Broward Republican Executive Committee chair Richard DeNapoli said he won't seek re-election to the internal party post in December due to a job opportunity in another part of the state. DeNapoli now works at a bank in Broward-- he hasn't yet revealed the new job.
Other potential chair candidates are Rico Petrocelli, who is the current BREC executive director, and Karen Harrington, who lost to U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Weston) by a landslide in her second attempt. The chair is currently an unpaid position -- Petrocelli, a former Plantation council member, is paid about $36,000 a year as the director. Petrocelli wasn't flat out calling for the next chair to be paid but he said he would raise that issue with the executive committee and the membership.
"I really think I can bring consensus and teamwork," Petrocelli said.
Former Davie town mayor Tom Truex who narrowly lost his bid against DeNapoli last year told the Miami Herald that he hadn't heard about DeNapoli's decision until we alerted him. Truex said he will now think about whether he wants to run.
The November loss for Broward Republican Sheriff Al Lamberti leaves at-large school board member Donna Korn as the only countywide elected Republican in Broward. (Katie Leach, also a Republican, won her district school board seat race.)
It is not clear when the Republican activists will elect a new chair. Petrocelli says it will be Dec. 3 but DeNapoli said it could be at anytime in December.
The chair serves as a spokesperson for Broward Republicans. It can be a time consuming and thankless gig -- chairs on both sides of the aisle tend to get blamed for losses while credit is given directly to campaigns for successes. Broward Republicans are outnumbered two to one by Democrats in the county but the 250,000 registered Republican voters can influence the outcome of statewide races.
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