Palm Beach Democrats Had Better Fix Things Now | Pat Beall

Imagine Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried white-knuckling her way down a mountain road, while in the backseat, Palm Beach County’s Democratic Executive Committee is going at it. He started it! She hit me! Hey, leave me alone! Fried could have hit the brakes and had a come-to-Jesus meeting. She might have ordered up the constructive mix of crackdown and marching orders needed for the quarreling local Dems to muscle through election day. She might have warned them: Not one more word till we’re all off this mountain. After all, Fried was in the driver’s seat. But that’s not what happened. Angry people stayed angry, and there’s an awful lot of anger in Palm Beach County right now. CourtesyPat Beall is an editorial writer and columnist for the Sun Sentinel, focusing mainly on Palm Beach County issues. On March 4, Fried suspended Mindy Koch, the local party chair and target of the most vociferous criticism. On March 24, a committee of state party leaders reinstated her. Days later, the state party’s judicial council voted to oust her. On May 1, Koch resigned, citing a “subversive, cancerous element” tearing the party apart. If this is anyone’s victory, it has come wrapped in a chaotic public scandal, a laundry list of what may be irreconcilable differences and an organization that risks careening into irrelevance six months from the November election. To be fair, Fried is not responsible for driving one balky car down the mountain.