Upcoming Elections for West Boca Raton

The candidates have filed their paperwork for the 2012 elections. At the statewide level, there is a primary and general election race for US Senate with many candidates in the major parties and also candidates who have no party affiliation. If any of the candidates come to West Boca, we hope to cover such events.
While most media attention is focused on the presidential race, there are significant local elections coming up that more directly affect West Boca. And because there are far fewer voters, your vote matters more in these races. Any voter can vote by absentee ballot. Get more information here: Palm Beach County Absentee Ballots.
The races that are more local include US Congress. In our district Democrat Ted Deutch (website not working at the moment), who apparently lives about 10 houses from me though I’ve never met him. Also on the ballot are Cesar Henao and Mike Trout, neither of whom appear to be associated with a major party.
For State Senate for our area, the GOP has two excellent candidates I’ve met quite a few times: Geoff Sommers and Melanie Peterson. The two will face off in a primary in August. The winner will face Democrat Joseph Abruzzo (website under construction) in the general election.
For State Representative, there will be a Democratic primary between Steve Perman and Kevin Rader, also in August. The winner will face Republican James Ryan O’Hara in November.
These two primaries were a bit of a surprise to many. Peterson and Rader were both originally planning to run different offices and switched at the last minute. Rader’s switch was apparently so recent that Google thinks he’s still running for Senate. This is what I saw in my search for his name just now:

For County Commission, West Boca is in District 5. There are three Democrat candidates who will compete in a primary, with the winner facing Republican Paul Tocker. Tocker is an old friend of mine so I have to confess I’m rooting for him. The Democrat candidates are: Mary Louise Berger, Steven H. Meyer, and Rick Mark Neuhoff.
There are a number of other positions up for election. Click the following for: Qualified candidates for Palm Beach County.
We will do our best to cover the elections most local to West Boca, and will reach out to candidates to ask them to answer questions about what they would do in office.