by Javier Manjarres

**Apparently Petrocelli and DeNapoli did not like the fact that they were caught endorsing in a Republican primary, so they took down the original post. I was able to capture this trace that the post existed:

 

Rico Petrocelli | RedState

 

The questionable actions by certain members of the Broward Republican Executive Committee (BREC) continue to deepen the divide felt throughout its membership. Rico Petrocelli, who was hired by Chairman Richard Lee DeNapoli as the BREC’s Executive Director, has just issued an endorsement of former U.S. Senator George LeMieux in the contested  2012 U.S. Senate Republican primary race.  Petrocelli will likely claim that his endorsement of LeMieux is a personal one and not one made as an official of the  BREC, but no one is going to be fooled by these semantics.

Petrocelli’s endorsement again raises an issue that the BREC had supposedly put to bed a long time ago- that the body would not endorse a candidate in a contested Republican primary. Petrocelli’s actions are an unfortunate reminder of the contested Gubernatorial primary between Governor Crist and Tom Gallagher, in which case the BREC pushed the ‘self-destruct button’ and endorsed Crist over Gallagher in the Republican Gubernatorial Primary in 2006, a move that has caused irreparable damage to both BREC and the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) ever since.  The BREC is considered to have been ‘Crist County’ before and after his term as governor, and now the body seeks to be known as LeMieux’s stronghold of support.

Several other BREC board members have also publicly stated their support for LeMieux over the other Republican candidates in the race, Mike Haridpolos, Mike McCalister, and Adam Hasner. Let’s not forget to mention that in 2010, disgraced former RPOF Chairman Jim Greer first ‘personally endorsed’ Governor Charlie Crist over now, Senator Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate race, before trying to force the RPOF and the RNC to follow suit.

This is exactly the kind of behavior that cannot be tolerated by the RPOF if it hopes to be able to unify the party as a whole in time for the 2012 General election.

Here is Petrocelli’s “endorsement”:

Recently, Senator George LeMieux participated in a debate hosted by
the Florida Society of News Editors and Florida Press Association.

During the debate, George proved that he has the depth of knowledge
and command of the issues to best shine the spotlight on Bill Nelson’s
decades long record of fiscal irresponsibility and wasteful government
spending.  George is the only candidate in this race that never voted
for a tax increase or asked for an earmark; he is undoubtedly the best
Republican candidate to get the job done for our conservative
principles in the United States Senate.

This is Rico Petrocelli’s biography as published in Redstate-Link to Petrocelli’s post.

 “George LeMieux Shines in U.S. Senate Debate”

 

Rico Petrocelli

Diary: Posts by Rico Petrocelli

Biography: