UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM
Statement from Senator Jeff Clemens on Tuesday 2/10: “I am in no way working on the Kimberly Mitchell campaign. I have not talked to Kimberly Mitchell in three years. I am not involved in the West Palm Beach Mayor’s race. Any reports to the contrary are untrue.”
Earlier today, our friends at Saint Petersblog, penned an excellent article about Landslide Strategies, LLC. Here at The Florida Squeeze, we have also been working on sorting through this issue, albeit with a more hyper-partisan perspective. Our reporting can confirm much of what was in the SaintPetersBlog article.
First some thoughts on Commissioner Kim Mitchell who has become a fixture in local West Palm Beach politics over the last 13 years.
Commissioner Mitchell was first elected in March 2002 thanks largely to the efforts of seven gated communities on the edge of the city of West Palm Beach that wanted a stronger voice in municipal government. Mitchell defeated Commissioner Mary Brandenburg (later a State Representative) in an acrimonious campaign. These gated communities have largely different interests than the rest of the city and Mitchell has been carrying the water for these communities at city hall during her thirteen years on the Commission.
Mitchell is not the type of person most on the progressive side of the ledger would want to see elected to anything, especially a prominent public position like Mayor of West Palm Beach. Should a Republican, especially one as well-connected as Mitchell obtain the Mayor’s seat in West Palm Beach, the GOP would have a ready made star as the highest-profile political figure in major Florida media market. Lois Frankel used this Mayor’s office to bag a Congressional seat, something she was unable to do when she ran as a State Representative or when she sought statewide office in short-lived run while serving as House Minority Leader.
As Ryan Ray in SaintPetersBlog points out, Mitchell’s statewide Republican connections are extensive. Mitchell’s mother is the immediate past Chairwoman of the Republican Party in Palm Beach County, while her brother was a leading aide to CFO Tom Gallagher. Her ex-husband is Republican super-lobbyist Richard Pinsky who actively supports her bid for Mayor. These connectionscould make Mitchell a prominent spokesperson for the statewide GOP and a symbol of party that needs someone other than white males to put forward in front of the public.
The Mayor of West Palm Beach gets constant airtime on the local TV stations and is constantly generating press. For this reason among other the idea of leading Democrats working to elect Mitchell is simply not acceptable. Senator Jeff Clemens has made a habit of meddling in local elections in the last year and his involvement while disappointing is really not terribly surprising. His quick five-year rise to the State Senate from Lake Worth Mayoral hopeful owes itself to good timing and some extremely good fortune. Clemens tended to benefit from both in the last year when immersing himself in various local campaigns in 2014. Rumors that were never properly substantiated floated that Clemens was working closely with some Republicans during the election cycle. The Saint Petersblog article makes mention of multiple Republican Senators support for Melissa McKinlay who was elected to the Palm Beach County Commission last year after a bruising primary and general election. Senator Clemens was seen as the driving force behind McKinlay’s run and was given his due by this site and others after her victory. While the Senator may have gotten away with all of that in 2014, this move smacks of a certain amount of arrogance and will likely not be well-received or forgiven by many local activists.
NOTE THE ABOVE STATEMENT FROM SENATOR CLEMENS
Beth Kennedy, as a long-term Democratic political operative (full disclosure, Beth and I have worked on many projects together in the past beginning in 2002 and I happen to like her a great deal personally) has the cover of a non-partisan election which to defend her actions. She needs to make a living and as someone who took advantage of the guise of “non-partisan” elections over a decade ago in Palm Beach County to make money (something I like to look back on as a youthful indiscretion) I am really not in a position to condemn her. However, I never would have worked for someone like Mitchell for an office as prominent as the Mayor of West Palm Beach. Ultimately, working for Mitchell is her choice but it does call into her progressive bonafides.
As for Eric Conrad, he is a rising star in the Democratic Party statewide and this is hopefully just an error in judgment on his part. But it’s the type of mistake he must be called on and hopefully will learn a lesson from.
While it is true Democrats must work with Republicans at some basic level, working for a Mayoral Candidate tied into the GOP power structure in the center of a major media market is simply treacherous. Kimberly Mitchell being elected Mayor of West Palm Beach would be BAD for progressives and EVEN WORSE for the Democratic Party. Backing her is simply not acceptable behavior by Democrats or progressive so let us hope this is simply a one-off for all those reported to be involved.
3PM 2/11 UPDATE: Landslide Strategies LLC received a $2,500 check from the Kimberly Mitchell Campaign on January 12, 2015.
The Florida Squeeze 
Are you kidding me right now. This wanna be U2 boy band member is helping these damn Republicans! This is disgusting. It is time to vote his ass out with his back up dancers.
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If Clemens is helping get Republicans elected who is helping Democrats elected. I do have to admit I thought he was a good Democrat until he helped Abruzzo with the shady audit and helped Bogdanoff last election cycle. This guy is more dumb than I thought.
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This is the problem with our party. You have all these low class dumbocrats helping republicans and not know a damn thing when it comes to the state legislature. I went to the Crist event where Clemens spoke and only 2 people showed up. I asked why and the response was…not because people dislike Crist but this dude sponsored a fracking bill. Who is the rocket scientist that got him to speak on the damn environment? PRIMARY THE COVERBAND!
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So this guy helped Shannon during the last election cycle against Greg Weiss, who is the nicest guy and most loyal…and this is what the local and state party stand for? Where is Alison? Where is Terrie Rizzo? Where is DWS? This is nuts. Beth Kennedy works for the Republican party or for the Democrats? What is beyond messed up is that scumming guy Clemens is actually trying to destroy our party! WE ARE BRINGING BACK THE MACK!
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This article should tell you have pathetic the party has become. When this guy is helping all these Republicans and the party stays silent….it makes you wonder. Remember though this is the same local party that allowed Shahid Freedman to steal money and bribe elected officials.
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This is sick. I remember during the commissioners race..the Mckinlay people were calling and screaming at people if people didn’t support her. Whose bidding is she doing now? I hope she changes who she lays down with because she might wake up with fleas…
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U lie.
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Unreal!
This is so upsetting that so called liberals do this. Yet y’all bash us north Florida boys!
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(561) 540-1140-CALL HIS DISTRICT OFFICE-TELL HIM WE DON’T SUPPORT REPUBLICANS
(561) 433-1112-CALL THE LOCAL DEC AND TELL THEM ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
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So Beth Kennedy is helping Clemens get rid of the few good Democrats we have left. I am not only going to call his office but he should expect so Motley Crew fans at his next U4 concert. This guy should be on Jon Stewart..he is a joke and part of the many reasons why Florida is a joke.
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You know what going to happen Kartik. This wanna be player is going to call you and threaten you like he has with so many others. If he does, I would report it ASAP. Trust me when I say we have Obama’s back and yours…….
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Nothing here. Sure it’s disturbing but Conrad is a nobody, Kennedy long discredited and Clemens never taken seriously except by a small group of activists. I hope they now know he’s a fraud.
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He is a fraud. The labor groups should not have supported him when he ran for Senate. Mitchell winning will destroy the Democrats. Didn’t Beth Kennedy work for Sachs, who Clemens was trying to get rid of???
The guy has to go!!!
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Kennedy worked for David Silvers in the State House 89 campaign against Bill Hager.
She did not work for the Maria Sachs campaign.
I know because I worked for both Silvers & Sachs.
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Sachs is a joke too. Get rid of Clemens and Sachs. I like Powell. He should run against Clemens. I would suppor thim.
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Just not to get you confused…I dont think Sachs is a joke.
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How in the hell did these people get away with this? I did see his band before. They are well….are no U2
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Weird guy. Really a strange dude. I like Beth Kennedy. Maybe we can talk to Beth.
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Kimberly and Ellyn are no dummies. This is why we need new people in the process. This is just nuts. I know this much. If the party does not change things quickly, you will have Mitchell as a CFO or something by 2018. Wake up and get guys and ladies like this out of the process. Aren’t they also doing the campaign for the guy whose daughter killed someone. You wonder why we are made fun of so much. Just another example.
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Yes the rumors have been floating for a while about this and it is very disappointing. Thank you for putting it in such clear terms here. Thank you to Ryan also for his excellent article over at that other website that shall not be named.
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Excellent article but it is quite surprising or really not that he Kartik somehow missed one name that was mentioned in the St. Peter’s blog article. That of course would be Ashley Walker. This is her second Republican in less than a year. Maybe the author simply missed that line in the other article. But considering he’s done his own reporting he know that one line is correct but he just chose not to write about it. But otherwise fine work. Certainly the other three need to be taken to task also. Clemens especially as the whole world knows he backed Bogdanoff.
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Is there actually proof that Ashley Walker is involved? I want to see it to believe it. Clemens for sure backed Ellyn. I think he is also giving business to Latvala’s printing company. So he get Republicans elected and give them business too. I hope Lois or someone gets someone to run against this guy. He is just bad news personally and professionally. He was a joke when he was a mayor too. Yes he was working with Abruzzo to push the odd audits. The mayor of Delray is not one of Andre’s guy so Abruzzo and Clemens tried to screw with him and because they wouldn’t hire Abruzzo’s buddy. Two shits for brains.
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Oh I remember this. Doesn’t Abruzzo work for Weiss and Handler. Both Clemens and Abruzzo think they can run for Congress. I would not elected either of these guys as Student Council President at my 17 year old son’s school
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Isn’t Beth Kennedy on the board of the Young Dems? Are they condoning this behavior? Do loyalty oaths mean nothing? Oh, wait, this is Palm Beach County.
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Beth was elected (Unopposed) as VP of Outreach in the December 2014 meeting, before we were aware of her working with these candidates. Since being elected then she has failed to show up to any of our Board meeting & General meetings.
Because of these actions, Beth Kennedy is no longer being a member of the PBCYD Board.
Adam Marc Leonard
Vice President of Finance & Fundraising
Palm Beach County Young Democrats
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I dont think she is on. I think they threw her off!
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Beth was elected (Unopposed) as VP of Outreach in the December 2014 meeting, before we were aware of her working with these candidates. Since being elected then she has failed to show up to any of our Board meeting & General meetings.
Because of these actions, Beth Kennedy is no longer being a member of the PBCYD Board.
Adam Marc Leonard
Vice President of Finance & Fundraising
Palm Beach County Young Democrats
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So are they working with scumbags Eric Johnson too since they could not come up with an original name of their own LLC? Or are they so desperate that they had to make it sound like Johnson’s firm? Is Johnson still involved? Last I heard he was busy returning Wolf of Wall Street campaign dollars. That guy totally fucked Murphy’s career
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Clemens is a diehard Democrat. He has stated that he is not working for either Mayoral candidate. Ask Mitchell if she has a signed endorsement from him? The answer will be no. As for McKinlay, she is a Democrat. Do your homework or call yourself squeezed.
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A dir hard Democrat would be helping the Democratic candidate. So you are saying he is a hypocrite?
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Great job on this article!
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Clemens is obviously blogging as WPB Voter. He commented on your FB page on the squeeze and then deleted it..now pretending he is WPB Voter.
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Senator Clemens played an active role in the campaign for Bogdanoff against Maria Sachs. Proof was all over Facebook in conversations between him and Aaron Nevins. Wonder if anyone got a screen shot of it.
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Yes well remembered. I bet Clemens forgets that! He’s toast. Maybe now Kartik will lay off operatives and realize the elected officials like Clemens who appear “pure” and not transactional like those he attacks including myself are in fact the worst type of hypocrites.
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How does that Republican operative Aaron Nevins have so much influence in Democratic circles? I saw he was on Jack Seiler’s host committee.
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Clemens and others will now pretend this is not the case…but don’t worry there is always a paper trail….even in PBC. Mack or Bernard in 2016
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Jeff Clemens has been involved in the following races: Bogdanoff, McKinlay, the guy whose daughter is in jail for being a killer (running against Keith James) We love you Keith! and now the daughter of the chairwoman of the Republican party. Dude at least be smart about it and don’t talk about it at club meetings and we elected officials. You are not smart my friend. Not smart.
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This is an interesting article because the stuff in here is well-known to be true but Kartik lays out in the beginning that he can confirm much of what is in the St. Petersblog story but not all of it. Then he proceeds to conveniently avoid the name Ashley Walker in this entire narrative. This is interesting because she is the biggest fish of the four mentioned in the other story. Everybody knows Jeff Clemens has fooled around in all these different races and this isn’t the first republican he’s backing. The other two that are mentioned in both articles are simply not that important. Maybe for insiders they are but for the average person they don’t matter. But the squeeze has chosen to ignore Obama’s former campaign manager in the state wow St. Peter’s blog has mentioned that. Big big discrepancy.
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Sachs can’t even keep a residence in her district. I worked on her campaign, and it was as exciting as working for Crist. McKinley is a dem, so I’m not sure why everyone’s hating on her. Jeri has never struck me as a particularly astute leader, and Frankel tried and failed to shut down Clematis for Cityplace Disney BS and gentrification. Razed houses and not so much as a parking lot after her REIT tried to buy up all the land before it got bought.
This is why I’m NPA. Democrats aren’t good, just because they’re democrats, and as a party, are wrong almost as often as the GOP.
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Kartik you have been nothing but a total ass lately hitting consultants, pushing the party left and rallying activists to lynch professional campaign people.
I think this is a bit of an easy story because we all know this is happening. But I am glad both you and Scorsch put it in print. Clemens DID BACK Bogdanoff. Yet while you took shots at virtually everyone in the state who were less treacherous than Clemens including Rouson, Rader, Taylor, and a bunch of operatives like myself you left Clemens alone because he was a “progressive.”
This is good reporting and hopefully a lesson learned for you. Just because someone claims to be a progressive and votes the right way doesn’t mean they aren’t super selfish election time. Elections have consequences and what Clemens has now done over and over again is far more damaging to Democrats than anything Kevin Rader or Jared Moskowitz have done though you love to attack them.
Good job here.
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too bad there isn’t a popular termed out state legislator with progressive Dem bonafides living in Clemen’s district…oh, wait a minute
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I guess Kerner could run. Is he in that district?
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Kartik- You are a fool even responding to Clemens in writing on Facebook! He’s guilty as sin everyone who actually knows the situation knows the truth. Why give him the opportunity to pen a response full of lies?
Honestly everybody in Tallahassee knows not only this is true but that he basically backed bogdanoff. He’s going crazy because he wants to be Democratic Leader! Everybody sat on the sidelines and let him help bogdanoff! It’s about time he was exposed!
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Clemens is just doing what any entitled person after a 17 vote landslide would do. Kartik you’re allegedly an LBJ fan: how big was his landslide?
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This is actually old news or would have been if reporters did a job. This has been floating for WEEKS!!! People have long known about all of this. Kudos for finally figuring it out albeit very late in the game. This article needed to be written January 9 not February 9.
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Are we supposed to be shocked???
I sure as hell am not!
This is how it goes when you have nonpartisan elections and people who are trying to build personal empires and personal fortunes.
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You need to do a day 2 story about Clemens support for Bogdanoff. Talk to Maria Sachs. Call her! Ask around. You think this is bad? That’s treasonous!
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Wow, this blog is disgusting. No wonder we can’t find any good candidates to run statewide. Who would want to, considering the lies told in this article and in the comments?
Fact, from someone who consulted with Senate Victory in the Sachs election: Jeff Clemens called out the Firefighters for supporting Bogdanoff and raised money through Senate Victory for Maria Sachs.
You people are not very smart. Gossiping about the most progressive member of the Florida Senate just serves to make you more irrelevant.
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It’s about time!
Ryan Ray did what Kartik refused to do and didn’t allow him to when at this site. We know for a fact card it was given lots of information about Clemens playing with Republicans and getting involved in the Senate president’s race. He chose not to pursue that he chose not to assign it to another writer he chose to sit on it because he has to create this narrative about progressives. He has to take shots at conservative Democrats while protecting those that are perceived as progressives do the same exact thing and in this case worse. Ryan moving to Scorsch’s less ideological site allowed him to do it. It’s not like carted didn’t have all this information. He simply didn’t want to publish it so if anything those of you praising him should be angry at him for taking a dive for all this time to protect someone perceived as a progressive. It was only one someone else publish the story that he panicked put together what he had went to that story and gave an analysis that tried to cover up the fact that he had covered up for this shameful behavior.
All of this having been openly stated now thankfully this is now out in the open and people know the truth. I guess Kartik does get credit for finally publishing it.
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Kartik
You are an enabler! That statement from
Clemens is a BOLD FACE LIE yet you print that! Why is his name on the LLC JUST CREATED TO HELP MITCHELL???
Don’t backpedal or you’ll simply be seen as a weak scared little boy.
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Truth Teller (I like that name from an anonymous poster, well done):
The LLC was not created to help Mitchell at all. It is a company I formed with Beth Kennedy to consult for Democratic candidates. Prior to the formation of the company, she had previously agreed to be involved in Kimberly Mitchell’s race, which is probably where your confusion lies. So actually the BOLD FACE (sic) LIE is that I am helping Mitchell in any way. I am not. As I said above, I haven’t spoken to her in three years, other than perhaps an occasionally “hello” in passing at an event.
Your suggestion that Kartik is somehow weak for printing the truth seems strange. But if you’re interested in actually debating the subject without the ability to cast false aspersions that anonymity provides, please friend me on FaceBook or call my office and we can discuss it.
Best,
Jeff
P.S. The repeated suggestion that I somehow conspired to help Ellyn Bogdanoff in a race against my Democratic colleague Maria Sachs is for stupid people only. There is no way I would actively campaign to take away the Democratic Caucus’ power to halt certain Legislative maneuvering. I raised money for Maria Sachs’ re-election. The suggestion that I did is absurd, and I challenge anyone to produce any real evidence to the contrary.
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Do you dispute that your company was paid $2500, in addition to the separate payments to Kennedy and Conrad. This is all public record now. You are too far up Latvala’s ass to see the truth.
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Clemens you are fucking liar! Everyone knows you were helping Bogdanoff and her staff had no problem telling people either. You are delusional. Your fucking name is on the LLC! Either you are a liar or an idiot and either way, you are not fit for office.
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[…] Kimberly Mitchell attracting Democratic support in West Palm Beach Mayor’s bid | The Florida Squee… […]
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Kartik & Ryan
Check the WPB City Elections reports. That will erase all doubt.
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[…] this week Saint Petersblog reported and we analyzed the effort of some Democrats to support what we at the Florida Squeeze see as the dangerous […]
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This is NOT a democratic way. To BLINDLY support ANYONE who runs as a Democrat JUST TO BE ELECTED is disgusting, and that is EXACTLY what Muoio has done! All her support is chamber and big developers, she is corrupt and her ENTIRE CIVILIAN OVERSITE BOARD RESIGNED and SHE FOUGHT VOTER APPROVED COUNTY OVERSITE WITH THE INSPECTOR GENERAL. She is a TERRIBLE DO NOTHING WEAK MAYOR! I APPLAUD JEFF AND ANYONE WHO PLACES PEOPLE ABOVE POLITICS. SHAME ON THIS ARTICLE AUTHOR WHO NEED TO TELL THE FULL STORY AND, BY THE WAY, I 90% SUPPORT DEMOCRATS BUT DON’T SIMPLY VOTE PARTY LINE EVERY TIME AND NO ONE SHOULD!
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Martin,
Wonderful commentary: judge the canidate on their character and ability , not on their party lines!!
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