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

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/

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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
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Instagram: @hbbtruth https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/
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The news story hiding in plain sight is often news that #SoFL newsrooms simply have no interest in covering, whether fairly or with bias. In any case, Rod Velez's legal qualifications to serve on Broward School Board will soon come to a head, as Gov. DeSantis may again have to replace an elected official in Broward County

The news story hiding in plain sight is often news that #SoFL media newsrooms simply have no interest in covering, whether fairly or with bias. In any case, Rod Velez's legal qualifications to take office on Broward School Board will come to a head soon, as Gov. DeSantis may again have to replace an elected official in Broward County.

For several weeks since the August 23rd primary election, the talk among Broward's political chattering class -and in the South Florida news media, to the the extent it ever appeared- had been about whether or not Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would AGAIN remove Donna Korn if she won the Broward School Board At-Large seat that was the subject of a runoff race last Tuesday vs. Allen Zeman. 

Their race, which Zeman won 51% to 49%, was the subject of a recent large group email blast of mine as well as a subsequent blog post here on Oct. 19th.

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?

https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-korn-conundrum-broward-school-board.html

But while that subject generated at least some attention, what had NOT been discussed publicly in the 1,001 ways that you would expect or anticipate for a subject as serious as whether or not a candidate was even qualified to run for elected office, were many facts coming to light via myriad stories and rumors re Broward School Board District 1 Rod Velez, and his eligibility status to represent Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and Dania Beach if he was, in fact, elected, as a result of a prior felony conviction.

Things first began to dribble out a few weeks ago from his opponent in the runoff, Marie Murray Martin, the daughter of former District One incumbent Ann Murray, who was one of the four School Board members removed in late August by DeSantis, who was running to replace her mother. 

Using her Facebook campaign page and other Social Media of her mother, friends and supporters in SE Broward and elsewhere, Martin was successfully able to get uncorroborated information about Velez into the sunshine and online that local Miami and Fort Lauderdale- based news media had ignored reporting publicly in the ways that, well, they have literally patented over the past 25 years.

(As I have written since starting this blog in 2007, having previously lived in Chicago and Washington, D.C. and knowing dozens of well-known Beltway journalists, columnists and 

editors at top-tier news organizations well enough to go to ball games, movies with them, or, attend barbecues at their homes, no media market in the USA more avidly ignores reporting 

more stories of public interest and consideration than the South Florida news media, print and TV. They think that TOO!

Too many "reporters" here act like wannabe-corporate publicists for the powerful, affluent and influential, not curious investigative reporters, or, at least semi-skeptical representatives of the public pushing back consistently against the taxpayer-paid PIOs of South Florida about what is fact and what is fantasy.) 

That is to say, Marie Murray Martin ran to replace her mother on the Broward School Board dais WITHOUT ever speaking publicly or in-person at any event in Hollywood or Hallandale Beach the past few months about all the many ethics and corruption questions surrounding her mother for the past 12 years, to say nothing of the ones about her mother's consistently poor judgment and inability and unwillingness to tell the truth to area parents.

Or, to even look them in face without Murray having lots of BTU members around her -or Robert Runcie in tow- to run interference and keep the public quiet.

Ann Murray was notorious for being a no-show at education events in Hallandale Beach the past 16 years -even before she ran and got elected- as I have always been quick to remind readers here and my Followers on my Twitter feed, @hbbtruth. 

As you regular readers of the blog know well, ethically-challenged Ann Murray has been the subject of DOZENS of fact-filled and and photo-filled posts on this blog over the time she has been an embarrassing hand grenade of an elected official, always ready to explode in the faces of residents, parents and stakeholders in this area who want better quality education oversight and accountability.

A week before the election, perhaps sensing that the race was perhaps getting away from her, not surprisingly, a dam broke and a wall of unflattering information about Velez came gushing out, most of which was not independently corroborated. Little wonder where that was coming from, given the glaring apathy of the South Florida news media.

Now, in the days since the election where Velez won 52%-47%, there's finally some reporting.

Some, not much, and to be honest, WLRN radio barely counts.

Once upon a time it might've, especially before the pandemic, but that was YEARS ago.

When I lived and worked in Washington, D.C. from 1988-2003, I listened to NPR's D.C. affiliate, WAMU 91.3 FM, on average about 8 hours a day, Monday thru Friday.

That was largely because I was in an office setting most of the day when I wasn't in a meeting, over on Capitol Hill for a hearing or meeting or doing some handholding of a client over there or some nearby bar or restaurant.

But since I returned to South Florida, well, WLRN has become far too too smarmy, dupliitous, stridently liberal, and too predictable.

Even worse in my opinion, far too incurious or unwilling to challenge the Democratic government orthodoxy that has so badly served the public here for so long in ways large and small, whether housing, transportation, ethics, or business development.

These days, WLRN is more more like NPR's Junior Varsity, and their JV B team at that, with the same likes and dislikes, and the same fetishizing of some subjects and places beyond anything that makes sense. That is, if it's in Wynwood it gets on air, Hallandale Beach or Hollywood, no chance.

No chance at all!

WLRN is actually worse than Tampa Bay's NPR station, WUSF-FM, where they at least try to have someone on once in a while with an alternative POV.

Here, it's always the same names and same voices saying the same things that make no sense.

 

https://twitter.com/WLRN/status/1591036895437496320?s=20&t=k1Im-HncXEiPIgDlZ6OMrg

Now there's some informed talk among some usually-informed people here and in Tallahassee that Gov. DeSantis could simply say that the rules are the rules, and remove Velez and say that he was not in compliance with Florida law regarding former felons voting and being legally qualified to run for office.

Then, presumably, replace Velez with an interim person until another election can take place in a few months, since saying that he broke the law and leaving him in place is even more problematic for a guy like DeSantis, who clearly does not like unnecessary drama that can go sideways.

Here's a snapshot of some of what was going on this weekend while you were watching the Dolphins big 39-16 win against the Cleveland Browns or otherwise staying away from local politics and government.

https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1589378190300295168

https://twitter.com/RedBroward/status/1591913828715229186

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Dave 

David B. Smith  

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DavidSmith0215

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Travel Massive: https://travelmassive.com/dbsmith 

So where are the positive results and ROI of all the tens of thousands of dollars that Hallandale Beach CRA gave to FIU's Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival? South Florida news media collectively yawns.

 

So, I've got a bit of a secret to share with you loyal readers of the Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog today, just days before Christmas 2020. The COVID19 Christmas none of us wanted to go through.

Well, actually, it's NOT much of a secret. I mean, to be honest, it's been hiding in plain sight.
And certainly I've been talking about it to many people in emails, texts, and phone calls and in-person conversations at some of the handful of haunts in the area that were open and convenient for others to meet me over the past few months. Which includes a handful of the community-minded people reading this blog post today.

So here's the story in slightly more than a nutshell.
Hard-working and concerned residents and a few civic activists of Hallandale Beach -and to be fair, a few well-informed and concerned Broward County insiders who live elsewhere, like me in Hollywood- have been wondering for most of this year about a shoe that never seemed to fall from the sky.
Wondering, mostly, why nobody in the South Florida press corps was the least bit interested in investigating and reporting on YET ANOTHER Hallandale Beach CRA scandal that's been sitting there on a silver platter for nearly all of 2020, just waiting for someone to simply look at the self-evident facts and the public data, and metaphorically kick the tires and connect-the-dots.

Someone who would logically explain why, once again, the elected officials of Hallandale Beach were consciously choosing to spend many tens of thousands of dollars that the State of Florida mandates be used on matters centering chiefly on the removal of (self-evident) blight and slums in this city located in the SE corner of Broward County, right on the Atlantic Ocean. 

A city that should be, as I have argued for the soon-to-be 13 years of this blog, MUCH BETTER in all sorts of ways that matter to the people who live and work there and call it home, regardless of race, gender, political sensibility or economic status.

The people I know best and trust the most in Hallandale Beach are long past being tired of continual half-assed PR efforts to make unsatisfactory look passable, and deliberate stupidity look like a policy choice.

Specifically, they've been waiting for someone to investigate why tens of thousands of CRA dollars was given to the FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, for what, in the end, seems to have been... nothing but positive PR buzz.
Like self-publishing a vanity book using someone else's money.

No, there would be no unsightly, curb-unfriendly slums in Hallandale Beach to be razed, no HB neighborhoods that would be improved by this transaction.
But it would allow a handful of not-so-sharp elected officials in Broward to once again pat themselves on the back for imagining that they'd pulled the wool over the nearly 40,000 residents of the city and the perpetually sleepwalking news media of South Florida.
The same news media that somehow imagines that whatever happens in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, or over on Miami Beach, always seems to trump all other local news, no matter how banal or cringe-worthy those stories in those two places might be.

Since the local South Florida press corps didn't seem the least bit interested in investigating or reporting on this story involving bad to corrupt public policy and use of public funds, with a lot of curiosity and resolve, and fueled by some hazelnut coffee and a delicious steak + egg sandwich -with bacon!- I connected-the-dots on the latest #HallandaleBeach CRA scandal re $$$ given to #FIU + #SOBEWFF- in one afternoon at the Hollywood Panera Bread on Sheridan Street near where I live, all while listening to a college football game on the radio.

 

I'll be posting the results in 2021 right here on the blog.

I may even use this issue as a reason to once again start uploading some more original content to my YouTube Channel, after not doing that for many years.

I'd been itching to do that for month, as well as start posting more original content at Instagram, until #COVID19 struck and a lot of election year ideas and plans went by the wayside.

Dave

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hbbtruth/ 

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/david-bruce-smith-b945b376/

Travel Massive: https://travelmassive.com/dbsmith

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog     

https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1341464316533477388?s=20

Last minute Election Day thoughts about voting in Hallandale Beach, and the frustrating things I've seen there recently; Vote for common sense and experience: Maggie Ivanovski in Seat 3 Commission race

For you newcomers to the blog, a little recent history about the normal laws about political campaigning were routinely ignored, with photos that show it for all to see: 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2/ See the contemporaneous Twitter thread of the time connecting-the-dots to then-<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HallandaleBeach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HallandaleBeach</a> Comm. Sanders via photos + letters: <a href="https://t.co/jazEfak8bB">https://t.co/jazEfak8bB</a>,<br>and, the self-evident proof that both the <a href="https://twitter.com/MYHBeach?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MYHBeach</a> City Mgr. and <a href="https://twitter.com/BrowardIG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BrowardIG</a> ignored. 😒🙄🤨😠<a href="https://t.co/HGegEwgNBX">https://t.co/HGegEwgNBX</a> <a href="https://t.co/4d6zIxcWLU">pic.twitter.com/4d6zIxcWLU</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1322202177159503873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/politicofl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@politicofl</a> The spot-on <a href="https://twitter.com/NickNehamas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NickNehamas</a> + <a href="https://twitter.com/Blaskey_S?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Blaskey_S</a> followup re fake website: Prof. Hill <a href="https://twitter.com/MiamiLawSchool?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MiamiLawSchool</a>: &quot;the website appeared to violate state election laws that require political communications to disclose who paid for them...“ <br><br>Time to investigate! 🔍🔍<a href="https://t.co/IQsziAheeE">https://t.co/IQsziAheeE</a> <a href="https://t.co/8w7LdcwSG5">pic.twitter.com/8w7LdcwSG5</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1322022500042182659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The tumult of a nation divided by politics is spilling into the voting lines <a href="https://t.co/yoxmwvs550">https://t.co/yoxmwvs550</a></p>&mdash; Susannah Bryan (@Susannah_Bryan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Susannah_Bryan/status/1322972424921645057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Yakubovich has been INVISIBLE in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HallandaleBeach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HallandaleBeach</a> public policy but aims to use being President of 1 of 3 BeachClub condo towers on beach to his advantage. My nickname for him = Boris BadEnough, since his bellicose threats @ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EarlyVoting?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EarlyVoting</a> is both clownish yet VERY off-putting.</p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1322995262781071361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">When ppl said Yakubovich = a bully, I thought maybe he was just... headstrong. Nope! Late Sat. afternoon I heard him &#39;joking&#39; w/pals that bec he has support of HBPD union, he wld have ppl who disagreed w/him or called him a liar arrested. Who&#39;d be dumb enough to say that ALOUD?🤨 <a href="https://t.co/g8CJD2Ffjl">pic.twitter.com/g8CJD2Ffjl</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1323006641931980804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/MYHBeach?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MYHBeach</a> Do you think that for once, on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElectionDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElectionDay</a> night, bec polls close @ 7 pm, city cld actually make sure the street lights near <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HallandaleBeach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HallandaleBeach</a> Cultural Center, as well as HBCC&#39;s parking lot lights, are WORKING B4 it gets dark? Always been pitch black conditions in past!</p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1323011174397562883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/EdMorrissey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EdMorrissey</a> Your multiple criticisms of ineffective <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Dem?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Dem</a> efforts in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MiamiDade?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MiamiDade</a> = 100% correct. <br>Which suggests this <a href="https://twitter.com/NewYorker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NewYorker</a> article shld have come out 1 yr ago, no?<br><br>How Latino Grassroots Organizers Are Fighting to Lift <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Biden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Biden</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Florida?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Florida</a> <a href="https://t.co/WLZyy05xkg">https://t.co/WLZyy05xkg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/kausmickey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kausmickey</a></p>&mdash; HallandaleBeach/Hollywood Blog (@hbbtruth) <a href="https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1323015435571396611?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Another short reminder why I'm endorsing civic activist Maggie Ivanovski and encouraging you to vote for her for the Hallandale Beach City Commission, Seat 4.

Over a few visits to the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center last week where Early Voting was taking place, I saw for myself that the level of discord, animosity + PERSONAL THREATS was FAR WORSE than anything I've seen there in 15 years of being there for several hours a day.

Which supported all the things that i was hearing from people via emails and phone calls, that, to be fair, were anecdotal.

But when everyone keeps saying the samer thing, almost verbatim, maybe it's what's really happening, no?

Unfortunately, what I saw on the ground last week only confirmed what I'd been hearing -very egregious boarish behavior was the norm once you got anywhere near the HB Cultural Center parking lot or the one nearby at the closed Broward County Library, and the antagonists, well, again, no surprise.

Supporters of Joy Cooper, Annabelle Lima-Taub, and her her bellicose and boarish puppet, Dmitriy Yakubovich. He's got HUGE sense of entitlement!

Yakubovich has been an INVISIBLE presence in Hallandale Beach public policy at HB City Hall or in the larger community since he has been here, but it's very clear that he aims to use being President of one of the 3 BeachClub condo towers on beach to his advantage. 

My nickname for him after reading his material, what's been written abioyt him by others and then seeing him prowl the road between the Library and Cultural Center is Boris BadEnough, since his bellicose, loud-mouthed threats at Early Voting were both clownish yet VERY off-putting.

To be honest, I put all the early negative comments I heard by people I respect in Hallandale Beach re Yakubovich's bellicosity and preening sense of entitlement as, well, smoke. 

But then I saw him in action twice last week.

It's fair to say that when it comes to him, where there's smoke, there's a real fire.

When people said Yakubovich acted like a Russian bully, I thought maybe he was just... headstrong. Nope! 

Late Saturday afternoon I was near enough to Yakubovich to hear him 'joking' with some of his friends and supporters and some name personalities that because he had the support of the Hallandale Beach Police, i.e. their union, he would have people who disagreed with him or who called him a liar arrested. 

Honestly, who would be dumb enough to say that ALOUD in public?

And would you vote for them?

It takes all kinds, but Yakubovich is clearly someone who would not be the sort of positive change agent that HB City Hall desperately needs right now.

In the Group 3 Hallandale Beach City Commission race, you don't need to choose between the lesser of two evils... you can vote for the candidate with the experience of being a common sense, pro-citizen advocate at Hallandale Beach for longer than all of her opponents combined: Maggie Ivanovski.

Or, as I wrote last week:

https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2020/10/hallandale-beachs-sleazy-unethical.html  

Dave

Hallandale Beach/Hollywood Blog: http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/ 

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Longtime #HallandaleBeach civic activists and past supporters of Mayor #KeithLondon and Comm. #MicheleLazarow are DISMAYED and EMBARRASSED at what is taking place at City Hall now, with personal/political expediency trumping common sense and rational public discourse

Today's blog post serves as a logical follow-up to my last one regarding the long overdue arrest of longtime Hallandale Beach Mayor and despot Joy Cooper by the FBI on three felony counts and one misdemeanor count.

#schadenfreude - Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper's long-overdue public comeuppance and takedown for her despotic, authoritarian and corrupt reign at HB City Hall finally comes via an arrest by the FBI. Cooper's arrest suddenly awakens the long-slumbering South Florida news media to the high level of corruption and incompetency taking place there that I told you about at the time. So where were they? #ethics

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/schadenfreude-hallandale-beach-mayor.html

I regret that this post of mine today will necessarily be about one-fifth as long as I'd like for it to be, but I have had much less time over the weekend to work on it than expected because of another big writing project of mine that's considerably more important to me and my future long-term happiness than the latest jaw-dropping antics and escapades in Hallandale Beach, so this is what will have to suffice for now until a few more days pass and I can connect all the dots for you here on the blog.

Before I get into it, I remind you that a a candidate's debate is scheduled to take place tonight at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center from 6:30 until 9 PM, featuring the five candidates running to fill the term of disgraced former HB City Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders, whose resignation was NOT his idea, after the Broward Inspector General raised public questions about his fitness for office after they reported nothing but holes in his accounts of where $800,000 of HB CRA went -and why.
I will be at the debate so if you have not seen me in a while or have thought I did in fact move out to Las Vegas afterall in early October, please come over and say hello and see for yourself that it's really me, not a clone.

Excerpt from Hallandale Beach's Monday afternoon press release:

You are cordially invited to attend a Candidates Forum on February 27, 2018 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM at the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center located at 410 SE 3^rd Street, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009.

This forum will feature the qualified candidates for the March 13, 2018 Special Election to fill the unexpired term for Commission Seat 1. South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial page editor Rosemary O’Hara will serve as the moderator for this event.

All interested parties who plan to attend this event are encouraged to offer their questions on 3X5 cards the day of the event and/or email Ms. O’Hara in advance at rohara@sun-sentinel.com as she will be the sole judge of any and all questions asked.

A livestream of this event can be found of the City’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CityOfHallandaleBeach

As for the latest news that I can mention quickly here, with much more facts and concerns and video to come in a few days, many longtime Hallandale Beach civic activists, friends of mine and past supporters of new Hallandale Beach Mayor Keith London and Comm. Michele Lazarow are DISMAYED and EMBARRASSED about what has been taking place at HB City Hall these days with them in the majority, where personal and political expediency seem to keep trumping common sense and rational public idiscourse regarding many different issues, large and small, including eliminating one of the city's few common sense procedures.

1/ Many longtime #HallandaleBeach civic activists & past supporters of Mayor #KeithLondon & Comm. #MicheleLazarow are DISMAYED�� at what is taking place @ #CityHall now, w/personal/pol. expediency trumping rational public input re changing 1 of city's few #CommonSense procedures. pic.twitter.com/Fz0JLQoh1N

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) February 25, 2018

2/ Recent selection of Rich Dally, a complete unknown w/no public track record of being a voice for #reform #accountability or #transparancy, to become a HB Comm. @ a #HallandaleBeach CityComm mtg where the issue of selection was NOT on public agenda, is VERY troubling sign.☹️

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) February 25, 2018

3/ It's troubling precisely bec this 'bum's rush' tactic = same 1 employed years ago by #HallandaleBeach Mayor #JoyCooper in selecting unethical Anthony A. Sanders as a #Hallandalebeach Comm. at a CityComm. mtg where it was NOT on agenda, and she did not allow public to speak. ��

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) February 25, 2018

4/ Even worse, #HallandaleBeach's agreed-upon process for selecting a City Comm. in the event of a vacancy, the 1 used as recently as '14 and same 1 used that got #KeithLondon on it in '07, was tossed-out by London, Lazarow & Dally despite its popularity w/civic activists. Why?

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) February 25, 2018

The selection two weeks ago of Rich Dally as a Hallandale Beach City Commissioner, that is, a complete unknown with no tangible public track record of being a well-informed voice in the community for increased #reform #accountability and #transparency at HB City Hall, at a HB City Commission meeting where the sole issue on the written public agenda was the expected selection of then-Vice Mayor Keith London to become interim mayor until November's election because of Joy Cooper being removed from office by Governor Rick Scott, NOT a vote on filling London's seat, caused most of the people I know and respect in the city to recoil at the very idea of the current majority channeling the very worst instincts of the since departed Cooper, whose thin skin and huge ego were constantly on display for the past 15 years, no matter the issue under discussion.

What the public saw after Keith London was voted in as interim mayor on a 2-1 vote was a government action that was NOT on the public agenda, should NOT have taken place then without the proper public notice being given, and what in almost every respect, resembled the sort of thing that Joy Cooper loved doing.

That is to say, doing something not because it was the right thing to do for the community at large, or even some part of it, but rather because she thought she and what I have long called her "Rubber Stamp Crew" thought they could get away with it.

It was that simple.
For years!

Then as now, it was exactly what it looked like, and yet I would hazard to say that few people who know Keith London even a fraction as well as I do, would have expected such a cynical, self-destructive and negative thing to be his first official act as Mayor.
And yet it was.

He squndered his opportunity to look like he was up to the challenge of running things instead of being the opposition, and seemed to act petty and argumentative just for the sake of being that way, with no apologies for how things appeared to the public.

Keith London voted for Dally to sit on the five-member HB City Commission until November, someone whose name he could not even pronounce correctly, and seemed to know very, very little about, yet took Comm. Michele Lazarow's nomination and endorsement of Dally as enough proof of his qualifications despite London having publicly nominated my very good friend and confidante, Csaba Kulin, for the post. Why?

Why did Keith London's replacement on the City Commission have to be named within ten minutes of London's elevation to the mayor's seat when the seat of disgraced Comm. Sanders has stood empty since last August, six long months ago?
He couldn't say and nether could anyone else on the dais.

Not that they tried.

Nor did they explain why they would vote on the three nominated candidates -Dally, Kulin and another friend of mine, Hallandale Beach businessman Rob Raymond- alphabetically instead of polling the three members and requiring them to name whom they were for on the first ballot.
Instead, because D comes before K and R, Dally was selected 2-1 and there was no vote on Kulin and Raymond.

#bizarre

The fact that Dally did such a very poor job of explaining who he was or why anyone in the city should have any confidence in him or even why HE deserved to be selected -after he was selected!- only made things worse and more laughably embarrassing for the city in general and him personally, since at no point did Dally actually state what his legitimate qualifications or expertise was.

What we were to learn over a few minutes was that he and his girlfriend have twins, that he is a loyal Democratic functionary, serving as head of the Broward Young Democrats.His actual job was never mentioned.

In short, he appears to be nothing but Alex Lewy 2.0, someone who aims to be a career politician with nothing to personally recommend him, as the many dozens of people who have called me in disgust or written me in the days since the absurd decision was made have all complained about in angry tones.

The whole thing could have been avoided if common sense were in abundance, but in HB, common sense is a rare mineral.

It would have been very easy for Keith London, Michele Lazarow and Annabelle Taub to show some common sense at the meeting and announce that the City Commission would take nominations for the former London Commission seat at the next scheduled Commission meeting, which would allow enough time for the public to weigh-in and for people to talk with their family and friends about whether they should place themselves in harm's way or not in nominating themselves.

These continuing series of bad decisions and remarkably poor judgment at HB City Hall are VERY troubling signs for all concerned.☹️

Troubling precisely because this bum's rush tactic to get Dally on the dais is the same one employed years ago at a City Commission meeting I was present at where Mayor Cooper personally selected and insisted upon unethical Anthony A. Sanders being installed as a Commissioner at a City Commission meeting where the issue was NOT on the public agenda.
That Cooper did not allow the public to ever speak on the matter, as I wrote on the blog at the time, was a germane fact which the South Florida news media failed to ever mention in their accounts.

Hallandale Beach already has an agreed-upon process for selecting a City Commissioner in the event of a vacancy, and it's the one used as recently as 2014, and, the same one used that resulted in Keith London becoming a City Commissioner in 2007. 

But if you can believe it, having avoided using it one week, it was promptly tossed-out by London, Lazarow and Dally last week at their meeting despite its great popularity with civic activists like me and many of the people I know precisely because it requires candidates to explain their interest, their qualifications and be subject to questions from the public and the Commissioners.

None of those things took place two weeks ago with Rich Dally.

Why?

That's a very good question.

You already know the names of the three people whom you should ask about it: London, Lazarow and Taub.

I don't personally know anyone in Hallandale Beach besides Comm. Lazarow who plans on voting for Dally in November when he runs for a full term. Nobody.

Everyone who has contacted me since Dally's selection has told me that under no circumstances will he be getting their vote.

Just saying...

I honestly don't think Rich Dally has any idea of what is in store for him in the coming months. 
(Or even, perhaps, on this blog.)
It won't be pretty.

An engaged citizenry and news media are unlikely to take Rich Dally's word for anything.