Issue #215: The Insane Story of a Broward Commission Race that was Cancelled TWICE

A first-hand account of how crazy campaigns can get

Yesterday, December 4th, marks the ten year anniversary of a special election in Broward County. On that day in 2014, voters in Broward County Commission District 2 went to the polls for a race that was delayed TWICE. It was a major political drama at the time, something those around can still recall for its rollercoaster of legal wrangling.

Can you imagine being involved in a campaign that is delayed and rescheduled multiple times? What must that be like? Well, I can tell you, because this was a race I was directly involved in. In 2014, I was working for Mark Bogen, one of the candidates in this chaotic saga. For the ten year anniversary of this election, I wanted to offer up a retrospective look at this crazy race. It also marks what I would argue is the last election cycle before politics got really really reallllyyyyyyyyyyy bad.

This is very much a personal story, and I write it with that perspective in mind. I want to give a modest peak into a campaign, but I’m going to leave plenty of the nuts and bolts out. This is more of a broad overview. And if you think its still a long piece, just imagine how much I opted not to bore you all with, lol.

With no delay, lets dive in.

Part 1: The 2nd Commission District

Before getting into the specifics of this race, it is probably a good idea to discuss the district itself.

From 2012 to 2020, the Broward 2nd Commission District was what you see below. It included all of Coconut Creek and Margate; while also including pieces of Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, and Coral Springs.

The district was home to dozens of bedroom communities and condo associations. In the 2nd district, three massive retiree condo communities exist: Wynmoor, Palm Aire, and Century Village. The city of Margate is also home to several retiree-focused condo associations; such as Holiday Springs or Oriole Gardens, but these communities are not united blocks like those listed on the map.

With its northern border being the county line, District 2 can easily be mistaken for southern Palm Beach county. The image you get of Boca Raton, especially in relation to it being a retiree destination, can easily be transported to northern Broward. The area is home to several large retiree condo communities; communities with especially large numbers of Jewish retirees from the NYC metro region. These voters historically have been very Democratic and also broadly liberal. For example, places like Wynmoor voted AGAINST the 2008 ban on same-sex marriage.

South Florida was a longtime home of the “Condo Commandos” - leaders in retiree communities that could deliver large numbers of Democratic votes during election season. These heavily-Democratic communities had strong turnout and could shape local races as well as boost county and statewide Democratic turnout margins. As the Florida population continues to explode, the power of the condo commandos has waned with time. Communities like Wynmoor still pack a strong punch in local races, which I covered in an article on the 2023 Coconut Creek elections. By 2014, the influence of the condos in countywide Broward races was already declining, but in a district like the 2nd, they carried tremendous weight thanks to strong turnout.

In 2014, the 2nd Commission district was a firmly Democratic seat. Over half of the voters were registered Democrat, and in 2012 the district had voted for Barack Obama by over 2-1. As such, the Democratic Primary was always expected to be the main fight. Among the registered Democrats of the district, just under 50% were white with around one-third being Black. In addition, 32% of the district was over 65 years old.

The district was plurality white, though historically its primaries were often 55% or more white due to turnout dynamics. The largest block of Black voters were in the precincts that were collectively referred to as “Northwest Pompano.” Parts of Margate, especially the south end of the city, were also plurality black among Democrats.

The inclusion of Northwest Pompano in the district was part of what I considered to be a political and racial gerrymander that the 2012 commissioners had approved. As I documented in the attached article, communities north and south of NW Pompano were also heavily Black - but were divided up between different districts. The Broward map at the time only had two Black commission seats despite demographics indicating a third was easily doable. Instead the Black population in Northern Broward county were divided up as white commissioners worked to protect their own seats. While the 33% black vote share in the 2nd district primary could lead to a Black candidate winning; it likely would only happen amid a split field. Northwest Pompano, a poorer community, had very different political needs than the retirees and suburbs to its west and North. Rather than uniting the Black communities of Northern Broward, commissioners had divided them up and paired them in districts where they remained perpetual minority voices.

Outside of the condo communities and Northwest Pompano, the district was largely made up of assorted bedroom communities. These areas had their own broad concerns. Some, like Independence Landing and Waterways in Deerfield, were concerned about highway expansions and the local dump. In a local multi-way primary like this, working to be THE candidate that pledges to help a community can really aid in voter support. I’ll get into all that further down in this piece.

Part 2: The Candidates

In 2014, the 2nd Commission district was open. Incumbent Kristin Jacobs was termed out and was running for House District 96, which had a good deal of overlap with the commission seat. In total five Democratic candidates would qualify for the race.

I want to go over four of these candidates here, and then I will offer far more detail on Mark Bogen’s candidacy afterward.

The original frontrunner was Lisa Aronson, the Mayor of Coconut Creek. Aronson had been elected to the Coconut Creek City Council years before; with mayor being a position that commissioners rotated. Aronson had strong ties to different lobbyist and developer groups and seemed poised to be the strongest fundraiser of the race. Having won citywide in Coconut Creek, she had the biggest electoral base to start. Donors would likely have flocked universally to her in the race, except for the entry of the net person in this list.

Next up was Charlotte Rodstrom; a former Ft Lauderdale City Commissioner. Rodstrom was the wife of former County Commissioner John Rodstrom. She’d run for County Commission District 6 in 2012, but lost an expensive 3-way primary. Then in 2013, she lost a narrow race to win back her City Commission seat; losing to former commissioner and now Ft Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis. Rodstrom did not live in the 2nd district, but was still considered a real threat thanks to name-ID and a likely split field. However, her several recent losses would no doubt hurt her. However, she still had strong donor dies.

Deerfield Beach community activists Carmen Jones announced her bid in the spring and instantly had the endorsement of County Commissioner Dale Holness. Many of you may remember Holness as the man who came within 5 votes of winning the 2021 Democratic Primary for Florida House District 20. Before then, Holness was a county commissioner for central Broward. One of the commission’s two Black members, Holness, who is Jamaican had a strong backing in the Caribbean community of his district. Holness had strong dies to developers and quickly grew a reputation for behind the scenes dealings. By 2014 it was being well-documented that he was aiming to form a majority coalition on the commission. He was allied with lone Republican Commissioner Chip LaMarca. In addition he was backing a primary challenger to then-commissioner Barbara Sharief; the only other Black commissioner in the race (Sharief would go on to win). His quick endorsement of Jones made it clear he hoped to get her elected.

Finally, there was the candidacy of Terry Williams-Edden, a perennial candidate from Pompano Beach. Through the campaign Edden would not raise much money and was largely just a figure at events. At one point in the campaign she claimed support from a former NAACP head who then came out and made it clear she did not have his backing. Edden risked splitting Black voters from Jones, but broadly she was not considered a major viable candidate.

Mark Bogen’s Candidacy

As I mentioned at the start of this article, I was working for Mark Bogen, a first time candidate for office. Mark is an attorney, who at the time specialized in condo law. As a result, he worked closely with the retirees in many of the condo associations in the region. His work was on behalf of the local leaders and residents, and he often would mediate agreements between the bigger company heads and the average retiree who had complaints or issues. As a result, Mark had a very strong base of retirees who adored him as the “young” (sorry Mark, lol) attorney who looked out for them. And Mark did look out for them, as Mark constantly wanted to make improvements for the retiree population in the area.

Thanks to his legal work, Mark was well-off enough that he could largely self-fund his race. He started his campaign with a $100,000 loan and would contribute much more as the campaign went on. Self-funding allowed Mark to reject money from the prominent lobbyists and developers that often funded winning commission candidates. With that, the campaign would focus heavily on Mark not being “bought and paid for” by the usual suspects of Broward’s political ruling class. This was a classic outsider campaign - though it came from someone with strong ties to Democratic retiree activists.

I came to work for Mark over the course of 2014. I was in Tallahassee and interning part time at the Florida Democratic Party’s data department. Mark purchased access to the party-run voter database and asked if anyone could help him manage data requests. I took up the gig and would help Mark over the next few months. Then in the late Spring of 2016, I went down to South Florida to work for Mark full time helping run his field and data operation. This was personally easy as I come from Broward and still have family down there. My grandparents were thrilled to have their grandson chilling in the guest room. I worked with Amy Rose, his campaign manager, and we worked to form a tight strategy for securing a primary win. Mark’s good friend and businessman Ron Lichtman was also a non-stop source of support and help in anything needed.

Mark was a first time candidate, but when I arrived he already had a massive base of grassroots support. Seniors loved him. In Wynmoor specifically, where he’d done a great deal of work and advocacy, he was a near king. I cannot stress to love this man had from these retirees. Within days of my arrival I met with many of the retiree leaders who wanted to do anything they could to help Mark get on the commission.

Mark had a base of support, we just had to form the coalition to achieve victory.

Part 3: The Outsider Issues

As I laid out above, Mark was an outsider, but he was an outsider with a fanbase already. Mark shunning off lobbyist dollars also allowed him to be a major voice for issues that generate plenty of iffy statements due to financial conflicts. Two prominent examples of issues Mark was able to latch onto were 10th Street and “Mount Trashmore.” The map below highlights 10th street at the top and Mt Trashmore at the bottom. I’ll explain both below.

Since I am sure you are wondering “what the hell is Mount Trashmore" - I’ll start with that. Mount Trashmore (MT for short) is the name given to the Monarch Hill Renewable Energy Park - aka a landfill - that sits just outside Coconut Creek. It began in the 1960s and has been a constant political hot-button since. Debates about increasing the size of the landfill and the odor coming off of it has been a major issue for Coconut Creek residents. The city of Coconut Creek had threatened to sue the landfill operators - Waste Management Inc - over the odor.

Agreements on stopping certain garbage drop-offs, adding top soil, and spreading deodorizers has been a common practice. However, in 2013 the landfill was fined over $1,000,000 for different odor-related offenses. Fights between local officials over the landfill, which thanks to sitting in unincorporated land is subject to county commission oversight, has been a long-running issue. You’d be shocked to know Waste Management’s lobbyists are major donors. Mark positioned himself firmly on the side of residents concerned about the power of the landfill operators.

The other major issue was the idea around a “10th street overpass.” This was a plan to build an overpass connecting the start of the Sawgrass expressway (a toll road) with I-95. The yellow line you see in the map is 10th street. Basically if you are on either Sawgrass or 95 and want to get to the other, you need to take 10th street. This road has become incredibly crowded at rush-hour as a result of what was a MASSIVE design flaw when Sawgrass was being built. There is a legit traffic issue, as 10th street is a standard commercial road with lights and shops. However, the proposed solution of an overpass would kill the view and scenery of the surrounding neighborhoods.

Voters in Independence Bay and Waterways (precinct A014 in the map) were especially concerned about this issue - as well as concerns about Mount Trashmoor runoff into their lakes. Century Village residents (A003 and A009) also had grave concern about the plans. Mark took a firm stance against an overpass, arguing an alternative rout needed to be considered, perhaps further north or south of the area. One major group who wanted the overpass was the owners of the Seminole Casino in Coconut Creek - which wanted its visitors coming off I-95 to have easy access to the casino further west. Here Mark was able to affirm to residents he was not going to be bought off by groups who’s interest in the issue stemmed from their own pocketbook and not simply decluttering the roads.

Part 4: The Power of the Condos

Outside of the issues above, the core for Mark’s victory was going to be the condo communities. As I laid out in the first section, three condo communities dominated the district. All were areas Mark had ties to and we believed we could do very well in. I want to talk about the three key ones in a bit more detail.

Wynmoor Condos, sitting in Coconut Creek, is by far the granddaddy of the communities. The precinct it covers, F004, had the most likely voters in the entire district. These 55+ retiree community has a large Jewish population, with many retirees from the NYC area. This area caries such political heft that the Wynmoor Democratic Club meetings were a major candidate stopping point across all of Broward County. Here is where Mark was an absolute superstar. His work in the condos made him a known and well-like figure in the community. Going to a meeting or event in a Bogen T-shirt would always see me get stopped and called out - “love Mark, he has our vote!” Truly I have so many pleasant memories from my time there.

In the summer, Mark was endorsed by former Congressman Robert Wexler, who held an event with Mark at the Wynmoor community center. It was a packed crowd. This is me taking a photo from the back sign in sheet table with an old iphone 4 and as I ate my third kosher tuna sandwich. (A+ food).

Wynmoor would be the biggest source of votes for Mark, as well as the biggest source of volunteers. We had countless retirees who wanted to make calls for us - not only within Wynmoor but to any voters we needed. We had folks who pledged to work their building and encourage support for Mark. Countless call sheets and fliers were handed out. I spent most of my evenings, after leaving the campaign office, stopping through Wynmoor to drop off supplies to anyone who needed phone lists or more fliers to hand out.

The next major condo community was Century Village - sitting in Deerfield Beach. Like Wynmoor this community is home to a large Jewish retiree population. However, it was not as big a source of votes due to also being home to a large population of retiree Canadians, often folks coming down for part of the year. That said, the community was still home to hundreds of likely Democratic votes. Mark also had a strong chance to absolutely dominate Century Village support thanks to his opposition to the 10th street overpass. Within CV, Mark had support of local Democratic leaders like Bernie Parness and Kathy Richards, two retiree democrats who were longtime supports of Mark. They were great folks, spending lots of time in our campaign offices. They were major community leaders.

Bernie would actually go on to win Deerfield Beach City Council seat the next year. Over in Wynmoor, some leaders had to play it neutral because Lisa Aronson was a current city commissioner for the area (and had done very well in Wynmoor before). In Century Village, Mark seemed to have the community all to himself.

The last of the big three was Palm Aire, covering part of Pompano Beach. PA was notably less “old” than Wynmoor and Century Village, home to more folks in their 50s than 60s or 70s, at least at that time. Unlike Wynmoor and CV, which had gates to get it, Palm Aire was more open, with more houses around as well as large condo buildings. The condos buildings themselves were often where security lay. In general Palm Aire is more of an “active” retiree area - a place where folks retire while still fairly young but after the kids have left home. It was not just a retiree area, which plenty of mixed-aged families residing in some houses depending on other family members being retired. This is actually where Mark was residing at the time of the election. Mark had more support than anyone else in the community, though it was not as strong as with CV or Wynmoor.

The goal for the campaign with these condos was to maximize turnout as much as possible. Mark was the candidate of the condo voters, whether through direct work like Wynmoor, or by reputation like we could press in Palm Aire. The outsider who had a special affinity for the issues around seniors. Mark discussed the issues around expanded bus access to the condos, the need of the county government to be involved in healthcare concerns for every-aging area, and to have an advocate that would not be bought off by lobbyist donations. This was the message, it was also the firm truth, and it was playing very well with voters.

Part 5: Northwest Pompano

As I mentioned further up in this piece, the majority-Black “Northwest Pompano” area was part of this district. What would broadly be considered NW Pompano is in blue below. Green is the whiter “East Pompano” and the Purple is the Palm Aire condo community.

Northwest Pompano, a mix of downtown apartments and historic black communities, had many gripes with the lack of focus given to the area in the county commission. As I’d mentioned, the dividing up of Northern Broward’s black communities hurt their united voice. Through his legal advocacy work, Mark built up a base of support with several leaders in the community. Mark had the backing of leaders like past and future city commissioners, as well as several business leaders. Mark pledged to be a strong voice for the community if elected.

Northwest Pompano would be a battleground between Mark and Carmen Jones. While Jones was always likely to secure a majority of the community, Mark was a strong 2nd. Many local leaders were worried Jones could not win, and Holness was also not a unifying voice in the Black community. Holness would go on to have a very tight primary just two years later that fell on ethnic lines of Caribbean vs non-Caribbean Black voters.

Our goal to sidestep the drama that came with Holness and show Mark would be a candidate for all communities and voters. We had many events and voter contact efforts in these neighborhoods. Like with the condos, I have many fond memories of getting to know community leaders and learning more about the struggles of getting your voice herd when communities are divided up politically.

The campaign seemed to be going well, with debates over issues like any other race. And then…..

Part 6: Things Gets Messy

For the first part of the summer, this was just a regular local race. However, things took a turn when a legal dispute over a write-in candidate emerged during qualifying.

The Write-in Loophole

For those who do not know Florida election law, primaries in the state are normally “closed” - meaning that only people registered to a party can vote in its primary. However, if no general election candidate files, the primary becomes open to all voters. Heading into qualifying in the 2nd Commission district, only the five Democratic candidates had filed. This meant there was a real possibility our primary would be open to all voters. The primary was officially closed, however, on June 20th; the last day of qualifying for the ballot. That day, Tyron Francois qualified for the commission race as a write-in. Francois would therefor face off in November against whoever won the Democratic Primary in August. Yes, a write-in counts as general election opposition. This is broadly known as the “write-in loophole.”

The reason it is referred to as a loophole is because the spirit of the law clearly did not intend for write-ins to be considered viable general election opposition. However, write-ins, which don’t require filings fees or as many disclosure forms to run, can easily file at the last minute for races. As a result, campaigns that want to ensure a primary is closed have relied on recruiting write-ins to aid this effort. The practice had fallen under much more scrutiny in recent years; but efforts to legally reform the law have fallen flat.

Tyron Francois remained largely mum on his reasoning for filing. However, investigations revealed he clearly had ties with Commissioner Dale Holness. Francois had shared an address with Holness’ daughter, and social media posts indicated they may have dated. It was clear Francois was there to close the primary. Why would this be desired? As I saw it at the time, Carmen Jones’ only chance to win was a closed primary - as an open contest would have been flooded with more whiter Republicans - a group unlikely to back Jones. For Jones to win, she needed to 1) dominate in the Black community and 2) the Black vote needed to be in the mid 30s. An open primary would have likely seen a Black percent in the mid to low 20% range.

For our campaign, open or closed did not matter in the grand scheme. Had it been open, Mark would have reached out to Republicans. At no point did I think Jones was a favorite in a closed primary, but I agree that was likely her only longshot avenue.

However, the filing of Francois had several unintended consequences. It set off a stream of lawsuits that threw the entire election schedule into chaos.

Residency Issues and Lawsuit

The write-in filing would have normally been no big deal. People would grumble, but write-ins closed primaries all the time, including in several other Broward commission races that same year. However, within days of the filing, a potential legal hiccup emerged. On his qualifying papers, Francois indicated he lived in Lauderdale Lakes, which did not sit within the commission district. Florida’s residency requirement was that a candidate had to live in the district by the time of the election. However, write-ins specifically had to live within the district at the time of qualifying.

This residency issue first arose in the papers on June 23rd, just days after qualifying ended. It came as another election saw a similar write-in debate. In the race for House District 96, write-in candidacy Ronald Bray did not live in the district. His entry closed the Democratic Primary between Kristen Jacobs and Steve Perman.

The Broward Elections office insisted they had no legal authority to reject the paperwork for possible residency violations, but only to make sure the paperwork was in order. In short, a lawsuit would need to be filed by anyone who wanted to challenge the candidacy of the write-ins.

Both Broward 2 and House 96 would see lawsuits filed. On June 26th, a lawsuit was filed to disqualify Tyron Francois from the ballot. If successful, it would open the primary to all voters. However, the tricky issue was the timing of the suit and the election. July 12th was the date that overseas absentee ballots were set to be mailed out; with July 22nd the date for domestic ballots. The race was still officially closed, meaning only Democratic ballots were currently scheduled to have the County 2 race on it. Ballot printing and machine coding went ahead presuming the race would remained closed.

However, on July 11th, one day before overseas ballots were set to go out, Broward Judge Sandra Perlman disqualified Francois from the ballot. The ruling came with an order to open up the Commission 2 race to all voters. The same day as the ruling, the Supervisor of Elections office stated they did not have the time needed to open the primary for August. Burnadette Norris-Weeks, the attorney for the elections office, said there was “no time” to reprint ballots and recode machines. The office said the best option was to have the open primary held during the November General Election.

Before the County 2 race plan could even be finalized, another legal opinion dropped. On July 18th, Circuit Judge George Reynolds issued a ruling on the lawsuit over the write-in for House District 96. His ruling struck down the write-in residency rule as unconstitutional. The argument was legally sound, as write-in residency rules were separate from non-write-in candidates. As such, Reynolds ruled write-in Ronald Bray could remain in the race; hence keeping HD96 closed. We now had competing court rulings on the write-in residency requirements - an issue that would decide if Francois was a valid candidate.

However, there was little time for letting the legal process play out. An election was ongoing. For the moment, our race was now open, while HD96 was closed.

The Cancelled August Primary

The second half of July was an especially chaotic period. We all awaited word on the final decision regarding the primary. I wish I had detailed notes from this time to remember what we thought might have happened from any given point. Sadly it all becomes a bit blurry this long later. What I definitely remember is a possibility our election would be moved to November as an open contest, but the lack of clarity was maddening.

On July 22nd, Brenda Snipes announced that domestic absentee ballots, which only had commission 2 on the Democratic ballot, would go out as planned. In her notice, Snipes said they were awaiting word from the Florida Secretary of State on approval for their open primary in November plan; while also noting the appeal being filed regarding Francois’ candidate status. With overseas ballots already going out treating CC2 as a closed primary, the domestic ballots would reflect the same.

As a result of this, the attorney for the suit that kicked Francois off the ballot, Bill Scherer, filed to have Snipes held in contempt for not following the court orders. In the proceedings, which were live-blogged here, Snipes defended her decisions. However, Judge John J. Murphy had harsh words for the elections department, who’s entire attitude was to throw their hands up and await word from the state on what to do. By this point in 2014, issues were already emerging around the conduct of the elections department under Brenda Snipes, with issues going on for years from an office that seemed to just go through the motions. The lack of communication was an especially maddening part of this.

Judge Murphy would not hold Snipes in contempt, but admonished the election head in his ruling ordering her to lay out a concrete plan. Judge Murphy stated Snipes was “is not in compliance with the order, in that she has not taken any affirmative steps to open the Democratic primary election. … Nothing concrete was done, other than to seek guidance from the secretary of state.” The major critique was a lack of leadership from the elections office.

A few days later, Snipes officially announced the election plan, which she said was approved by the state. With ballots already printed and prepped, the County 2 race would still appear on Democratic ballots, but it would not count. Voters would receive notices letting them know the race was being moved to November. You can read the formal plan here.

The cancelling of the primary created chaos for all candidates in the race. Money had already been spent and strategies laid out based on a very different timeline and voter pool than expected. Not only would the primary be open to all voters, it would be in November, meaning FAR MORE ballots to be cast than a regular open primary in August.

This led to changes in campaign strategy. A look at running television became a much more serious conversation. The broad-hitting communication method was not a major tactic for what was going to be a low-turnout August contest. The focus on mail and in-person contact would remain, but it would also need more broad ways to hit voters.

Part 7: The Primary Vote that didn’t count

While the primary would go ahead without our race, it was not a time where the campaign did nothing. We worked to communicate to our supporters the situation. We also intended to use the primary to advertise to voters at polling locations, letting them know we’d see them in November.

The elections office made it clear the results of the primary would not be published. However, that did not mean the data could not be retrieved via public records law. As we saw it, getting these results were absolutely worth it. The results, while imperfect due to public awareness of the “cancelled” nature of the vote - this would still serve as a strong gage of public opinion. Had Mark’s advertising broken through? Where were we strong and week? There was valuable data to be gleamed. This was especially clear when we saw that 6600 votes were still being cast for our race out of the 8000+ Democratic ballots cast that day. Yes there was many blank ballots, but not nearly as many as you may think for a race where voters were told ‘it won’t count.”

Election Day vs VBM

The first set of data we got was the election day votes cast. These were retrieved by the vote count slips from the polling locations. Amy secured them and tallied the results by precinct. The results were not ideal, though not a disaster. They had Aronson winning by 45 votes.

These results showed we were in the ballgame, but clearly would need to up our efforts. However, we did not yet have the absentee ballot results. This group would lean more in Mark’s favor; covering not only a constituencies he was likely strongest with, but also be a voting pool we had been advertising heavily before the primary was cancelled. Election Day voters were a group we had yet to hit extensively; while absentees had gotten the full brunt of our advertising.

The story of getting these absentee results is a story itself. It was not as simple as getting some paper slips from the elections office. Instead, the campaign had to pay to spend a few hours at the satellite election office where the ballots were stored. There, me and Amy Rose met with election staffers who would allow us to review the ballots; but we could not legally touch them. The system we came up with was the staffers had a projector that they would place each ballot under, displaying a zoom-in off the race on the big screen. The ballots were ordered by precinct, allowing us to track results at the pecinct level. For the next few hours, the staffers rapidly moved each ballot in front of the projector. I called out who got the vote in the race while Amy, face down looking at several sheets of paper, made dashes for each candidate. We did this precinct by precinct.

As the counting went on, my confidence grew. It was me saying “Bogen, Bogen, Aronson, Bogen, Jones, Aronson, Bogen, Bogen, Aronson, Bogen.” It was so much more Mark than it was anyone else. When we got to Wynmoor, it was just “Bogen, Bogen, Bogen, Bogen, Bogen” with a smattering of others. I smiled as I rattled off the names.

When we finished up, Amy went home to tabulate everything, but we both knew Mark had won absentees and surely won the cancelled primary itself. The only data we didn’t have was the early voting data; which accounted for only an estimated 5% of the vote in the district. Honestly I cannot remember why this data was not readily available, or maybe it was but we opted not to bother with it. Either way, with an estimated 95% of the votes cast, we had results for the cancelled primary.

Overall, Mark had 35% of the vote, followed by Aronson with 28% and Jones with 20%. Rodstrom was already down at 10%, and after this was not considered a major campaign threat. The precinct data showed our base in the condos was very strong!

You look at this map and see far more Aronson and Jones than Bogen. The story was in the raw vote leads Mark had in many of these condo communities.

In Wynmoor, which had the most votes of any precinct in the district, gave Mark 61% of the vote in a FIVE WAY RACE. He was in the high 50s in Century Village, with Palm Aire being the weakest condo association. Mark was also pulling in solid 2nd place shares in Northwest Pompano; often pulling in shares in the mid 30s. Jones was not consolidating enough of the Black votes.

The primary results gave us good vibes that the chance for securing a win in the November open primary were available to us.

Part 8: Election Moved Again!

Imagine me sitting in a campaign office in early September, prepping for an open primary in just under two months. Well, on September 10th, the Fourth District Court of Appeals drops a ruling REINSTATING Francois as a legitimate candidate and RECLOSING THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY. On September 10th, the appeals court followed the logic of the HD96 case and struck down the different residency requirement for write-in candidates. Francois did not have to live in the district at the time of qualifying, and hence he was a candidate, and hence the primary should be closed.

So what now? The primary is closed again? Will it be held in November? That is what those suing on behalf of Francois argued. They said the primary should be closed in November, and a special general could be held after.

That is not what happened. On September 19th, Brenda Snipes held a press conference, with all candidates present (I was sitting there as well) - to announce the new election plan.

• The November primary was cancelled. Snipes insisted they could not hold a closed primary the same day as the open-to-all-voters general election. They insisted it wasn’t viable with their computer system

• A special Primary would be held December 4th, a Thursday that was the week after Thanksgiving.

• The primary winner would face Francois’ write-in bid on January 13th.

• The whole saga would cost the county $400,000.

None of the candidates were happy. Mark was very upset. He, like others, rejected the computer system argument. He called for simply having a separate ballot paper that could be given just to the Democrats in the district.

“In Scotland yesterday, over three million ballots were counted by hand. There’s other ways of doing it besides your computer system.” (Mark at the press conference)

I include this line because I’m personally proud of it. This was the day after the Scottish Independence Referendum. I’d spent the night before watching the vote count on the BBC as I hate Pizza Hut in my grandparents dining room. I knew the hearing would be the next day so I opted to just watch the vote as we awaiting word on our race. There I watched millions of paper ballots counted that night. I told Mark about it the next morning, and it clearly inspired him. I smirked when he delivered the line.

We left the press conference knowing the final schedule. Mark was frustrated. Every candidate was frustrated. As we drove from the press conference site back to the campaign office, I was already plotting the targeting plan in my head.

Part 9: Winning a Special Election

The timeline of the election was unusual to say the least. The primary would be the week after Thanksgiving, an odd timing itself. The other major issue was trying to keep volunteers and voters engaged after the November general elections were over. At the time Charlie Crist and Rick Scott were engaged in a very close race for Governor. The Democratic seniors of the district were keen on Crist winning the office. We knew we’d have to keep voters engaged while also allowing the general election to suck up attention through early November.

We did in the meantime get the story out there that we’d “won” the cancelled primary.

I’ll skip past the November general to get to the main last push of the campaign. Shortly after November is when the final push began in earnest. As I saw it, this was going to be a LOWWWW turnout primary. The week after Thanksgiving??? Who was going to be paying attention?

The answer? Seniors. This special would be dominated by senior voters. Which candidate had shown to have the strongest senior support? Mark! To me this special was perfectly designed for someone with Mark’s background. The plan was simple, get turnout up in the condos as much as possible. To do this, absentee ballots would be the biggest focus. Senior voters already had a strong vote-by-mail rate. Communities like Wynmoor and Century Village had ballot drop boxes on their sites - meaning voters didn’t have to pay for the stamp. Often a voter could drop their ballot off in a box at the front offices, and those ballots would be taken down to the elections department.

The campaign plan was absentee GOTV as much as possible. Calls to “get your ballot back in” where the main crux of our volunteer army’s efforts. Neighbors knocking on doors and encouraging folks to “help Mark win this race once and for all.” Our backers were just as frustrated with the nonstop delays and changing of plans. At this point I was a walking puppet of stress and energy drinks. This text exchange with my best friend Danielle, who doesn’t work in politics, sum it up.

She was right. I was a stressed out. I’m always stressed out. But I def was not sleeping enough, which is my own fault cause Mark was not a bad boss at all! I stress myself out more than anything else does. But she was also right that I was, caffeine or not, having a blast.

Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies was about to hit theaters and I was quoting this line from the trailer to all our volunteers and supports.

Basically - “I PROMISE ITS ALMOST OVER, WE JUST GOTTA WIN DECEMBER 4TH.”

Get those Mail Ballots In

Tracking the absentee returns from the Broward election department became my main obsession for the last few weeks of the election. I’d say 90% of our efforts were on absentees, which were expected to dominate the vote cast. There was no in-person early vote for this election, and election day itself seemed destined to be a small affair. The race would likely be decided before the polls opened on the 5th. We worked to contact not only voters in communities we felt would be strong for us, but also based on those who’d filled out supporter cards at the many different events we held. We had lists of hundreds of supports were reached out to about the new election date.

The night before the vote, as I was crunching the final data, I graphed out the absentee ballot returns by precinct. I plotted those return % by the share of the vote Mark had gotten in August. We had a stellar return rate in Mark’s strongholds.

I told Amy that night, I think 11pm at the campaign office, I couldn’t see how we wouldn’t win.

The final night of the campaign was spent prepping for election day. The big focus would be getting strong turnout in Wynmoor, Century Village, and Palm Aire - all of which had polling sites in their community. We had strong focus in Northwest Pompano, making last minute pushes to get as many of our supporters out as possible.

I didn’t sleep a single second that night. I got to my grandparents place around 3am. Laid in before for 2 or 3 hours, then got up for election day tasks.

Part 10: The Results of the Special

Through election day, my confidence in victory grew. I felt our absentee chase had been a big success. In addition, the election day vote was looking good. By the afternoon, we had count estimates for polling sites. Only handfuls of voters were showing up in suburban Coconut Creek, a Lisa Aronson stronghold, while Wynmoor alone was over 200 just that morning. If I remember correctly I heard this while getting some Starbucks and was thrilled.

That brings us to 7pm on election night. The watch party was as the cafe inside Wynmoor. Mark had been outside at the Wynmoor polling place all day greeting voters.

The results came in quick. We crushed everyone with VBM, and easily won election day. In total, with all votes counted in a 5-way race, we took 53% of the vote!

Mark crushed everyone in the condos. In Century Village and Wynmoor he secured over 75% of the vote! We won big in the assorted condos of Margate and got over 80% in Independence - where 10th street was such a major issue.

While we did not win Northwest Pompano, we only lost the majority-black precincts by 4% to Carmen Jones. In fact, Mark won Collier City (C028) and came within 5 votes of winning Sanders Park (C005). Both these precincts were over 95% Black in votes cast. These were communities were we had strong support from community and business leaders.

Lisa Aronson won big in Coconut Creek outside of Wynmoor, but trailed behind everywhere else. Edden and Rodstrom ended up being non-factors.

The result was resounding. We won all 5 of the cities.

To really visualize the raw vote power, you can see this map below showing color grades based off raw vote margin. Here we see how Mark beat his nearest opponent (Aronson) in Wynmoor by 509 votes!!! Century Village and Independence generated 3-figure vote leads. Notice no other candidate built up such strong margins.

Further sub-city breakdowns can be seen here. Mark’s strong win in Deerfield is especially thanks to Century Village and Independence. CV made up 60% of the city’s vote that day. Meanwhile in Pompano, it was the Palm Aire win that secured the city for Mark. Carmen Jones won the Northwest Pompano region, but only by a modest 4%.

The power of Wynmoor can be seen in the Coconut Creek map of the race. Mark’s 509 vote margin is massive compared to the other communities.

As I mentioned in the runup to this vote, turnout was the major driving point for securing a win. That paid off, with turnout being highest in the communities our campaign had made big GOTV pushes. Wynmoor of course topped the list with 34% turnout. Century Village was right behind with turnout in the 20s.

Turnout Palm Aire and Independence was good. Strong turnout in Collier City and Sanders Park in NW Pompano reflected our efforts to get supporters we’d ID’d out to vote.

The true testament to the turnout game is the map below. So in the August primaries, 8400 Democratic ballots had been cast. This was the day of the Governor primary, our cancelled primary, and several other races. We never expected to get to August turnout. The final vote was 5,309 - down just over 3000 ballots. However, in Wynmoor, part of Century Village, and Independence/Waterways - MORE VOTES were cast.

I honesty cannot say what the story is with the upper Coconut Creek precinct. This was a Lisa Aronson area and may have been where she resided.

Turnout was of course down, and that is a shame. Its not what we or anyone wanted. However, I firmly believe turnout would also have been well down in CV and Wynmoor if not for the GOTV campaign that we undertook. As best I can say, we for sure had the most aggressive and targeted GOTV plan of the special primary.

Good little bit of coverage from the Sun Sentinel there. I can also verify Mark was indeed very tired. We all were. But we were happy it was all wrapped up.

To say this was a gratifying win, after all the back and forth, is an understatement.

Final: The Aftermath

You may wonder why I am having this article come out today, the day after the 10 year anniversary of the primary win. Well that is because the true celebration was the next day. Sometime around when we all were having a big post-campaign lunch, word came in that Tyron Francois was dropping out. This meant Mark was officially the winner of the election. The county would save $200,000 on the January special (where Mark would face a blank line) - and instead he could be sworn in on that Tuesday; delaying the time the district would be without a representative.

This was a good thing for the county and voters, as the January special wasn’t going to be a race, just a delay. The whole saga was a shame, all likely thanks to Dale Holness’ efforts to become king of the Broward Commission. Further down the line, the Florida Supreme Court would affirm the write-in residency rule was unconstitutional, agreeing with the appeals court. In the end, Francois was considered a valid candidate, and the primary should have always been made closed. A different ruling at the trial stage would have likely stopped all the legal back and forth. Unfortunately, no changes to the “write-in loophole” have come since this period. Rather than sparking new laws, it just became a crazy political story.

This was definitely a race you had to be apart of to believe. There are THOUSANDS of words on the cutting room floor of this article, which has almost surely gone long enough. I could write a book about this race, but plenty of stuff I like to keep between the folks who worked the race. It was a great time and I enjoyed the experience - lack of sleep or not. I was 28 at the time and this was definitely the point where doing the long hour campaign nights was wearing me thin. I’d spent the 2016 cycle doing the 16-hour-day campaign life, then move on to more freelance consulting. That is where I am today.

I’ll always remember this race with fond memories.

Mark…. next time I’m in South Florida…. we need to go get some Laspadas!