Voting Recommendations

Dear Friends

As many of you know, I have spent the summer getting to know many of these candidates personally. I am basing my recommendations on the results of that quest. In the case of the judges, I have tried to endorse those who think the same way I do. While party affiliation is not supposed to be a factor, in some cases it had to be. Candidates who donated heavily to the Republican party (George Bush, Clay Shaw etc.) were not candidates I felt would make judgments representing the way I felt. Some of these were very hard to choose from, but I did the best I could. While I found that almost all were qualified, I needed to choose the person I felt would be best suited from each individual race. I did not use incumbency as a yardstick. Some incumbents were fabulous at what they did and there were some whose time had come and who needed to step down. The names I bolded were of candidates that I got to know really well and fell in love with :-). They are young, fresh, enthusiastic and would do us proud on the bench. It's been quite a summer :-)

Please use these recommendations in the spirit in which they were intended. They are only a guide and the way I feel. Feel perfectly free to pass these recommendations on to your voting lists, making any changes you feel are necessary.

Happy voting!!!!!!!

UNITED STATES SENATOR Kendrick B. Meek
ATTORNEY GENERAL Dan Gelber
STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 94 Hazelle P. Rogers
COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 4 Ken Keechl
COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 6 Suzanne Gunzberger
COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 8 Angelo Castillo
COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 9 Dale Holness

CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 2 Kenneth L. Gillespie
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 4 Elijah H. Williams
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 6 Carlos Rodriguez
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 9 Susan Lebow
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 15 Robert Abraham Jakovich
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 22 Carlos Rebollo
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 23 Barbara Anne McCarthy
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 24 Olga Levine
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 47 Lisa Porter
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 51 Sandra Perlman
CIRCUIT JUDGE GROUP 53 Eileen M. O’Connor

COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 1 John Howes
COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 3 Peter Skolnick
COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 4 Lloyd Golburgh.
COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 12 John (Jay) Hurley
COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 13 Linda R. Pratt
COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 14 Mary Rudd Robinson
COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 15 Mindy Solomon
COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 20 Steven Schaet
COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 26 Nathaniel Klitsberg

SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 1 Ann Murray
SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 2 Patti Good
SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 4 Robert Mayersohn
SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 6 Laurie Rich Levenson
SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 7 Nora Rupert
SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 8 Nick Sakhnofsky

Remember, this is only a guide and my opinions. Please take it in the spirit in which it is offered :-)

This year's August elections

Lately there has been a lot of hue and cry over judges and other officials (normally elected) who were unfortunate enough to draw opponents. The hue and cry stems from the fact that these judges, county officials, and even a school board member were appointed to their position and therefore deserve that position for life, or their term limits, whatever comes first.

These judicials and others were never elected to positions by the people and in most cases, the people don't even know who they are. Yet, they and their entourages, feel entitled. They are mortified. How dare they be challenged.

Well, I personally feel that they should be challenged. An appointment by Jeb Bush or Charlie Crist is not, in my opinion, a mandate to keep an elected official. This is not to say that they are bad judges, or officials. I am simply saying that it is time the public had a say over their tenure in the position.

I see nothing wrong with an appointed judge having to prove himself to the public he or she serves. I see nothing wrong with an appointed school board member or county commissioner having to seek the validation of the population. I have a major problem with a judicial coming to me for support and explaining that they were appointed because they were the best for the job. We all know that isn't true. I think I also am totally insulted with that line.

There are some cases where the appointed judicial happens to be wonderful in that position and I am proud to be supporting that person. I will say, however, that it is not always the case. I truly resent the sense of entitlement that I am hearing from judges who were appointed to that position. They are sure they own the judicial role. I also feel that way with judicials who were elected many years ago and do not want to have to go through an election again.

My position on all this is that no one is elected to any position for life here in Broward County. We need our elected officials, all of them, to keep proving to us that they are the best for the job. They, above all, should understand this. The crying needs to stop!

History Repeats Itself

As a teenager growing up, I always was told that I needed to make sure I took care of my little sister. When she was around eleven, she came to me crying hysterically that kids were throwing rocks at her. Despite my advanced age (I was 18), I went to those kids and started throwing rocks at them (my mother was furious, and rightly so), but no one messed with my sister. I think I scared those kids half to death.

When my son was young, we were in the Library one day when a group of Juvenile Delinquents cornered him and started throwing books at him. He was terrified, and when I got there, I determined that I would protect him at all costs. I chased those kids into the middle of a New York street and with traffic flowing both ways, I caught one of them and spanked him. Quite a spectacle.

When Sharon was growing up, and was picked on by a teacher in the middle of the rotunda at her high school, I called the principal and explained that if that teacher did not publicly apologize to my daughter and undo the embarrassment that she was caused, this story would be in every newspaper in New York City as well as in the courts. I also explained that I fully expected my daughter to receive an "A" in her coursework so her college applications were not affected. Sharon was protected.

When my husband was rendered paralyzed by ALS, there was a situation where he fell getting into a County sponsored limo and was left there, on the floor, by the driver. I was furious. The owner of that Limo service is probably still shaking by the explanation of what was going to happen to him, his service and his very lucrative County contract unless my husband received a full apology from him, the driver was fired, and my husband was treated royally from that time on.

I'm sure that those who know me remember all of these events quite well!

Bottom line here.....I will fight to the death to protect those I love. No one messes with my loved ones without having to deal with me...and that is not always a pleasant experience!

I am getting that same feeling now, watching my kids lose their educational benefits due to a top heavy, selfish, wasteful, school Administration and I am determined to protect them at all costs. Many people have applauded the fact that I am apparently relentless in my quest to see that this damage does not happen. They don't understand that for me this is just as personal as those incidents reported above.

I inherited my love of Broadway musical theater from music and drama classes starting in the elementary schools. My school library was my second home and I loved seeing my friends (note that it was never me) winning their competitions in their gym classes. These were the things that I loved about school and that love of education is with me to this day.

We are in a situation here in Broward County where administrative waste and excess is threatening to take all those things from our kids. I won't bore you by listing all the ridiculous excesses, they can easily be found elsewhere. I will say that I will fight to the death to make sure that it does not happen. I am hearing school board members blame it on administration and I find it mind boggling. To begin with...who works for whom? I don't ever remember voting for a school Superintendent or an Area Director. I do remember voting for school board members and I know that I have the power to help reelect them if I so choose. I will only choose to work with those who are working with our public.

We did an amazing thing this week. The strength of the public lobbying here in Florida was so intense that we caused a Republican governor to veto a Republican bill and ensure that our teachers did not get the short end of the educational stick on a state wide level. Too many people are resting on those laurels and not remembering that though teachers on the higher level were protected, a large number of our elementary school teachers have been cut or eliminated from their positions. It is going to take a major battle to reach the public and get the outpouring of emotion that saved our teachers salary and tenure. Here in Broward county, what is the good of salary and tenure if there is no job.

What is the good of an educational system that is not well rounded for our kids. What is the good of a school system that takes the joy out of the educational system. What is the good of an educational system that focuses purely on academics without bringing out the creativity of our children.

This needs to change and we need to alert everyone to the power of their vote. You have that power, you just need to use it.