It's a damn shame that FL House Rep. Joe Gibbons will now have to go to Tallahassee to do his job instead of... avoiding South Florida reporters armed with 'inconvenient facts; Florida redistricting meets Broward County Commission Seat 1 race

Fla. judge orders special session to redraw state congressional map: http://t.co/T5ieDM9pxI | Keep up with @NakedPoliticsFL
— Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) August 1, 2014

It's a damn shame that FL House Rep. Joe Gibbons will now have to go to Tallahassee to do his job instead of... avoiding South Florida reporters armed with 'inconvenient facts' in his continuing attempt to explain away his dreadful record of insignificance in Tallahassee, and longstanding track record of perpetually looking the other way at what was taking place in his supposed "home" of Hallandale Beach under the direction of his friend Mayor Joy Cooper, especially as it relates to the misuse of the city's CRA,with her directing ill-founded schemes that made it an ATM for her political cronies and pals.

When the concerned citizenry of HB publicly proclaimed its genuine desire in 2013 for JLAC to perform an independent audit that would investigate where all the millions in CRA dollars went over the recent past, with Joy Cooper deciding where the money went, as I've written here many times, what did Joe Gibbons do?Nada!

It's also a shame that as soon as the FL House does what they need to do in order to meet the judge's order, regardless of how long it actually takes, Gibbons will inevitably say that there's just "not enough time" left for a no-holds-barred debate with Beam Furr in the HB/Hollywood area, a debate the public wants 

PRIOR to the primary for the Broward County Comm. District 1 seat.

You don't have to be as prescient as me or as familiar with Gibbons' M.O to know that cold, hard facts are NOT and have never been Gibbons' best friends.

Instead, Gibbons will no doubt continue playing the role of elusive rabbit to Furr's measured, fact-based issues campaign that actually compares and contrasts their records.

As it happens, I will have a nice fact-filled blog post next week on the issue of ethics and Joe Gibbons, and as you can imagine, it will deal with his lack of them, even when dealing with the federal government.

Who lies to the feds about something that's so easy to check on? Guess!

It'll feature irrefutable facts and a back-story that you have never read or heard about before.

Yes, think of it as my primary campaign 'contribution.' :-)

Drawn-and-quartered for political purposes not our own: A Hallandale Beach perspective on Brandon Larrabee's post, "Documents describe political consultants’ efforts in redistricting" in Florida in 2010; Yes, efforts to keep cities like Hallandale Beach divided to keep some FL politicians' political careers viable

Drawn-and-quartered for political purposes not our own: A Hallandale Beach perspective on Brandon Larrabee's post, "Documents describe political consultants’ efforts in redistricting" in Florida in 2010; Yes, efforts to keep cities like Hallandale Beach divided to keep some FL politicians' political careers viable

Palm Beach Post
Documents describe political consultants’ efforts in redistricting
By Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Posted: 1:51 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013

TALLAHASSEE — As Florida lawmakers, politicos and voters held a public discussion about the once-a-decade redistricting process in 2011 and 2012, Republican consultants were quietly and busily drawing maps that they later said were produced largely because of their interest in the process.

Meanwhile, GOP operatives were discussing redistricting with officials in Washington and one consultant was writing to another about an offer of help from “friends with deep pockets.”

Read the rest of the post at
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/documents-describe-political-consultants-efforts-i/nZsy7/

The City of Hallandale Beach, in southeast Broward County, on the north side of the Miami-Dade County line, is hemmed in by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and I-95 on the west, is 4.2 square miles and has just under 39,00 residents, including myself. 

It is the poster child of a city that ought to be compact and contiguous, not broken up for political spare parts -and yet it is.

Again.

In order to satisfy base political and ethnic needs of politicians from outside the immediate area that have nothing at all to do with the letter and spirit of the Fair Districts legislation that I and many millions of other Florida voters passed, or giving this city's residents a degree of power that approximates their location and size, it is sliced and diced every which way.

Until last year's election, this city of under five square miles was represented by two U.S. Congresspersons, two state Representatives, two Broward County Commissioners and one state Senator.

Seven people instead of four.

Some people, uninformed people, say that's actually great for the city and means that its residents get more representation that way.

A great theory, but in practice, the reality was and is that Hallandale Beach residents are always merely a fraction in a political equation in how a bill becomes a law, and the first to be ignored and the first to be thrown overboard 

For the simplest and most-expedient reason of all -we were and are always deemed less important than some other larger city or area within the district because we have been intentionally drawn-and-quartered to appease other interests that are deemed more important than us having the meaningful representation we're entitled to. 

Just saying...

This is my 18th blog post here on redistricting. 
Prior posts on this subject can be seen here:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=redistricting

For a great example of gerrymandering outside of HB but nearby, see the map of Rep. Alcee Hastings FL-20 district in Lake Worth, which at one point is just slightly wider than the area taken up by one high school's complex -Lake Worth High's.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/FL

Brandon Larrabee @BylineBrandon  https://twitter.com/BylineBrandon

News Service of Florida newsserviceflorida.com

https://twitter.com/newsservicefla

More tangible proof of how reluctant the news media in South Florida is to directly challenge Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and report negative news stories about her, even when there's lots of facts to back it up, including court documents. And, how desperate DWS was to have a new FL-23 that was loaded with as many Jewish voters as possible, regardless of what Broward voters actually wanted: Fair Districts

More tangible proof of how reluctant the news media in South Florida is to directly challenge Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and report negative news stories about her, even when there's lots of facts to back it up, including court documents.

Romo v. Scott court documents prove that my friends and I live in one of “the most gerrymandered congressional districts” in the U.S., FL-23, in large part because Rep.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz laughs privately at the high-minded rhetoric of and expressed angst of Fair Districts proponents, as well as the Florida League of Women Voters, Common Cause Florida and La Raza.

She's just smart enough not to laugh at them publicly where she can be caught on camera engaging in her hypocrisy.

Despite all the proof in the world that the South Florida news media is ignoring this court case up in Tallahassee, the actual facts of this case prove rather conclusively, as I have argued and previously written here over the past few years, that regardless of the sentiment of voters, DWS wanted an un-competitive and unfair Congressional District drawn up that was loaded with as many Jewish voters as possible.

For more on that, see my November 22, 2011 blog post titled, No Fair Districts here: Surprise! NAACP's proposed 2012 map keeps HB & Hollywood divided: Blacks given to Frederica Wilson, Jews to DWS; told ya!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/no-fair-districts-here-surprise-naacps.html

She wanted that even if that meant intentionally dividing counties, towns or precincts rather than keeping them intact, as FairDistrictsFlorida.org and Good Govt. types publicly argued for in their public redistricting campaigns of 2011-2012 for Amendment 6, which passed overwhelmingly.

But DWS didn't care a whit about what the voters of Florida and Broward wanted, she wanted a congressional district that required little personal presence or high-maintenance.

A CD which would allow her to continue to remain a prominent National Democrat figure who could fly around the country giving speeches and raising money -and appearing on TV!- NOT be burdened by old-fashioned notions of public service or or even parochial concerns like re-election.

DWS wanted what she wanted and she wanted it badly, regardless of the fact that the overwhelming majority of voters in Florida, Broward County and her own district wanted Fair Districts with reasonable standards. 
Period.

Now we know how badly she wanted it.

To configure a fanciful map to her personal liking, one that ignored the interests of citizens wanting to NOT be divided by race or ethnicity or see their community's historical integrity
sub-divided, required her & consultants and allies "to scoop as many Jews out of Tamarac and Sunrise as they can” to quote emails of Democratic Party consultants that have been released

So that's exactly what DWS did, with the stealthy cooperation of other powerful Broward Democratic pols. 

So why is the South Florida news media ignoring this? 

And, the Florida League of Women Voters, its Broward chapter and Common Cause Florida? 

Why are they so quiet about having been played for suckers by DWS and her pals?

Washington Free Beacon
Gerrymanders Gone Wild
Dem congressmen oversaw Florida gerrymander, emails reveal 
By C.J. Ciaramella
April 5, 2013 3:29 pm

Florida Democrats coordinated with national party organizations and consultants in early 2012 to gerrymander congressional districts despite a state ban on such activities, emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.

The top state and national party leaders, including Florida congressmen Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Ted Deutsch, and Alecee Hastings, signed off on the gerrymandered maps, according to the emails released during court discovery in Romo v. Scott, a legal challenge to redistricting maps that the GOP-controlled state legislature approved in 2012.

Read the rest of the article, complete with the damning emails at:

http://freebeacon.com/gerrymanders-gone-wild/

This bit of news closely followed three weeks later with something we'd first read at Sunshine State News on March 19th, below, which we found interesting enough to send its link it along to some friends around the state as a sign that there was much more here than first meets the eye.

Unfortunately and yet typically, the South Florida news media was doing their best to avoid reporting on, you know, like real facts from real emails that get to the heart of the matter.

But then you already know from what I've written here so many times previously, with specific examples, how the South Florida new media is cowed by DWS and will literally jump on a thrown hand-grenade for her, in order to stay on her good side, especially the reporters and management at the Sun-Sentinel.

Wasserman Schultz, Nan Rich, Rod Smith Tried to Gerrymander; Blamed GOP for Doing Same
By Eric Giunta
Posted: March 19, 2013 3:55 AM

Court documents obtained by Sunshine State News show that top Florida Democrats were involved in just the sort of activity they are accusing Republicans of: gerrymandering districts to increase their candidates' electoral prospects.

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/debbie-wasserman-schultz-nan-rich-rod-smith-tried-gerrymander-blamed-gop-doing-same

Curiously, at least to me, Mary Ellen Klas of the Times/Herald, subject of this post
wrote on February 4th about the facts that had emerged thus far with the GOP's efforts to ensure more GOP districts within the Sunshine State,

Emails show legislative staff and RPOF talked about redistricting despite ban

Mary Ellen Klas, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

Monday, February 4, 2013 7:12pm

Florida’s legislative leaders appear to have authorized their staff to use private email accounts, secret “dropboxes” and to engage in “brainstorming meetings” with Republican Party of Florida consultants in attempting to draw favorable political districts, despite a constitutional ban on such coordination. 

The allegations arise from a lawsuit challenging the Senate and congressional redistricting that include emails showing how top deputies of Senate President Don Gaetz, House Speaker Will Weatherford and several of Gaetz’s consultants were in frequent contact with consultants who drafted and analyzed maps. Redistricting is done every 10 years to redraw boundaries of legislative and congresssional districts to ensure equal representation.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/emails-show-legislative-staff-and-rpof-talked-about-redistricting-despite-ban/2105386

But Klas has written nothing at all in the two intervening months about the more recent documents released that have proven so revealing about the facts and intentions of Democrats Nan Rich, Alcee Hastings, Ted Deutsch and DWS, even while the Miami Herald's Marc Caputo has.


Naked Politics blog
Miami Herald
Insider emails show FL Democrats wanted to gerrymander redistricting just like GOP
By Marc A. Caputo
March 5, 2013

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/03/insider-emails-show-fl-democrats-tried-to-gerrymander-redistricting-just-like-gop.html##storylink=cpy

Florida Democrats plotted with top leaders and consultants to redraw congressional districts to benefit their party, according to new court records that show they were just as interested in gerrymandering as Republicans.

Democratic-leaning groups are challenging the new congressional maps in court, saying Republicans broke a state constitutional amendment by drawing districts that favored or disfavored political parties and incumbents.

Read the rest of the post at: 
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/03/insider-emails-show-fl-democrats-tried-to-gerrymander-redistricting-just-like-gop.html#more

Why the disparity in coverage by Klaas?

Just so you know, I've spend some time researching and now can tell you how many original news stories on the facts involved in the Romo v. Scott court case have actually appeared in the news media of her Congressional District, and specifically what DWS did.

And by original, I mean something created or produced by the actual staff of those media organizations, not the Associated Press dispatches they throw on their websites that few readers or viewers ever see:

CBS-4, NBC6, Channel 7(Fox) and Channel 10 (ABC) or the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: ZERO.
Not just ZERO each, ZERO collectively.

Welcome to the not-so-curious world of the South Florida news media of 2013! 

Not so much watchdogs as lapdogs, esp. when it comes to DWS.

Since they aren't inclined towards doing any old-fashioned reporting on this subject, here's a good place to start:
http://redistricting.lls.edu/cases-FL.php#FL

As for FairDistrictsFlorida.org, whom I became very publicly disillusioned with last year after they completely failed to prepare to hold or co-host any sort of public forum in Broward County prior to visits by the traveling Florida Senate Redistricting Committee, you can see their comments here: http://www.fairdistrictsnow.org/home/
I no longer trust what they say -just like I don't trust anything said by DWS.

Cowardly cipher and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (new FL-24) is a deliberate no-show at Channel 10's 'This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney.' Did her hats refuse to let her go and throw themselves in front of her door because they knew no-bargain-himself Rudy Moise WOULD show-up? Another South Florida mystery that will have an unhappy ending!

My screenshot of U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, new FL-24, on the July 31, 2011 episode of WPLG-TV/Channel 10 Miami's This Week in South Florida, with host Michael Putney. She was a no-show this past Sunday morning when she was supposed to meet at the Pembroke Park TV studio with her Democratic Party primary opponent. Surprise! Photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Cowardly cipher and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (new FL-24) is a deliberate no-show at Channel 10's 'This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney.' Did her hats refuse to let her go and throw themselves in front of her door because they knew no-bargain-himself Rudy Moise WOULD show-up? Another South Florida mystery that will have an unhappy ending! 

The poverty of Wilson's ideas and her ideals shows themselves once again -absent!

Curious observers, South Florida bloggers and regular voters were left to wonder if perhaps her large collection of hats banded together and refused to let her go, and literally threw themselves in front of her door at home to keep her there once they heard that no-bargain-himself Rudy Moise WOULD show-up?

Rudy Moise?
Seriously?
This isn't "Who's afraid of Virgina Woolf?"

No, the real question is whoever is afraid of debating Rudy Moise, whom I rightly bashed four years ago in this space during the 2008 Democratic Party primary that was full of jokers and no aces -or whatever you'd call what actually happens on Sunday morning public policy TV shows- is seriously lacking in both smarts and moxie.

And yet, Wilson was a no-show, echoing recent public remarks of hers that she wasn't being treated fairly by the South Florida news media.
Fairly? 
OMG!

That's rich considering the extent to which the South Florida news media, esp. female reporters, indulge her and treat Wilson, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen like Easter Eggs made of 24-carat gold -with kid gloves.
Yet even that sort of deferential treatment is NOT up to the standards that Wilson thinks she's entitled to -what a delusional woman!

And just as delusional are her Democratic Party allies and acolytes scattered around South Florida who for reasons that are hard to figure, have swallowed the Kool-Aid and never seem to tire of making excuses for her odd words and actions, and her even more frequent absences from the job she was elected to, where Wilson has one of THE highest absentee rates in the entire current Congress, almost four times higher than average.

(For the record, I've never lived in an area of the United States before where the female reporters were so consistently deferential to elected officials, esp. to women officials. Sometimes, if you didn't know better, it's almost like they're auditioning to be press secretary. Jonetta Rose Barras, whom I read and listened to on WAMU-FM's "D.C. Politics Hour" for all 15 years I was in D.C. 1988-2003, would positively lacerate the current crop of pols, male and female, and eat the current wimpy female reporters down here for breakfast -or a late morning snack. Especially at the Herald! Sadly, there's nobody even remotely like her down here, cause boy could we ever use about two dozen of her clones scattered around the area to change the current sleepwalking news ethos down here.)

In the 19 months that she has been in office, Wilson's said nothing and done nothing of substance, and if she had health problems again, her staff would function just as well and hardly anyone would be the wiser.

To me, having grown-up down here and having been intimately involved with the Democratic Party in Dade County starting in 1976, and having lived and worked in the Washington, D.C,. area for 15 years and having come to know many congressman and their staffs very well, practically knowing the House and Senate buildings like the palm of my hand, Wilson, sadly, is, in part, the logical result of years of declining news standards and so many experiences reporters leaving.

People with institutional knowledge of people, places and things who wouldn't put up with BS from anyone, much less, elected officials like her who think they can skate.
In short, the old-fashioned reporters who would do many stories in a day, even if you only saw one actually air on the local evening newscast.

Compared to many other large cities where TV reporters and their investigative mind-set literally infuse a station's DNA despite the normal staff turnover that occurs, because, for better or worse, this has been a launching pad for careers, we have a very small number of reporters who don't need to be asked to set people straight on the facts and the history of the area when someone starts dissembling.

(It's the news version of the unfortunate phenomenon we've seen in sports coverage and sports radio in the Miami area the past twenty years, where there are simply far too many people from New York and New Jersey running things and getting air-time who came down here after Hurricane Andrew, and whose knowledge of South Florida sports history comes almost entirely second-hand thru ESPN or Sunday or Monday Night NFL telecasts. Not that this wasn't always a second-tier sports town, though, because it was, but the Herald's sports section decline for the past 15 years sure hasn't helped things, and is just one of the more tangible signs of the decline. So much technology to make things better for readers, yet so much backwardness and lack of feel for the area. And the four English language local TV sports coverage for a typical week, collectively, is worse than what the old WTVJ-TV Channel 4 of sports director Bernie Rosen would produce on a single 6 p.m. Friday night telecast before a big Dolphins game, when the tension and excitement around town was palpable. Now, well, no thanks! It's worse than awful!)

If this no-show by Wilson were actually surprising news, I'd have posted this Sunday afternoon after the show aired and her craven refusal to show-up and be subjected to some scrutiny would get the good once-over it deserves.
But it was no surprise that she was a no-show, since she's one of the biggest no-shows in Congress when it comes to votes, as I've mentioned here previously, as well as in the Herald.

It's really a damn shame that the City of Aventura in Northeast Miami-County isn't part of her new FL-24/old FL-17 Congressional District like it ought to be, and is instead, like before the recent redistricting, part of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's.

Then we could see what happens when some of the many, many people in Aventura who have the smarts, political savvy and financial means to put their money where their mouth is -and then some!- could blitz the area with deadly precise commercials detailing Wilson's many failures and deconstruct the fact that in Washington, she is a nobody with no influence and no knowledge that anybody else in Congress respects or admires.

She's a walking, talking cliche and seemingly afraid of having smart people ask hard questions where she can't weasel her way out with preposterous statements.
Very sad.

IF she had shown-up, and I never thought she would once I heard Michael Putney say on Saturday night's telecast -or was it Friday's?- that he'd have Wilson and Moise in studio for his Sunday show, I'd have posted screen grabs and given you the link to watch the show yourself, wherever you are in the world.

Citizens in the new FL-24 with low social mobility and with bleak economic prospects deserve better than Wilson in Congress, and at least deserved an opponent who could bring home the fact how unsuccessful and unpersuasive Frederica Wilson is in Washington, D.C. 
Chronicle her career arc in Washington this far as Congresswoman as circus clown...
If only...

Now, after her win Tuesday night, they are stuck with one of the least-effective members of Congress for another two years.
My condolences,

I used to be you, but now that I'm in the new FL-23, I can vote against DWS for the first time in 83 days, and vote against her I will.
With enthusiasm.
----------

Some recent -but not all- past posts about Rep. Frederica Wilson are here:


TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011
NOT Breaking News: Rep. Frederica Wilson still holds common sense, FL-17 constituents & taxpayers 'hostage': Spend, spend, spend and MORE TAXES!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

Biggest journalistic scandal re Rep. Andre Carson's comments in Miami is So. FL reporters snoozing while news 'breaks' right in front of them!; Rep. Frederica Wilson, outlier at her own meeting, lets jobs meeting degenerate

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011

Ten days after Obama's speech, no Florida Democrat in U.S. House has sponsored Obama Jobs Bill -Wilson, DWS, Deutsch, Hastings, Castor...

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Obama Isn't Working: Florida; When is FL-17's Wilson signing-on as a sponsor of Obama's doomed jobs bill to at least be consistent in her bad choices?

SUNDAY, JULY 29, 2012

By any reasonable measure, FL-17's Frederica Wilson is ineffective in Washington, D.C. -except for drawing negative attention to herself for her silly hat fixation, which renders her a cartoon. Why does the South Florida news media continue to give Wilson a "hall pass" and never PRESS her to answer serious questions? Mutuality of interests! Wilson doesn't want to be asked tough questions and the press corps DOESN'T want to ask them!

By any reasonable measure, FL-17's Frederica Wilson is ineffective in Washington, D.C. -except for drawing negative attention to herself for her silly hat fixation, which renders her a cartoon. Why does the South Florida news media continue to give Wilson a "hall pass" and never PRESS her to answer serious questions? Mutuality of interests! Wilson doesn't want to be asked tough questions and the press corps DOESN'T want to ask them!

By any reasonable measure, FL-17's Frederica Wilson is ineffective in Washington, D.C. -except for drawing negative attention to herself for her silly hat fixation, which renders her a cartoon. Why does the South Florida news media continue to give Wilson a "hall pass" and never PRESS her to answer serious questions? Mutuality of interests! Wilson doesn't want to be asked tough questions and the press corps DOESN'T want to ask them!

As of just a few days ago, according to THOMAS, the legislative database maintained by The Library of Congress, http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php the following are the 14 attempts at legislation sponsored by FL-17-Representative Frederica Wilson, who is my rep, since January of 2011, when she first took office.

Among the things you'll notice right away is that of the 14 bills -only two in 2012- 7 of the 14 have 2 co-sponsors or less, 5 of the 14 have NONE.
None!.

Of course, every Member has their relative strengths and weaknesses and as I learned from being there for 15 years, at one point, living five blocks from the U.S. Capitol, not all are cut out to be or are even interested in being writers of legislation, the THOMAS Jefferson.

That being the case, and her clearly not being of them, given the objective facts below, perhaps her strength is in persuading others.
I've heard that from her apologists.
Where's the evidence?

Can you name anyone in Congress who looks to Wilson to decide how they'll vote.
No, first because she has proven to be a very liberal Rubber Stamp, and secondly because last year she was one of THE most frequently absent Members in the whole country.
Again, not one of the worst for the Florida delegation, one of THE worst for the entire U.S. House of Representatives.

When did you ever hear this fact mentioned on a local newscast on Channel 4, 6, 7 or 10?

And where was the Miami Herald?

Well, as has been their tried-and-true template for the past few years, their go-to strategy for how they've dealt with members of Congress that it doesn't want to offend, as was the case recently when the Herald completely ignored New England reporters calling-out Debbie Wasserman-Schultz self-evident hypocrisy to her face re her tax returns, not wanting to say anything negative about her, the Herald said nothing and printed nothing.

They just played the waiting game. 

So, rather than note the hypocrisy when it actually happens -you know, reporting?- the powers-that-be just say let's wait a bit.

It was the same with Kendrick Meek dozens of times, and even supporters of his knew this.

Again, when his successor, Frederica Wilson, wound-up with one of THE worst attendance records in the entire U.S. Congress last year, the Herald waited forever to mention it -this year!

About her 2011 attendance!

Nothing about it when it was actually happening!

Why?

Yes, Wilson had surgery in November, but what about the first ten months of 2011?

Again, not among the worst attendance records for Florida, among THE very worst for the entire 435-person Congress.

That's a question that the Herald/McClatchy reporters and columnists in DC and Miami never asked Wilson to explain.

So where was she?

Yes, it seems that no matter where your faithful blogger looks or turns, whether at Hallandale Beach City Hall, the State Capitol in far-off Tallahassee, with carpet-bagger state Rep. Joe Gibbons and state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, or with U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson in Washington, D.C., he is over-represented by ineffective Rubber Stamps with no history of being serious and thoughtful statesmen, where being effective and right on public policy is more important than party.

*Reminder: as a result of congressional redistricting, a subject of so much discussion on this blog the past 18 months, FL-17 is morphing into the new FL-23, as my new Voters's Registration card from the Supervisor of Elections reminded me when it came in the mail a week ago.

1. H.R.2574 : Jobs Now Act of 2011

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 7/18/2011)      Cosponsors (None) 

Committees: House Education and the Workforce 

Latest Major Action: 9/8/2011 Referred to House subcommittee. 
Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.

2. H.R.2575 : Drive to Stay Alive Act of 2011

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 7/18/2011)      Cosponsors (2) 

Committees: House Transportation and Infrastructure 

Latest Major Action: 7/19/2011 Referred to House subcommittee. 
Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.

3. H.R.2582 : Homeowners' Defense Act of 2011

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 7/19/2011)      Cosponsors (None) 

Committees: House Financial Services 

Latest Major Action: 8/22/2011 Referred to House subcommittee. 
Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity.

4. H.R.2723 : Social Security Protection Act of 2011

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 8/1/2011)      Cosponsors (15) 

Committees: House Rules 

Latest Major Action: 8/1/2011 Referred to House committee. 
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Rules.

5. H.R.2724 : Medicaid Protection Act of 2011

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 8/1/2011)      Cosponsors (10) 

Committees: House Rules 

Latest Major Action: 8/1/2011 Referred to House committee. 
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Rules.

6. H.R.2725 : Medicare Protection Act of 2011

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 8/1/2011)      Cosponsors (10) 

Committees: House Rules; House Budget 

Latest Major Action: 8/1/2011 Referred to House committee. 
Status: Referred to the Committee on Rules, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

7. H.R.2726 : Education Protection Act of 2011

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 8/1/2011)      Cosponsors (10) 

Committees: House Rules; House Budget 

Latest Major Action: 8/1/2011 Referred to House committee. 
Status: Referred to the Committee on Rules, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

8. H.R.2727 : People's Act of 2011

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 8/1/2011)      Cosponsors (10) 

Committees: House Rules; House Budget 

Latest Major Action: 8/1/2011 Referred to House committee. 
Status: Referred to the Committee on Rules, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

9. H.R.3507 : Cease Haitian Deportations Act

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 11/22/2011)      Cosponsors (None) 

Committees: House Judiciary; House Foreign Affairs 

Latest Major Action: 12/2/2011 Referred to House subcommittee. 
Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement.

10. H.R.3595 : Mandatory Foreclosure Mediation Act

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 12/7/2011)      Cosponsors (1) 

Committees: House Financial Services 

Latest Major Action: 1/12/2012 Referred to House subcommittee. 
Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity.

11. H.R.3741 : Rilya Wilson Act

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 12/20/2011)      Cosponsors (109) 

Committees: House Ways and Means; House Judiciary 

Latest Major Action: 1/6/2012 Referred to House subcommittee. 
Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

12. H.RES.371 : Expressing support for designation of a "Hear My Cry Day" in schools across the United States.

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 7/25/2011)      Cosponsors (None) 

Committees: House Education and the Workforce 

Latest Major Action: 7/25/2011 Referred to House committee. 
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

13. H.RES.521 : Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States should work with the Government of Haiti to address gender-based violence against women and children.

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 1/23/2012)      Cosponsors (55) 

Committees: House Foreign Affairs 

Latest Major Action: 2/3/2012 Referred to House subcommittee. 
Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.

14. H.RES.581 : Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the continued deployment of United States military support personnel advising regional forces working toward the apprehension of Joseph Kony is both necessary and appropriate.

Sponsor: Rep Wilson, Frederica [FL-17] (introduced 3/9/2012)      Cosponsors (None) 

Committees: House Foreign Affairs 

Latest Major Action: 3/9/2012 Referred to House committee. 
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The curious case of Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar's Tweets, which, for me, are more revealing for what they DON'T say

Above, the cover of Broward County Commission candidate Marty Kiar's recent four-page direct mail to NW Broward County voters. If you think that a mailing with this cover would be light on ideas or issues, esp. those involving the County Commission, the group he wants to join, you'd be right. But then have you read his tweets? 

Over the past nine months, for the most part, if you didn't know any better, you'd never even guess that  Kiar lived in Broward County, because whether it's the issue of ethics and scruples or rather the obvious lack of them at times on the County and municipal level here by elected officials and well-paid administrators and employees, the overwhelming evidence that red-light cameras in Broward are being used primarily as revenue generators for cities instead of for the public safety purposes elected officials say they are when installing them, the County's curious garbage contract monopoly, Broward County Commissioners fighting term-limits overwhelmingly voted in as law by Broward citizens, et al, Kiar never mentions important public policy matters that were actually being publicly discussed and voted upon in THIS county -and what he thinks about them. But then again, he is only 34-years old.

I find it very troubling that considering all the advantages that he enjoys, he's SO MUCH of a blank slate instead of being a more fully-formed and informed citizen. I seriously hope that voters living in District 8 will see more civic-minded candidates entering the race in the next four weeks, people who are NOT as tied-in to the Status Quo society in this county as Kiar is, so they can have at least one candidate to consider who will not only know the facts and know their own mind, but NOT hedge what they publicly says now because of being SO CONCERNED about election campaigns in the future, as Kiar seems to be. April 22, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Did you see Marty Kiar's tweet about why FL Fair Districts & the FL Democrats NEVER made public -and submitted- their Redistricting maps when they had the chance?
Actually, he never did.

Not once.

http://twitter.com/#!/repmartinkiar

On the other hand, Kiar, who, as I wrote the other day here, is running for the Broward County Comm. District 8 seat currently held by term-limited Ilene Lieberman, never neglected to tell us what he perceived to be very important insider info on all sorts of matters.


Things like how many miles he ran that day in preparation for running in a marathon, and how many doors he knocked on -he actually did it during Dolphins home loss to Tebow-led Broncos and a later home win against Buffalo- mentioned that he was at various state Redistricting meetings around the state and, even -wait for it- the sex of his unborn child, the latter being a fact that nobody outside of his family and immediate circle of friends could possibly care about... and TMI.


On October 19th of last year he even tweeted a link to an Orlando Sentinel editorial about two companion bills dealing with the public's right to speak to elected officials at public meetings that he and Sen. Joe Negron of Stuart offered, Senate Bill 206 and HB 355. 
Bills that I and almost everyone reading this blog would wholeheartedly agree with, in my case, because of what I and my friends and other HB residents have had to deal with for years at Hallandale Beach City Hall.
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=47498


Let citizens be heard by their government
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-10-20/news/os-ed-public-meeting-speakers-102011-20111019_1_citizens-appeals-bodies


Unfortunately, both bills died the first week of March. 
How come he never tweeted about that?



NEGRON BILL GUARANTEEING RIGHT TO SPEAK AT PUBLIC MEETINGS DIES IN HOUSE
www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/mar/13/bill-guaranteeing-right-to-speak-at-public-dies/


(Residency-challenged Rep. Frank Artiles of House 119 voted against it on 2/3/12 in the Rulemaking & Regulation Subcommittee, but it still passed 12-3.)



Similarly, he tweets that he ran the Disney Marathon but, incredulously, doesn't give his time.
Really.


As someone with a sister who runs in a lot of marathons across the country, I can say with little chance of being wrong that Marty Kiar may be the first person in the history of Twitter -at least in South Florida- to run a marathon, mention it in a tweet but NOT give his time, even if it isn't a PR.

He mentions the sex of his soon-too-be second child but the subject of Democratic-drawn maps that conformed to the two Constitutional Amendments that were overwhelmingly approved by Florida voters, something that was in the news about every day for a couple of months, he tweets nothing about?
Yes.

That's very curious when you consider that for better than a year, we were all told over-and-over by the members of the Florida news media that the people running Fair Districts Florida wanted us to know that they were really looking out for all our best interests after we came thru and gave them the big election victories, but on the other hand, they also wanted us to know that the Florida GOP, on the other hand, well, you know them.

They'll do nothing but try to obfuscate and prevent the people of this state from ever seeing competitive districts drawn for a change so that real ideas and issues might matter more than PAC contributions or a candidates race, ethnicity or religion.
You know the Florida GOP, they said with a sly wink, they'll keep up the long and treasured Sunshine State tradition of pols choosing their districts, rather than have voters choose them, the way it was always explained in high school Social Studies books once upon a time.

Yet what did THEY do?

So now that it's the first week of May and state legislative elections with the Republican-drawn court-approved maps will be held in six months, how come Fair Districts Florida and the Florida Democratic Party STILL haven't explained to the public why they NEVER officially submitted maps to the Florida Senate Redistricting Comm.?

Why?

And better yet, why doesn't the Mainstream News Media in this state, the nation's fourth-largest I remind you, care a whit about that, and never mention that salient fact in their stories about the court siding with the Florida GOP and what those new maps mean?

Not just real competition in some cases, but incumbents running against one another, always a good thing?

It's like they all have a bad case of situational amnesia, and are feigning not knowing what I and many of you reading this already know.

It's galling, just like Kiar's precious tweets.

Yes, it's not only a case of late with the Florida Democratic Party being the dog that doesn't hunt, but when you toss in the incurious state news media to the mix, it's a case of the watchdog that never barks.

Which would make it a lapdog, not a bulldog.


-----
Educating Martin Kiar
http://smashedfrog.blogspot.com/2009/06/educating-martin-kiar.html 

When, if ever, is the sleepwalking South Florida news media going to demand that Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar publicly answer questions about how his one precinct in Davie was the one placed in District 1? The silence on this matter is positively deafening, but the questions WON'T go away

Above, the middle two pages of the Martin Kiar for County Commission direct mail sent out recently that includes petition forms to get him on the ballot. In Hallandale Beach, after the city had a policy forever of accepting  petitions in lieu of a nominal fee for city candidates, the City Clerk's office has suddenly said that it no longer could accept them because there's no basis for them under current law. April 24, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. 

When, if ever, is the sleepwalking South Florida news media going to demand that Broward County Comm. candidate Marty Kiar publicly answer questions about how his one precinct in Davie was the one placed in District 1? 
The silence from him on this matter is positively deafening, but the questions WON'T go away.


It's now officially less than 27 weeks until Election Day 2012.


In the six months since Florida state House member Martin "Marty" Kiar first publicly announced that he was going to run for term-limited Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman's District 1 seat in November, AFTER the Florida Senate District he had his heart set on running for was redrawn by the state legislature in a way that would've proved particularly nettlesome for him by including much more of Palm Beach County, as an interested bystander who can't vote for or against him, I've waited patiently for Kiar to fully explain something pretty fundamental to the people of Broward County.


Waited patiently... and then some.
Just like many of you reading this post.


But now that it's less than 27 weeks and with no sign that he is going to do the right thing on his own, I feel that I need to ask this publicly?
Just when-oh-when is Kiar going to level with everyone in the area and fully explain to the public's satisfaction at a press conference -with serious reporters who show-up fully-prepared like Michael Putney- how the particular Davie precinct he lives in came to be the only one in the city carved-out in such a curious way that he's able to run for Lieberman's seat?


Not answered via a Tweet or via a publicist's press release, and not answered via a private telephone conversation with Broward Democratic Party head Mitch Caesar or to one of Kiar's 
supporters or godfathers in the community who think he's a swell guy, and then relayed to the public and news media.
Not at a press avail, but a real live press conference.


At a press conference when questions are asked and logical and reasonable answers are expected in response, without some intermediary choosing which questions get asked.


It's hardly an encouraging sign of getting to the entire truth of the matter -with all the facts revealed- much less, a sign of responsible enterprise journalism, that as of today, May 2nd, the Miami Herald has yet to even mention in print anything at all about Kiar actually going to the Broward County Government Center and signing-in to talk to Comm. Lieberman about redistricting.


Given that sad fact, you'll hardly be surprised when I tell you that the Herald has also yet to print anything at all about Kiar's lone Davie precinct being placed in County Commission District 1 at the County Commission's December 13th meeting.
Really.


Even more embarrassing for the Herald, despite the upcoming election and the matters coming up before the Broward Commission so far this year, here we are one-third of the way thru the year and there has NOT been a single article penned by an actual Herald reporter mentioning either Kiar or Lieberman.


The one thing that has appeared in print this year in the Herald about the curious Marty Kiar map was one of those shared pieces by Brittany Wallman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and that was mostly about former Commissioner Ken Keechl running from another District, and didn't even appear until January 19th, five long weeks after the December 13th meeting that decided the matter.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/19/2598173/suddenly-defeated-broward-commissioner.html


Why was the Herald completely sleeping on this subject of Broward redistricting, just like they completely took a siesta on Lieberman's curious involvement with the stacked Broward County Courthouse Task Force a few years ago, which I wrote about here frequently?


You'll recall that the Herald's 'reporting' at the time, as such, consisted of small and insignificant semi-articles that were exactly the sort of one-sided, pro-new Courthouse pieces that the Broward legal community, esp. the judges, desperately wanted to see, with zero serious discussion of the costs and justification, much less, the issue of the County Commission going directly around the back of Broward taxpayers to push it thru.
Try to find those sycophantic Herald articles now!


You'll sooner find buried treasure at the former site of Pirate's World in Dania.


But then regular readers of the blog will recall that one of my many complaints in my December and January emails and subsequent blog posts here to Herald publisher David Landesberg and Executive Editor Rick Hirsh, concerned the Herald's feeble and non-existent coverage of Broward's redistricting, even while they were putting stories about Miami-Dade's on the front page.


It seems awfully curious to me that for an area that likes to claim that it's politically sophisticated and not a political or media backwater, this fundamental fact of how the Kiar map came into being out-of-nowhere has been allowed to go on and on, with Kiar just skating on this like he's Hans Brinker.


Especially considering how much Kiar's loyal supporters love to pepper blogs, both popular and obscure, with comments about how different he is from the other pols in this county, where a general culture of cronyism, corruption and short-cuts had already left its scars visible even before I returned to South Florida in late 2003.


To me, given who Kiar is and what he has done, and what we need in Broward now, he's the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kiar is going to be only 35 this year and has been in political office since he was 29, a few years out of law school.

What else has he done with himself?

Where else has he lived?

What has he experienced that's out of the norm?
Where's any evidence that he has anything other than the usual Broward Democratic  point-of-view on the proper role of government?


Based just on the publicly-available facts, Kiar's has been the very definition of a parochial and sheltered existence, the personable son of the town's mayor and city attorney.

It's all very well if small coal towns in rural Pennsylvania or Ohio or agricultural towns in Missouri find that sort of insularity comforting, maybe even heartening, but for Broward County to change and become what it needs to be in the 21st Century, in my opinion, it needs MORE serious responsible people who've actually lived elsewhere and seen different ways of doing things, and who have a personal track record of doing something tangible to make a positive difference, to boot.


To be honest, I don't personally consider signing your name onto legislation in Tallahasse that's practically written by the special interests, whether Democratic or Republican, and parrot talking points to be substantial, esp. when you never have to deal with the responsibilities of being in the majority and actually produce something, rather than playing the role of irritant.


To me, Kiar seems very... well, almost like a caricature of the typical Broward politician in the year 2012 -the familiar connections to the same powerful people and the same knee-jerk loyalties to the system that produced them.


(Except in his case, right now, Kiar has the burden of appearing to me to be both unformed and underwhelming, not unlike the worst and most troubling aspects of deceitful Hallandale Beach City Comm. Alexander Lewy, who not only lacks Kiar's personable friendliness, but who continues to mistake his own overweening ambition as a substitute for a personality, and who continues to tell people whatever he thinks they want to hear. Lewy's always playing the angles.)


I'm sorry, but I don't think that in the year 2012, given the stakes, you can't just vote for someone for political office because of their pleasing personality, otherwise, when tough and unpopular decisions need to be made, and they need to be persuasive with both their colleagues and the public in explaining why there's still more pain ahead, why would they suddenly show backbone and resolve when they've always used personality, not logic, to get things done?

In my opinion, however smart, clever or friendly Kiar may be, he doesn't really add anything

to the mix that is the Broward County Commission that's currently missing.
Another lawyer?
Really?


Broward County desperately needs elected officials and agency chiefs with vision who aren't  satisfied with the smug, status quo mediocrity we see all over the place here. 
It needs people who will perform genuine oversight over county spending and demand real accountability that doesn't give the benefit of the doubt to people (and their cronies) who always think that appropriating more money is the right answer.


Today's news tells the sad tale and why what I've said is true:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Auditor: Broward too loose with 'other people's money'

By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel

6:37 p.m. EDT, May 1, 2012

Broward County loosened controls on the public purse to the point that checks were paid with no documentation proving they should be, the county's independent auditor found.

The weak oversight of what one commissioner called OPM – Other People's Money – was so alarming, County Auditor Evan Lukic said he didn't wait to conclude his audit and immediately notified top county leaders.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-broward-financial-alarm-20120501,0,3573544.story


Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-broward-financial-alarm-20120501/10


From my perspective, it's hard to shake the notion that Kiar is part and parcel of the same get-along gang that operates between Broward Blvd., the beach, and the County Courthouse that got us all into this mess in the first place, a crew that is NOT at all trusted or respected by well-informed Broward residents precisely because of how often their interests have taken priority over the community's, with the new County Courthouse debacle being Exhibit A.


Where was Marty Kiar's voice on that issue? 
Or, more recently, the Bank Atlantic arena bailout for the Florida Panthers?

Fact: There is no public record of Kiar saying anything on behalf of Broward's beleaguered taxpayers on these two issues involving millions and millions of dollars.

And seriously, not to laugh out loud here while I write this, but when you think about all the genuine problems this county has to solve in transforming itself into a dynamic area with a well-balanced economy that's NOT so dependent on hospitality-related jobs, and then look at Kiar's campaign lit above, and see that "supporting worker rights" is the second thing he lists, wow, it just shows all over again his very poor judgement and how myopic his world view really is.

Preserving the county government  bureaucracy as it is, and the money-train pension system that Broward taxpayers are slowly being strangled by at the county and city level, is NOT what most Broward voters are in favor of.

There's nothing there about increased accountability, more transparency or better efficiency.

Tell me if this sounds at all familiar:

A party functionary who occasionally made faux claims to reform is elected, grows to love power so much that they are quickly blind to their own numerous flaws and become even more part of the dysfunctional system... Ann Murray.
'Nuff said.


Even with term limits, Broward County taxpayers don't need more young career-politicians-in-training getting burrowing into the system when they are 35, especially ones who've done so little of genuine significance and are NOT associated with any innovative ideas or ways of thinking.
More defenders of the status quo are precisely NOT what we need more of on S. Andrews Avenue.


-----

BrowardBeat

State Rep. Marty Kiar’s Future in Limbo Because of Redistricting

By Buddy Nevins

December 4, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-marty-kiars-future-in-limbo-because-of-redistricting/

BrowardBeat

Gerrymander! County Commission Carves Out A Seat For State Rep. Marty Kiar

By Buddy Nevins

December 16, 2011

http://www.browardbeat.com/marty-kiar-extremely-likely-to-run-for-county-commission/

Red Broward blog

Marty Kiar Met Ilene Lieberman Just Hours Before Redistricting Vote

December 19, 2011

http://redbroward.com/2011/12/19/marty-kiar-met-ilene-lieberman-just-hours-before-redistricting-vote/

*****Reader "Independent" has it right when they wrote in response:

"However, if you watch the meeting, Lieberman submitted right at the end a new map, which is posted, and with no public input. The hand drawn map was written specifically for Kiar, and it couldn’t pass cause it the district would be way too large. Then they worked out the Ritter-Lieberman-Jacobs Amendment. And then it appears she voted against her own agreed amendment."

BrowardBeat

Martin Kiar: I’m Running For Commission

By Buddy Nevins

January 3rd, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/martin-kiar-im-running-for-commission/

BrowardBeat

Lauderhill’s Kaplan Drops Out of County Commission Race  

By Buddy Nevins

January 5, 2012

http://www.browardbeat.com/lauderhills-kaplan-drops-out-of-county-commission-race/

Miami Herald 

Naked Politics blog

Rep. Martin Kiar will seek Broward County Commission seat

By Steve Bousquet of Tampa Bay Times

January 17, 2012

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/01/rep-kiar-will-seek-broward-commission-seat.html