Meltdown in Palm Beach deepens Democrats’ problems | Editorial

The last thing Democrats in Florida need is more dissension and dysfunction.

But that is what’s happening in two of the party’s critical electoral battlegrounds: Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

In an action considered unprecedented, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried this week suspended both counties’ party chairs, and a third county chair, in North Florida’s Franklin County.

Even if such a drastic step was warranted — and both sides sharply disagree on that — the timing is all wrong, weeks before the first candidate qualifying deadline for the fall elections.

‘Out of compliance’

Fried sent a letter Monday to Palm Beach Democratic Chair Mindy Koch, telling her that the party fell “out of compliance” with state rules for cancelling contracts without members’ approval, the lack of an adopted budget, improperly removing party members who missed three straight meetings, and creating an environment that prevents the party from being successful.

As a result, Koch was pushed aside as the unpaid leader of the unruly Palm Beach County Democratic organization.

Koch told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that it “came out of the blue,” but the warning signs have been festering for a long time, as we reported last summer.

Fried put Koch on notice a month ago.

In a Feb. 2 letter, Fried demanded an explanation for the “improper” removal of an estimated 100 people from the county’s Democratic Executive Committee for not attending three consecutive meetings. Fried said those cases are required to be reviewed first by the membership committee of the county party, but they were not.

“The removal of members and inability to find compromise within your membership have altogether created an environment that prohibits the DEC (Democratic Executive Committee) from being compliant,” Fried wrote to Koch.

In defense of removals

Koch told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that under a state law (Chapter 103.131), a party seat is “deemed vacant” when a member skips three meetings in a row.

The absences have continued, even though Palm Beach allows rank-and-file party members to attend meetings by computer.

“I removed no one,” Koch said. “They removed themselves.”

Koch, a retired teacher from Boca Raton, won the party chairmanship by one vote in December 2022, and her leadership has been questioned ever since.

Koch is seen as an abrasive leader, and she has been under sustained attack by a small but vocal rogue faction that flogs her on social media, using vile names such as “fascist bitch” and “Mussolini Mindy.”

One party activist, Mark Offerman, calls the confrontational tactics “MAGA-left.”

Fried’s punishment of Koch indirectly validates the dissidents’ long-standing criticism of Koch and may embolden them further.

The suspension also ensures an extended period of unrest at a time when local Democrats desperately need unity — in a presidential election year, no less.

That’s because the suspension still must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the party’s Central Committee, which includes about 120 Democrats, including county chairs, caucus leaders, elected officials and others.

Boldly predicting victory

The meeting is expected to be held in May, and Koch boldly predicted that she will have the votes to win reinstatement.

“When they reinstate me, I just plan on going back to work,” Koch said.

That work, she said, includes registering voters, rebuilding mail ballot requests and mobilizing the county’s 327,000 registered Democrats.

In the past two weekends, Koch said, party volunteers made nearly 2,000 calls to Democratic voters in cities with elections on March 19.

The work of voter outreach is in dispute too. Fried asked Koch to send a written campaign plan for 2024, but Fried’s spokeswoman, Eden Giagnorio, called the one-page summary “completely insufficient.”

For now, the party is under control of Vice Chairman Sean Rourk, who’s aligned with the dissident faction. He has asked the party’s technical expert to provide him with log-in credentials to all of the party’s social media and email accounts.

‘A formula for chaos’

A group of 15 local Democrats rallied to Koch’s side Wednesday and sent Fried a letter, calling on her to reinstate Koch.

“This is a formula for chaos and for a Republican takeover of Palm Beach County in November,” they wrote, warning Fried that the same tactics could be used against her.

Democrats have watched helplessly as they continue to lose ground to Republicans. As of Feb. 20, the GOP’s statewide advantage in voter registration had grown to 851,417.

In Palm Beach County, the Democrats’ voter registration advantage has slipped to about 55,000, half of what it was as recently as November 2022. Gov. Ron DeSantis won the county with ease, and Republicans gained a 4-3 majority on the County Commission after Democrat Dave Kerner left the commission to join the DeSantis administration and DeSantis named as his replacement Michael Barnett, chair of the Palm Beach Republican Party.

If 2024 turns out to be another bad year for Democrats in Palm Beach County, critics will point to the dysfunction caused by Koch’s suspension.

At stake on the Nov. 5 ballot are control of the White House and Congress, one of Florida’s two U.S. Senate seats, control of the County Commission, and possibly a statewide ballot initiative on abortion rights.

Democrats in Palm Beach must restore a semblance of credibility, fast. Otherwise, failures in Florida’s third-largest county could easily reverberate statewide and beyond.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.