Dear Broward Republicans,

Tuesday night was an especially tough one for all of us.  So many of us worked so hard spending countless hours to help elect our Republican candidates, and that’s what made the results even harder to bear.  We participated in one of the largest GOP efforts in Broward history – Volunteers logged hundreds of thousands of calls, knocked on tens of thousands of doors, and we helped all of our candidates by handing out over 85,000 Palm cards and mailing over 90,000 GOTV mailers.  Ballots are still being counted in Broward, but the numbers already show that Mitt Romney got more raw votes in Broward than John McCain in 2008.  I want to personally thank everyone who volunteered for our Republican efforts in Broward County.  We’re in the most Democrat-dominated county in Florida (596,000 Registered Democrats versus 260,000 Registered Republicans) – and one of the most liberal counties east of the Mississippi – but we gave it everything we had and I’m proud of each of every one of you.

The national Democrat surge on Tuesday night affected not only our Broward races but races throughout the state of Florida, claiming as many as five GOP incumbents from the Florida State House, two State Senate seats, and three Congressional seats.  Some of these Florida seats were presumed to be safe Republican seats.

Still, Florida Republicans maintained sizable majorities in both the Florida House and Senate, and Republicans retained control of the US House of Representatives, which will serve as a check and balance on liberal overreach.

Although a number of races didn’t go our way, there are some local bright spots that we should acknowledge. Thanks to your hard work, and despite the national Democrat surge, State Representative George Moraitis won reelection by 10 points in a district that went from having a 7.5% Republican registration advantage to only a 1.1% Republican advantage after redistricting.  Though there are some ballots yet to be counted, Donna Korn will win election to the Broward School Board in the countywide seat – an amazing feat in Broward County!  In August,Katie Leach also won election to the School Board, becoming the first Republican to win a school board seat in Broward since the year 2000.  Vincent Boccard was elected Mayor of Coral Springs, and Dan Daley is a new Coral Springs City Commissioner. Patty Asseff won reelection to the Hollywood City Commission.Jeff Nelson was reelected in Southwest Ranches and Jeff Green was reelected in Cooper City.  Congressman Mario Diaz Balart will also continue to represent a portion of Broward County.

As I’ve said at our Executive Committee meetings for the last few months, redistricting dramatically hurt our chances and there are no “safe” seats in Broward.  The Miami Herald pointed this out in their article yesterday, “Broward GOP losses no shocker after Redistricting and High Obama turnout.” Sen. Bogdanoff’s seat and the Congressional District 22 seat that Adam Hasner competed for went from being swing districts having an almost even number of Republicans and Democrats to having an 8.5-9% Democratic registration advantage after redistricting. In 2008, about 54,000 who voted for President skipped the Sheriff’s race and Sheriff Lamberti won by 15,000 votes.  This time Democrats pushed their voters to vote straight Democrat and preliminary numbers show that only 29,000 voters skipped voting in the Sheriff’s race.  Though not victorious, we must thank Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, Adam Hasner, and Sheriff Lamberti for their service to Broward’s residents.  Sen. Bogdanoff won the Broward portion of her Broward/Palm Beach District, and Adam Hasner performed better in the Broward portion of his district than the Palm Beach portion.

We must also thank all of our candidates that ran locally in Broward.  It takes a lot of fortitude to take on the Democrat machine here in Broward and put your name on that ballot, yet we fielded more candidates than anytime in recent memory.

Nationally, many election predictors and polls were wrong, except that it remains a fact that incumbents usually win.  Republicans have beaten a sitting president only once in the last century, and that was in 1980 when Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter.  In 2016 there will be no incumbent.  We all must remember how disheartened we were on Election Day in 2008…yet we took back the House in 2010 (a non-Presidential year) when turnout is different and more favorable.  No one knows what the future will bring, but we all know after this election that no two election cycles are the same.

Much has yet to be studied regarding Election 2012.  Besides just looking at the results, I can testify from personal experience on Election Day that there were far too many irregularities with the voting procedures.  The machine failures, lack of ballots, and long lines of up to 6 hour wait times are unconscionable.  These problems need to be addressed with the Broward Supervisor of Elections to protect the integrity of our elections.

In the coming days, I’ll share with you some Florida and Broward statistics as they become available.  There is much to learn and study, and we need to apply what we learn to how we conduct our efforts in the future to grow our party.

For now, I just want to thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for your enormous sacrifices that each of you made this election cycle.  Our volunteers are the heart and soul of our Broward Republican Party, and without you, there would be no Broward Republican Party and no victories in any cycle.  Thank you once again.

Sincerely,

Richard DeNapoli, Chairman