I'm writing this morning to share with you all some very useful context about some very disconcerting news I was recently made aware of about what's been going on for weeks below-the-radar in our slice of the world in SE Broward among the political and business class.
People who care very much about who has control and power at Hallandale Beach City Hall after the election on November 3rd, one week from tomorrow, and care not a whit about you, your family and your community's best long-term interests.
Which is why I'm making you aware of it today when there's still time to do something about it, instead of complaining about it after the election.
Then it's too late!
Instead of linking to the following news article as I would usually do on the blog since I started it in January of 2007, because it is SO important AND 99% of you would never have heard of it or read it anywhere else, I'm going to post it here in its entirety, including links, so that you can fully appreciate the forces at work under-the-radar in Hallandale Beach and environs who want to have power and control at Hallandale Beach City Hall.
You know, where you the citizen, the public, are supposed to be the most important person in the pyramid.
My comments follow the article, which features Hallandale Beach as the worst example in the state of Florida for a very unpopular trend.
Imagine that!
If indviduals or a group know that they can just pay a small fine after-the-fact, violating state election laws, what's to force them to follow state laws on disclosure?
Nothing!
They will consider it a small price to pay to get the results THEY want.
https://www.bradenton.com/news/politics-government/election/article246660838.html
That annoying barrage of political texts? It’s only going to get worse, Florida
OCTOBER 23, 2020 10:25 AM
Texts like this one encouraging Floridians to vote by mail are among the 1 billion expected to be sent by political campaigns before Election Day on Nov. 3As election season reaches a crescendo, campaign ads aren’t just hanging from your doorknob, filling up your mailbox, cluttering your inbox, interrupting your favorite TV shows and beckoning from billboards. Politicians are capitalizing on an increasingly popular way to win your vote by inundating your cell phone with text messages. More than a billion texts will be sent in support of Florida, statewide and national campaigns by Nov. 3, say candidates and their consultants. Like it or not, they’ve found texting to be an effective, efficient method for using personal data to engage directly with voters who spend half their waking hours on their mobile phones.
Because privacy is as quaint as the telephone booth, and voters’ cell numbers have been bought, sold, shared and rented out many times over, a candidate or volunteer or software company that is running a texting operation can greet recipients by first name in hopes of creating a rapport much harder to achieve ringing doorbells or broadcasting advertisements.
Cell phone users, hard-wired to at least glance at texts, also are more like to open them for a range of reasons, said Kevin Munger, assistant professor of political science and social media analytics at Penn State.
“People are resigned to getting spam calls and not listening or blocking them,” Munger said. “But their annoyance tolerance is higher for something they perceive as more important than a commercial pitch for a credit card or, say, selling Coke over Pepsi compared to Trump over Biden.”
Multiple times a day voters see texts soliciting donations, touting or bashing candidates, asking survey questions, coordinating campaign workers or encouraging them to cast their ballots:
“Hi John, it’s Israel with MoveOn. Politico reports that a ‘green tsunami’ -- a wave of donations from Democrats like us -- could flip control of the Senate! A Joe Biden presidency AND Democratic Senate are now within reach. Can you chip in $15 to help flip the Senate?”
“Looting. Rioting. Burning Cities. These are the realities of a Biden America. See this future for yourself & ensure it’s not ours.”
“Hi, it’s Michael from Vote From Home 2020. If you live at [insert your address] voting files suggest that you may not have requested a vote-by-mail ballot yet. If you change your mind you can still vote in person, so keep your options open by requesting a ballot.”
“Hey there John, I’m Diana with FL Research. We have a brief survey for Miami-Dade & we want to hear from you.”
The texts aim to tread a fine line between motivating and irritating voters. They come with one big advantage: People who delete emails without opening them or don’t answer calls from suspicious numbers can’t avoid texts. It’s an intrusion that also can backfire, strategists say.
“Voters have grown quite sick of texts. It’s another invasion of their privacy and their first reaction is often, ‘How did you get my number?’” said Evan Ross, president of the Aventura public affairs communications firm ,Public Communicators Group. He is running three Political Action Committees and advising 10 clients this election cycle, and they’ve sent a total of 100,000 texts. But those pings even get under his skin.
”I was in line for early voting when I received a text for the fourth time asking if I was committed to Biden and Harris,” he said. “I responded by telling the sender they need better data. They can’t be barraging people with repetitive texts and annoying them.”
The hope, Ross said, is a productive exchange, a conversation. Ideally, voter and candidate learn about one another.
“You’re able to make that crucial ask, ‘Can I count on your vote?’” he said. “A text can be so much more valuable than sending a mass mailer or knocking on a door when nobody’s home. But when a text is deleted out of frustration you’ve missed that connection.”
A COVID-19 BOOM
Texting has been especially useful since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Ross knows a candidate in a condo-dense district who could not do the traditional door-to-door canvassing or host bagel breakfasts in meeting rooms. She switched to texting as her outreach solution.
The percentage of people who reply varies depending on how well an audience is targeted, but a 10-15 percent response rate is good, according to Ross and Nathaniel Lubin, co-founder of Survey 160, a software company that provides text-based polling and research services.
“At a time when people increasingly don’t answer their phones, SMS [Short Message Service texts of 160 characters or less] is an attractive way for analytics groups and pollsters to get meaningful data quickly and at scale,” said Lubin, who worked on Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012 when texting began to take off. “We typically do get higher response rates than other methods, especially for surveys. Texting is easier for respondents in that they get to choose when and how to respond, rather than needing to be available at the exact moment required by other channels.”
Ross saw a response Thursday that captured many voters’ feelings of text fatigue: “Who do I need to vote out of office to STOP these text messages? [With an emoji of a crying frowny face.]”
Though its use has exploded, texting remains largely unregulated by election and communications laws, allowing both savvy strategists and unsophisticated campaign managers to spread misinformation anonymously. Voters can receive a text and have no idea who is behind it. Disclaimers identifying who paid for the text messages are not required because there is too little space within the standard 160-character limit to fit that extra verbiage.
Lack of oversight and transparency has spawned some outrageous attack texts.
In the midst of another wild and nasty campaign season in Hallandale Beach, a text stating “Urgent Election Information” went out that appeared to be sent by incumbent commission candidate Michele Lazarow. It linked to a “Michele Lazarow For Commissioner?” website that disparaged and insulted Lazarow with bizarre headlines like “Breaks the Law and Incites Violence” and “Celebrates the Life of the ‘prophet’ Mohammed, an Oppressor of Women” and “Michele’s Dirty Relationship with Evan Ross.”
The mystery disclaimer at the bottom of the home page says: “I’m a concerned citizen of Hallandale Beach, and I have free speech guaranteed by the 1st amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I love Hallandale Beach, and I’m tired of Michele Lazarow allowing by [SIC] beloved city to look trashy!! Don’t vote for Michele please. Thank you!!!”
The deliberate misrepresentation and unaccountability for funding of the ad makes it illegal, but Lazarow’s attempts to trace the origin were fruitless. No one, including Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub, who is running for re-election in another district, or Mayor Joy Cooper — who have tangled with Lazarow in the past — has taken responsibility. Lazarow’s opponent, Dmitry Yakubovich, denied any involvement, saying “The politics have been very dirty in Hallandale over the past few elections. I’m not in favor of this. There’s no place for it in Hallandale.”
Lazarow and her advisor and friend Ross said they were “disgusted” by the deceptive message. The number that sent the text has been flagged by consumers complaining of robocalls and scams.
“The people who want to corrupt our city have proven they will break the law as they work to get me out of their way,” she said. “It’s clear these corrupting forces want Anabelle Lima-Taub, Joy Cooper and anyone other than me on the commission. I trust the residents of Hallandale Beach to see through the lies. I trust law enforcement to investigate and prosecute the criminals.”
“That’s the dark side,” said Ross, who created online and TV counterattack ads against Lima-Taub and Cooper with paid-for disclaimers from his Good Government PAC. “People can hide more easily on texts. In the cases of fraud, we need prosecutors to subpoena records and track the digital trail, but often law enforcement views these acts as political shenanigans that are not hurting anybody.”
LEGAL LOOPHOLES
The texting flood has grown as campaigns exploit a loophole in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act that was designed to control robocalls. Peer-to-peer texting allows a sender to send messages to recipients without their consent if they are sent one at a time. New tech companies with apps like Hustle, GetThru, RumbleUp and Opn Sesame have sprung up to generate millions of texts. Less laborious mass texting is allowed if recipients gave permission to be texted. Voters can usually stop receiving them by replying “stop” or “unsubscribe.”
“I identify 5,000 voters I want to reach legally through peer-to-peer texting,” Ross said. “I’d get carpal tunnel syndrome hitting send 5,000 times so I hire a vendor and pay a few cents per text for him to do the clicks. While robocalls were big 10-15 years ago, owning a landline is now like owning a typewriter. Texting is the booming industry. Campaigns are spending tens of millions of dollars on this platform.”
What does the future hold?
Ross predicts a trend toward expanded virtual communication for politicians. Campaign trails shrink when voters can tune in to town halls and rallies from home via Zoom. In-person hand-shaking and baby-kissing won’t disappear but candidates and constituents alike have learned during the pandemic how to reach people remotely.
“A local candidate could host Kamala Harris or Pete Buttigieg on the call because they don’t have to fly to Miami,” he said. “We’ve already seen higher citizen participation in city commission meetings on Zoom. Convenience and accessibility. Virtual platforms will increase engagement opportunities exponentially.”
Munger envisions a rise in campaign alliances with popular influencers.
“Influencer marketing has not yet fully penetrated the political scene,” he said. “That’s where all advertising is going these days. Eventually it will make texting seem as old-fashioned as calling people on their home phone.”
Miami Herald Staff Writer Nicholas Nehamas contributed to this report.
So in case you forgot who was on whose side in February of 2018, I'll remind you what I wrote at the time, and leave it to you to figure out now who regrets what they said and did, and who doesn't after things shook out the way they did.
Not that you would know this from any of the news articles or TV stories that have been written about the antics at Hallandale beach City Hall the past few years, but there are STILL lots of very negative reverberations still playing out in the city as a direct result of the embarrassing Rich Dally appointment/miscalculation.
Now I'm going to repeat some important points that I originally made two weeks ago in my blog post of October 12th, since there's no way of making them any more clearly.
If public honesty about who they are and they've done professionally in a job situation is the very least that we can expect from people who offer themselves up as prospective lected officials -and it is, the very least- what can be said about Vaping lobbyist Cynthia Cabrera, who claims publicly to be a longtime HB resident, but who, unlike Maggie, has been largely invisible and unconcerned when VERY BAD things were ROUTINELY happening in Hallandale Beach the past ten years.
Where was she?
That Cabrera is neither as personally experienced or as well-informed as Maggie about the specific issues that have plagued and dominated what's happened at Hallandale Beach City Hall and the city more broadly for years is clear, since when Maggie attended meetings, EVERY Commissioner and staffer from the City Manager's office knew exactly who she was, and noticed her the moment she walked into the Commission Chambers.
THAT reaction is what happens when you have personally been actively engaged in improving the climate there, just as I have been, and show up ALL THE TIME, open your mouth and push back hard against self-evident bad ideas and unethical behavior.
Cynthia Cabrera has claimed on her website and to the news media and to Hallandale Beach voters to be a longtime Hallandale Beach resident, but the truth of the matter is that you can't find anyone in town who can honestly say that Cabrera has been even one-tenth as involved, reliable, or as public in her concerns as Maggie has been FOR YEARS in defending and articulating the best interests of the average HB resident and Small Business owner at HB City Hall.
The reason that nobody can say that Carbrera was even one-tenth as involved publicly is the simplest reason of all -Cabrera was invisible.
What kind of qualification for elective office is Cabrera's longtime apathy?
Cabrera's innumerable campaign signs around Hallandale Beach can't make up for that harsh reality. When she lived here, she was a no-show.
Again, for all of Cynthia Cabrera's talk of being a longtime HB resident, HER very own LinkedIn profile lists her as having lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area for at least three years from 2013-2016.
You don't have to take my word, see for yourself:
Exactly!
Does she think we'd just take her word for it?
To make matters worse, Cynthia Cabrera does herself no favors by being so free in accepting large campaign dollars from real estate developers, as her campaign disclosures make quite clear.
Given Hallandale Beach's unique location and demographics within Broward County, real estate developers will always be viewed here somewhat more skeptically by many residents than they are elsewhere.
People who quite naturally want to protect their personal investment and Quality of Life.
So that said, it makes you wonder why nobody in the local South Florida news media, especially the South Florida Sun Sentinel, ever bothered to ask these hard questions about Cabrera.
Or, to ask her the most obvious question of all: Why was she SO invisible on matters of important local concern when she ACTUALLY was living here daily?
When you review the facts as they are, not as Cabrera would have you believe they are, you don't need me to tell you that you deserve a whole lot better quialified person represnting you on the HB City Commission than a disinterested woman like Cynthia Cabrera.
My friend Maggie is in this race to win it, and then do the hard work that comes next.
Like us, Maggie is fully committed to reforming the city and bringing it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century when it comes to increasing the level of public scrutiny, public oversight, and civic engagement, and ensuring that a meaningful degree of financial accountability is always present.
In short, injecting the proper amount of common sense and skepticism to absurd proposals and bad public policy ideas that should never be approved.
In Hallandale Beach, DON'T reward people who have not earned your trust and your faith like Anabelle Lima-Taub and Cynthia Cabrera, reward someone who was there speaking out for your and your neighbors best interests for YEARS:
Maggie Ivanovski.
Do what's best for you and your family and the community at large, and reward Maggie's many years of very hard work and civic engagement over so many years to make Hallandale Beach better for both its residents and Small Business owners, and NOT people who have never been there for you, your family and neighborhood in Hallandale Beach.
To me, as someone who actually was at all of those meetings for years and speaking out for you as well, Maggie is more than deserving of your highest endorsement in this race: your VOTE to make Hallandale Beach's government better, more efficient, and more accountable to the people who live there.
Above: My friend Maggie Ivanovski, the Seat 3 candidate with the MOST experience in battling the bad ideas and impractical ordinances that have been coming out of Hallandale Beach City Hall like clockwork for the past 15 years.
The city will positively change for the better the moment she and her genuine
EXPERIENCE are representing you and reforming it from the inside, and making the City Commission much more relevant and accountable. But Maggie needs YOUR vote in order to make that a reality!
Even now Maggie can use your help, so if you are interested, please contact her today via her cell phone number, (954) 646-2573, or via her campaign email:
m.ivanovski2020@hotmail.com
Updated on October 26th, 2020 at 4:15 p.m.
Since I posted this blog post earlier today, we've publicly heard from one of the Usual Suspects of Hallandale Beach government and public policy, and one of the persons cited in the Linda Robertson article, Democratic lobbyist Evan Ross, the guy who for YEARS has tried to personally insinuate himself -worm his way- into HB issues.
As it happens, he's also the same irritating guy who for many years has held court by sitting in the last row of the HB Commission Chambers near the back door, often sitting in the seats (w/electrical outlets) RESERVED for city staff, and of key importance here, a longtime friend and confidante AND campaign fundraiser for Comm. Michele Lazarow.
In short, not an objective source for any kind of information about the city and its citizens and their desires for elected officials who keep people like him at arms-length.
Surprise! He's also one of the Lazarow-affiliated persons trying to foist political cipher and Vaping lobbyist Cynthia Cabrera onto the City Commission, Seat 3.
I include that back-and-forth on Twitter here now for your amusement and education.
Ross' contemptible sense of entitlement and contempt for voters is readily apparent, no?
"It’s a two person race. The only candidates with any chance of winning are Lima-Taub and Cabrera. Encouraging people to vote for anyone other than Cabrera just helps give the bigot on the commission four more years to embarrass Hallandale Beach."
You know, it's almost as if Evan Ross thinks that he gets more say so than you do in deciding who gets to sit in the HB City Commission seats on the dais.
In case you can't quite make this text out, it reads:
Me: #HallandaleBeach's sleazy pol. campaigns seem to have fingerprints of melodramatic Lima-Taub or Police Unions or both. Surprise! DON'T reward ppl who've NOT earned yr trust like Lima-Taub + Cabrera.
Vote for a better HB via #MaggieIvanovski.
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2020/10/hallandale-beachs-sleazy-unethical.html…
Evan Ross: It’s a two person race. The only candidates with any chance of winning are Lima-Taub and Cabrera. Encouraging people to vote for anyone other than Cabrera just helps give the bigot on the commission four more years to embarrass Hallandale Beach.
Me: #FactsMatter: Lima-Taub has alienated most of the ppl who gave a cipher like her the benefit of the doubt in 2016 bec of HER own personal melodrama. Activists know has REAL EXPERIENCE: 10x's institutional knowledge of HB's issues/history as longtime no-show Cabrera.
And speaking of running anonymous and defamatory attack blogs, as Linda Robertson does in her article, Evan Ross has some experience in that department, too. Hmmm...
Cowardly Lobbyist Evan Ross gets smacked down at the Eleventh Judicial CircuitBY STEPHANIE KIENZLE
MARCH 11, 2019
Dave
