Wednesday, October 19, 2022

The Korn Conundrum: Broward School Board At-Large candidate Donna Korn, who's already been removed by Gov. Ron DeSantis bec of a Grand Jury's recommendations, remains unpopular with the public and unable to defend her track record. But her opponent, Allen Zeman, is not just someone who is largely unknown, but has a troubling history of claiming things to be true that are NOT. Of actually lying with impunity. What should Broward County voters do?

The Broward County Public Schools HQ, home of the Broward School Board, long the hotbed of flat-out unethical behavior, egregious cronyism, and corruption of the sort that you seldom see in the 21st Century

The Korn Conundrum: Broward School Board At-Large candidate Donna Korn, who's already been removed by Gov. Ron DeSantis because of a Grand Jury's recommendations -which were not publicly released because several Board members fought their public release- remains unpopular with the general public and seems unable to defend her track record in-person. 

The problem for voters aas well as Broward County parents, students and taxpayers is that Korn's opponent, Allen Zeman, is not just someone who is largely unknown to the residents of Florida's fourth-largest county, but someone whom it fairly be said to have a troubling history of claiming things to be true that are... NOT. Some people even say he lies with impunity.

How many people do you know who'd claim that they'd been promoted to Admiral quicker than anyone in the history of the U.S. Navy? Who would even think of saying such a thing?
Tom Lauder of Red broward has been all over this story even as most of the South Florida news media have taken a pass on holding Zeman to account, to say nothing of asking why Korn is running for an office largely on a campaign based on campaign signs.. 

So, what should Broward County voters do?

*I'll be updating this post over the next 24-48 hours, as my first draft of this post crashed with some interesting info somehow not saved, so I'm basically reinventing the wheel on this. 😒

Here's a small look at how it's going thus far from my perch on the At-Large seat, watching with dismay that the choices are so dismal and unappealing.
And I haven't even posted my words and concerns about how many people I know who find the unappealing District One Broward School Board race between Marie Murray Martin, daughter of disgraced recent School Board member Ann Murray, subject of dozens of fact-filled columns here at the blog in the past, and Rod Velez, endorsed by The South Florida Sun Sentinel but someone not without his own ethical problems staring us in the face. 
That post re District 1 will be posted within the next week

Some of the most fervent and opinionated independent-minded education activists as well as Deep Blue Broward Democrats I know have told me that under no circumstances will they vote for any of these four candidates because they, literally, do NOT want to be blamed for having thrown them a lifeline. 
When I joked with them that they were engaging in a  little bit of pro-active election denialism -which is a favorite go-to subject on PBS' News Hour show- even BEFORE the votes are counted while the never-ending early voting takes place.
They laughed -weakly- at hearing that because they know how it makes them look sort of hypocritcal, but they literally want these four people to just... disappear.

Sort of like those Donna Korn campaign signs on high-traffic Hallandale beach Blvd. disappeared that I reference below, based on my own first-hand observations.
I'll have a column about the Murray vs. Velez race here within the week.


While some of you were sleeping the past few weeks...






 All from RED BROWARD @RedBroward:

September  21, 2022
“Admiral” Allen Zeman Tells Sun-Sentinel He Had “Admiral Rank”
https://redbroward.com/2022/09/21/admiral-allen-zeman-tells-sun-sentinel-he-had-admiral-rank/#comments

September 20, 2022
“Admiral” Allen Zeman Hired Roger Stone “Protégé” To Work On His Broward School Board Campaign
https://redbroward.com/2022/09/20/admiral-allen-zeman-hired-roger-stone-protege-to-work-on-his-broward-school-board-campaign/

August 19, 2022
Admiral Z-Man?!? Broward School Board Candidate Allen Zeman Says He Was “Promoted To The Admiral Rank Faster Than Anybody In The History Of The Navy.”
https://redbroward.com/2022/08/19/admiral-z-man-broward-school-board-candidate-allen-zeman-says-he-was-promoted-to-the-admiral-rank-faster-than-anybody-in-the-history-of-the-navy/

I'll be updating this post over the next 24-48 hours, as my first draft of this post crashed with some interesting info not saved, so I'm basically reinventing the wheel on this. 😒

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Monday, October 10, 2022

There's something about Tiffany Smiley... Washington state's GOP Senate candidate has a certain je-ne-said-quoi and the kind of moxie that people find very appealing in a candidate and a spouse. She has an IT factor that even Democrats can see -and fear.


  
There's something about Tiffany Smiley... Washington state's GOP Senate candidate has a certain je-ne-said-quoi and the kind of moxie that people find very appealing in a candidate and a spouse. She has an IT factor that even Democrats can see -and fear.

Well, it would indeed be an understatement for me to say this afternoon that I will, literally, have a FLOOD of very interesting, compelling and worthwhile pieces for you to read and ponder here on the blog over the next four weeks before the 2022 General Election finally arrives. Not only issues and races here in South Florida, the Sunshine State, but emerging ones or under-the-radar developing trends or personalities across the USA that you should be keeping your eyes on.





Today I'm sharing a few words about Tiffany Smiley, the GOP Senate candidate from Washington state. She is a remarkable woman whom I had only heard positive words about this summer. She upped that estimation by making a VERY positive first impression on me when I finally heard her LIVE. Apparently, judging by the polls coming out of distant Washington, with Seattle being a nice 3,300-plus miles drive from Miami, many other people across the country over the past week are NOW thinking about her prospects a LOT more seriously. People I know and respect and who are, themselves, about as devout and informed a news junkie and political addict as myself.
That sort of positive reaction makes me think my intuition about Smiley is correct and that the dynamic of the race is changing in her favor.

If you follow me regularly on my popular Twitter platform, @hbbtruth, you know that I've shared dozens of tweets and articles about interesting political personalities around the country I have "discovered" over the past year or so. Mostly novice candidates who have interesting or original backstories, and not the usual career politician or political family's latest legacy project, which I am no fan of for either Democrats or Republicans.


That said, in my opinion, Tiffany Smiley has made what I believe is by far the best candidate media appearance I've seen or heard in 2022, via the nationally-syndicated Clay Travis and Buck Sexton radio show this past Wednesday.

(Keep in mind that I have not watched C-SPAN in many months, which is something I thought I'd never say back when I used to watch 10-15 hours of it a week, so...)
 
Tiffany Smiley Is Winning Her Battle with Woke Seattle Corporations
Transcript of her October 5th appearance and links to some selected campaign videos therein.
https://www.clayandbuck.com/tiffany-smiley-is-winning-her-battle-with-woke-seattle-corporations/

In my informed opinion, Tiffany Smiley was, by turns, articulate, friendly and engaging, reasonable, calm and is genuinely interested in solving problems, not having problems that she can use to raise money from, a common trap among new GOP members who want to fit in.

She definitely did NOT sound like a jaded DC GOP political consultant captured by one of the usual interest groups that have long dominated the Republican Party at the national level, to the dismay of the GOP voters across the nation who believe in solutions, not endless policy debates about ten-point plans that take... five years. Yes, she sounds like an old-fashioned problem-solver.


(Keep in mind you newcomers to the blog that when I first moved to Washington, D.C. in the Winter of 1988, driving up on Super Tuesday in March after voting in the Florida primary, my first home there was just 5 blocks due east of the Capitol Building itself, and less than 200 feet from the sweet house of New York Senator Pat Moynihan.

I lived and worked in the Washington, D.C. area for almost 15 years, spending LOTS and LOTS of time every week on Capitol Hill. So much that I knew many of the most veteran Capitol Police officers by name AND face, knew all the Hill building/walking shortcuts, and sort of had a working mini-directory in my head for members and committees and staffers. I could tell you which House cafeteria was best at certain times of the day -too crowded versus too empty- and which Library of Congress copier machine in each of the three LOC buildings east and south of the capitol were dependable, and which ones were a lot like slot machines that would just cause you to lose your money with no chance of a payoff.)

I first met then Washington state Senator Patty Murray in 1992 while she was the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate for Washington state running against GOP House member Rod Chandler, a largely-unknown member outside of the Pacific Northwest, in the year after Incumbent Democratic Senator  Brock Adams chose not to run for re-election because of a very ugly sexual assault scandal.

Back in 1992, among other things, I was doing some work at Roll Call Newspaper, the twice-weekly tabloid-sized newspaper owned at the time by the former Chairman of the SEC. It covered Capitol Hill alone until The Hill came along years later. One afternoon it somehow fell to me to keep Patty Murray, the so-called "Mom in Tennis Shoes" amused and entertained for a bit while she waited for her important interview with Charlie Cook for The Cook Political Report.
This was back when he and his team of political campaign experts used to also be located in the same suite of offices as Roll Call, near Union Station, off of NE 1st Avenue, just a few blocks from the three Senate Office buildings: Russell, Dirksen and Hart.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, long story short, for decades Charlie Cook's analysis of a candidate's responses to his questions and their strategy/race tactics could literally change the popular perception to the national and state news media of what that candidate had been doing and saying for months, OVERNIGHT, if he was positively persuaded by what they had to say.

The reason for that is that important and well-heeled donors in both parties subscribed and paid real money to The Cook Political Report, and had learned to implicitly trust his judgment in 1,001 ways that they did NOT trust regular newspaper reporters or columnists, no matter how well-regarded.
His opinion could change the perception of a race from uncompetitive blowout to lean R or lean D to toss-up.

Well, long story short, Murray won her 1992 election and has been in the U.S. Senate for 30 years, 5 terms already.
Which is quite a lot for a female senator, though few will say that aloud, and of course, that brings on all sorts of questions about her energy levels and her ability to do the job as well as she once did, just as would be true with male senators who have been around as long as Murray.
Are they going thru the motions and cutting corners and tuning different POVs out?

But not every 30-year Senator has someone running against them with the kind of positive qualities, natural appeal and charism as Tiffany Smiley, while Murray is saddled with a a president of her own party polling in the mid-thirties range even in a Democratic-run state like Washington.
For months, even the Democratic-leaning Seattle Times' poll showed that more than twice as many Washington voters said they strongly disapprove of Biden’s job performance than said they strongly approve of him.

If you were to ask me who my super-strong political intuition feels is the most-likely Republican Senate candidate to wage an amazing upset over a longtime Democratic Party incumbent, I would say Tiffany Smiley.
IF she gets the kind of money she needs right now to make the moves that are necessary to win.
I really DO hope that is the case.

I strongly encourage you to not only listen to her interview above, but also read these two pieces from the past month.

Yahoo! News
Tiffany Smiley Would Be the GOP’s New Star, but She’s in the Wrong State
By Eleanor Clift
September 17, 2022


Wall Street Journal
Corporate dirty pool in Seattle
How the Seattle Times, Starbucks, and Seattle Seahawks are going after Tiffany Smiley... to the benefit of Patty Murray.
Potomac Watch column
by Kimberly Strassel
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=134925755951584&set=ecnf.100063465825750








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