No más! #FL20 Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick RESIGNS in disgrace minutes before she can be expelled from Congress this afternoon; Florida redistricting thoughts

So, as some of you have been reminding me for a bit -often quite sarcastically- I've been kicking myself for NOT remembering to post this email of mine to about 125 or so people in Hollywood, Broward, Miami and Tallahassee weeks ago, so, today I'm combining news and emails of mine from today and from March 31st, 2026.

It both connects-the-dots and makes clear my own longtime POV on my blog and on my Twitter feed since returning to South Florida after 15 years of living and working in the Washington, D.C. area, and spending ENORMOUS amounts of time on Capitol Hill: ethics and integrity matter.

April 21, 2026 2:25 pm

No más! #FL20 Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick RESIGNS in disgrace minutes before she can be expelled from Congress this afternoon

SCM remained as defiant as ever, as do the other #SoFL Dem reps who want to argue process, racism or otherwise ignore the $5-plus million taxpayer that went adios.
She was scheduled to be expelled from Congress at 2 pm, even as DWS was arguing that she should get the benefit of the doubt -and due process- until her trial in Miami.
But as per usual, DWS did NOT wait for due process with unscrupulous George Santos of NY last year.

As of 2:15 pm, the same 99% of #SoFL media who knew and STILL know nada re the case against Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and who were no-shows at her ethics hearing, STILL NOT reporting today's news.

I personally believe that it's 100% that IF the Florida state legislature does the mid-census redistricting process in the next few weeks that Gov. DeSantis has been hinting/talking about since last year, what is now #FL20 is going to be configured in VERY different and interesting ways that allow much-smarter and much-better qualified candidates to run to represent parts of Broward and Florida in Congress.

Based on some recent conversations and lengthy emails I've had with some very well-connected people in both Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. that I know and respect very highly -and who have a rep for being prescient- I now have some very good leads on who some of the possible Congressional candidates are who MIGHT run for the 4 CDs that would be changed if the redistricting process goes forward.
Some are names you'll recognize, while some are under-the-radar right now from a Florida media perspective.

More on that within the next few weeks!

Friendly reminder: One of my former housemates from the 15 years I lived in #ArlingtonVA is now in Congress, representing a state far from Florida, and was both the former Senate Majority Leader and then Attorney General of their state.

Dave
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March 31, 2026

No más! Sun Sentinel Editorial Board throws in the #Broward towel on Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick -whom they never truly vetted in the first place, as has often been discussed by me in past blog post, Tweets and personal conversations and emails with SO many of you over the past few years:

"Whether by her own resignation or a two-thirds vote of the House on expulsion, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick needs to go."
So, truly the unkindest Broward cut of all!
The liberal Broward mouthpiece that didn't even bother to cover last Thursday's House ethics hearing in-person, finally gives up the ghost. 

The newspaper DID finally post something about the hearing, on Saturday, but it was an AP dispatch written by two non-SFSS reporters.
https://apnews.com/.../congress-ethics-cherfilusmccormick...

Sun Sentinel Editorial Board :
Whether by her own resignation or a two-thirds vote of the House on expulsion, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick needs to go.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/.../congresswoman-should.../
https://www.facebook.com/share/1L49iSSFBV/

IMO, unsurprisingly, showing the lack of conviction and integrity we've come to expect from them over the years, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, #FL23 Rep. Jared Moskowitz and, of course, #FL25 Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, despite the tsunami of damning evidence of public corruption and sense of entitlement do NOT currently think that SCM should resign from Congress, as mentioned yesterday in the only thing that the newspaper's one and only political reporter, Anthony Man, has actually written since last Thursday's powerful and damning hearing. 

Really.

The ONLY thing! How embarrassing!

But then Anthony Man has been off of X/Twitter since November of 2024, largely to avoid any and all constructive criticism of his "coverage" and noticeable political favoritism and well-known blind spots, so this is par for the course.

South Florida Sun Sentinel
Governor candidate Jolly calls for Cherfilus-McCormick’s resignation
Anthony Man
March 30, 2026
Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly called on U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to resign after a House Ethics Subcommittee concluded she had committed 25 ethics violations, including breaking campaign finance laws.

Jolly, who is a former member of Congress, is the only major Florida Democrat to call for the Broward-Palm Beach County congresswoman’s resignation.

Read the rest of the article at:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/.../democratic-governor.../

NOT mentioned in the article above - surprise, surprise- IF convicted of all felony counts, SCM faces 53 years in prison. 

53 real years!

Dave

David Bruce Smith  

My blog, now eponymous, , formerly called Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: 

http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Instagram: @hbbtruth https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidSmith0215

Quick thoughts re the prospective Todd Delmay vs. Hillary Cassell 2026 Florida House 101 race -to the bottom- that most of SE Broward probably would prefer to ignore because BOTH avoid giving answers to hard policy questions.

Quick thoughts re the prospective Todd Delmay vs. Hillary Cassell 2026 Florida House 101 race -to the bottom- that most of SE Broward probably would prefer to ignore because both avoid giving answers to hard questions about

South Florida Sun Sentinel
Lawmaker who jumped party to face challenger 
Anthony Man, South Florida Sun Sentinel
February 12, 2025

Democrat Todd Delmay is challenging Democrat-turned-Republican state Rep. Hillary Cassel in what’s likely to be the hottest South Florida legislative election in 2026.

Best known in LGBTQ civil rights and Democratic political circles, Delmay is announcing his candidacy on Wednesday.

He’s challenging Cassel, who was best known in the fields of insurance law and politics — until December, when she denounced the Democratic Party and switched her registration to Republican. She was rewarded with an appointment as vice chair of a state House committee and a social media post of praise from President Donald Trump.

Read the rest of the article at:

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/02/12/florida-legislator-who-switched-parties-after-last-election-gets-2026-challenger/

-----

In case you missed the news, niche Identity Politics candidate Todd Delmay, A Democrat who IMO has truly done NOTHING OF NOTE in #HollywoodFL that has not been either LGBTQ-related or of a generally virtue-signaling nature, has decided that his over-weaning personal ambition and ego now compel him to force his way back into the public eye and come before the public once again.

 

Delmay has apparently decided that he of all people is best situated to take full advantage of Democratic Party voters in HD 101 who feel, oddly, betrayed by Hillary Cassell, who, herself, IMO, had/has done very little, and seldom if ever was seen at Hallandale Beach or Hollywood City Commission meetings or Civic Association meetings BEFORE she decided in 2021 to run for the non-Minority state House 101 seat for SE Broward. 

Contrary to pretty much everything you thought you knew about running for office, right?

In doing so, Cassell took FULL advantage of Covid 19 in a way that few other South Florida candidates did as successfully, owing to the reality of the many older people in this area's very clear phobia about going out in public, even in 2021. 

Yes, Covid-19 was really Cassell's critical ally, as well as her ready-made excuse for largely ignoring or interacting with the voters, and instead, made everything about the election turn on marketing herself, and taking advantage of the large number of attorney dollars her campaign was flush with.

And, on the chance you didn't know it already, Cassell also chose to spread a lot of those campaign dollars on/at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, to show her, um, new-found concern about the area she had largely avoided appearing before previously in a matter affecting public policy. 

Or just to gripe about something.

But as we know, given a choice, lawyer lobbyists don't identify themselves as lobbyists on campaign disclosure forms, they identify as lawyers. You know, like Lincoln.

So that's why when the stories came out about her $ haul, seemingly everyone EVERYONE ever mentioned in the articles about her was an attorney, NOT a lobbyist. And I know I was not the only person to notice that in Broward or Tallahassee, because I got emails about it, even from Politico and other out-of-town reporters I know.

https://x.com/hbbtruth/status/1873828558176682366


Todd Delmay now is attempting to foist himself on Hollywood residents yet again, after failing to capture fire in 2022 because he had, literally, done NOTHING OF NOTE in the Hollywood or larger SE Broward community, and could NOT answer hard questions about real issues.
Instead, to the extent he said anything, it was always the same 2-3 things, according to friends who did actually see him, albeit, at grocery stores, not at public events.

Here's how bad I think Delmay's lack of self-awareness is: Delmay says he's the "Founder of the Hollywood LGBTQ+ Council," a niche group that seems like a LGBTQ version of a Latin or Brazilian or Italian Chamber of Commerce group. If a bunch of people want to network among like-minded people, no harm, right? 

But what have they ACTUALLY done since they were created? 

Besides appearing at events around town where they are sort of... the featured attraction?

When you go to their website, what do you see on the landing page? https://lgbtqcouncil.com/
A five-year old video of the LGBTQ flag that was raised on one of the flagpoles on the east side of Hollywood City Hall.

That required that the U.S. POW flag be removed from the city's flagpoles, and thus become a mini-controversy on many Social Media sites for some veterans, as well as the hapless NextDoor app site that's home to so many posts that clearly get written and posted in anger, not after quiet reflection about the true facts. 

I myself received about a dozen emails from people around the city, many from people I had never met or heard of before, all asking me why the POW flag was shunted aside and why, in their opinions, the city did such a poor job of communicating publicly what they were doing, and how long the flag would be there, and what was to become of the POW flag?.

Oh, I almost forgot. There's also another video on the landing page about... buckle up, not what they've been doing the past few weeks or months but about... The Hollywood LGBTQ Council Launch Event
The event from five years ago! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvL9j5mSTO4&t=6s

This is largely a self-promoting video produced by NBC6 where Todd Delmay talks about... "Changing the conversation in Hollywood." What?

How has the conversation been changed and what does that even mean in a very blue city in a very blue county where pols are prone to virtue-signal without even being asked to?

The entire website seems to be built for the purpose of developing a mailing list for someone, not actually discussing possible effective methods or policy prescriptions for solving the genuine problems that are all around us in South Florida, and SE Broward in particular?

Me, I think that someone is... yes, Todd Delmay.

The one person who can... actually access the information requested on the website.

Just to remind, Todd Delmay was NOT big on appearing at public settings in Hollywood in 2021 and early 2022 where he could be asked hard questions about the issues that one needs to really know and understand to properly serve the public from Tallahassee. Like the area's dysfunctional public transportation system for instance, the general uselessness of the Broward MPO, or the generally mediocre quality of the public schools in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, where McNicol Middle School in Hollywood just blocks from I-95 on Pembroke Road has long been viewed (and even rated by the School Board) as THE worst Middle School in the entire county.

(Why is that true? What are the factors that led to that becoming a stone cold fact? Silence. Nobody wanted to talk about it. Least of all, Todd Delmay or Hillary Cassell, to say nothing of the handful of lackluster School Board candidates that year. Clearly, lack of money was NOT the problem for McNicol Middle School being deemed a school that by any reasonable standard had failed to do what it was supposed to do, for the kids who went there.

Local kids who deserve much better.)

I say all of this as someone who was, to be blunt, completely (and who largely remain now) COMPLETELY UNIMPRESSED by the once-reclusive Hillary Cassell. In 2021 I wrote often on my blog, on Twitter and in emails some of you received, about how her entire 2021-22 campaign seemed to consist of two things: Receiving LOTS of money from attorneys -many from outside Broward- and getting positive (paid-for?) spin about that very money in one online Florida political website that is nothing close to being the home of honest, objective journalism. 

Or even pretends to be.

The familiar news reporters at Channel 4, 6, 7 and 10 as well as both South Florida newspapers largely gave Cassell a free Hall Pass, and she took FULL ADVANTAGE of that to get elected in 2022. 

This, despite the fact that most people at the Civic Association meetings I attended across the city, from Hollywood Lakes to Downtown Parkside Royal Poinciana to Hollywood Hills... had both largely never heard of her, and could NOT tell me one thing about her that they'd heard or read that was the least bit persuasive or positive about her.

It was crazy, but then for lots of people in SE Broward, Hillary Cassell was female, a Democrat, and an attorney, and THAT was ENOUGH!

At least, against two very uninspiring male candidates who failed to articulate a compelling message or vision, take your choice. And SE Broward, having failed to push her to explain herself, got exactly what it deserved.

Got what IT voted for.

But now, they're surprised that Cassell, to her credit, may actually wants to see positive results on some issues she feels strongly about or knows something about, and not just spin her wheels in the minority for YEARS.

 
In my opinion, there are perhaps two dozen people in Hollywood I can think of, to say nothing of the rest of House District 101, who are MUCH more qualified to run against Hillary Cassell than Todd Delmay.

Especially if one is inclined to run as the Angry Democrat candidate if that suits you best- based simply on what they have ALREADY DONE for their own neighborhood or the city at large to make it better and improve the Quality of Life.

And that includes some of you!

This area has genuinely taken lots of things for granted for a very long time. Coasted along like there were always 

more people who would move here from elsewhere to take the place of young families who moved out of Hollywood or Hallandale Beach once their own kids had to go to a public Middle School and they suddenly saw for themselves that was a very bad option.

That blase attitude came at a huge cost, and now there are multiple TROUBLING problems that demand a smart, savvy, open-minded person who cares more about achieving positive results for the largest number of people, both here and around the state, than merely getting credit publicly.

And it desperately needs people who can see things from other's POV. 

But Todd Delmay?

 

My sense of things is that THAT has never been his persona thus far, so why would you suddenly expect him to be someone else?

Is he someone who CAN work effectively on issues with state House Republicans, knowing that they may well disagree with him on the social issues that he cares about most?

Them, in a party that already enjoys a super-majority in the state House that is only going to get larger next year as many Dems term-out?

Todd Delmay? 

No! Hard, hard pass!

I should think that by now, most of you know the difference between both having and then successfully mobilizing behind a genuine voice -or a faint echo- in order to do the most good. But maybe I'm wrong.

There's now plenty of time for people like these two -and others- to either surprise us, or for them to... NOT show any kind of desire to change and grow at all.

P.S. 

I was going to send this right before New Year's Day but decided to wait it out a bit... and see if anything changed. Nope!

Anthony Man/Broward Politics has left Twitter for Dem-leaning Bluesky. 

His last tweet was Nov. 24th, 2024.

 

So, for all practical purposes, he has chosen to make himself even more irrelevant to what's going on in Broward than before, which is really saying something, given the mountain of interesting or compelling stories happening that he consistently showed ZERO interest in covering in the paper, or even mentioning on his Twitter feed, as a head's up to folks who follow him. 

So, you might as well Unfollow his feed like I did -even though he Follows me, for whatever that's been worth- and use that Follow of yours on someone who is curious, open-minded and continuing to generate and post new and original content, instead of rehashing something for the umpteenth time, which, IMO, has long been his specialty.

Just a thought... 

Dave

David Bruce Smith  

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies
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