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Vote NO on all 8 · November 3
The mail telling you to vote yes is paid for in Tallahassee. We live here.
Hi neighbor,
You may have gotten a glossy mailer this week: “Vote YES for Lauderdale-By-The-Sea Questions 1–8.” Turn it over and read the small print. It was paid for by Florida Taxpayers Defense, 115 East Park Avenue, Suite 1, Tallahassee.
The mailer attacking Randy Strauss came from the same address: Accountability in Government, Inc., 115 East Park Avenue, Suite 1, Tallahassee.
Front and back of the “Vote YES on 1–8” mailer. Our beach on the front, a Tallahassee committee in the corner, and a list on the back that leaves out what three of the questions actually do.
Front and back of the mailer attacking Randy Strauss in the race for Mayor. The same Tallahassee suite.
Glossy, expensive, and from out of town. Our Town elections are nonpartisan, and this town has always been run by the people who live in it. Now committees in Tallahassee, paid for by other committees, are spending money to change our charter and to sway our race for Mayor.
We are your neighbors. We live with these changes. Let’s Protect Our Paradise is a group of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea residents. We live here, we vote here, and we will live with these eight amendments long after the mail stops coming. The people paying for the “yes” mail will not. |
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Who is behind the Tallahassee mail
Two committees. One address. No donors you could name.
We looked them up in the State of Florida’s own records. Here is what they show:
| 📍 | Same address. Both are political committees registered at 115 East Park Avenue, Suite 1, in Tallahassee. That suite is a law firm’s office. | | 👥 | Same people. Both list the same chairman, treasurer and phone number. | | 🚫 | Not one person paid. Neither committee reports a single donation from a person since 2025. Every dollar came from other political committees. | | 💸 | Money in, money out, in two days. On October 8, 2025, Florida Taxpayers Defense, the “Vote YES” mailer, took in $943,500 from other committees. Within two days, $940,000 went straight back out to two more committees. | | 🎭 | The names are just labels. Accountability in Government, the Strauss mailer, got all $535,000 of its 2026 money from one committee, Greater Florida Foundation. That same committee also pays committees called “Social Justice PAC” and “Holding Developers Accountable.” Whatever the name says, it is the same money. | | 🏗️ | Follow it far enough and look who is up there. Three or four steps up, this money reaches sources like a large real estate developer, a medical marijuana company and personal-injury law firms, spread across races all over Florida. The records cannot show which of them, if any, paid for the mail in your mailbox. |
Source: Florida Division of Elections committee registry and campaign finance reports, as filed through mid-August 2026. Reports covering this month’s mail are not due yet.
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What the mailer calls “common sense updates”
A Tallahassee committee wants you to vote yes on all eight. Here is what they do.
1 | More time for Town Hall, less time for your petition. The ballot deadline stays the same, so you would have to start and finish a petition sooner. | 2 | Four-year terms for the Mayor. That doubles your wait to change the majority: from every two years to every four. | 3 | A term-limited Mayor can move straight to a Commission seat, with no break. | 4 | A term-limited official can be appointed right back onto the Commission. | 5 | District lines written into the charter. A no vote changes nothing: the districts stay as they have been since 2004. | 6 | Ethics removals decided in Tallahassee, not at a hearing here in Town Hall. A Tallahassee committee is paying for the mail asking you to approve it. | 7 | The yearly audit could be due 3 months later. 9 months after the year ends instead of 6. | 8 | A shorter residency rule, labeled “clean up.” It cuts how long a candidate must have lived here from about eleven months to six. |
The mailer promises “Transparent Rules.” It was paid for by a committee whose money cannot be traced to a single person.
Every question, in plain English, with the Town’s own documents: read the full rundown.
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November 3
Hold them accountable. Hold our candidates accountable. You can only do that if you keep your rights.
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NO |
on all 8 charter amendments
We are asking you to trust three neighbors with your vote. Do not trust anyone with your rights, including them. Vote NO on all eight and you keep the power to hold all of them to their word, including the three we recommend.
One reason for all eight. The people asking you to rewrite the charter are three of the five people it is meant to keep in check. Vote no on every one and it stays as residents wrote it. Anything worth changing can come back on its own.
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November 3
Vote for these three. Town first.
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Randy Strauss
For Mayor
Voted no on putting all eight amendments on the ballot.
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Howard Goldberg
Seat 1 · District 1
Longtime Chamber of Commerce voice for the businesses on Commercial Boulevard. Committed to the charter as residents wrote it.
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Patrick Ferguson
Seat 2 · District 2
Worked with neighbors on a citizen charter petition. Committed to the charter as residents wrote it.
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Each has committed to vote in public, with their reasons on the record. If any of them breaks that promise, you should keep every right to act. All three races are decided by the whole town.
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Election Day
Tuesday, November 3
Vote by mail, early, or on Election Day. Mail ballots and early voting times are at browardvotes.gov. Town races here are decided by a few hundred votes.
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Forward this to the neighbor who says “but they promised.” Ask them what the promise is worth once the rights are gone.
Your neighbors at Let’s Protect Our Paradise
Where this comes from: the Florida Division of Elections committee registry and campaign finance reports for Florida Taxpayers Defense (account 64313) and Accountability In Government, Inc. (account 66015); the two mailers, photographed by residents, with their names and addresses removed; and Ordinance 2026-04. Every quote is word for word. All of it, with links, is at letsprotectourparadise.org.
Why you’re getting this: you signed up at letsprotectourparadise.org, a neighbor passed your email along, or your address is in Florida’s public voter-registration file. If it’s not for you, the unsubscribe link at the bottom works with one click. No hard feelings.
Questions, corrections, or you think we’ve got something wrong: hello@letsprotectourparadise.org. We answer.
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