeatedly returned him to office are confident he is a good sheriff.

It’s union mudslinging that threatens to make him look like a bad one.

Pat Beall is a columnist and editorial writer for the Sun Sentinel. Contact her at beall.news@gmail.com.