Javier Manjarres v. Richard DeNapoli

The Shark Tank blogger Javier Manjarres filed a grievance against the Broward Republican Executive Committee and its chairman Richard DeNapoli. Manjarres asked Republican Party of Florida chair David Bitner to allow him to film Broward Republican Executive Committee meetings. Marjarres was ejected from a meeting for attempting to film. The Republican Party of Broward County is a private nonprofit organization. They are not subject to Florida's Sunshine laws as the state government. Manjarres has been critical of DeNapoli on his blog.

I experienced the Democratic version (to a lesser extent) when I pointed out the obvious fact that Kendrick Meek was a horrible Senate candidate. Efforts by the Meek campaign to pressure me into silence had the opposite effect. I predict that Manjarres will come at the Republican Party of Broward County hard after he lost his grievance. Especially when Marjarres' career history was brought up in an attack against him. To add insult to injury, a complaint filed by the Broward REC against Marjarres will be dropped if he agrees to stop blogging about the Broward REC.

Technically, the Broward REC had the right to not allow media to film parts of the meeting. Manjarres is an alternate REC member and is subject to the county party's rules. DeNapoli had the right to bar Manjarres from filming. It may turn out to be a bad move for DeNapoli to piss off a blogger with ties to Marco Rubio and the tea party movement. For progressives this fight is going to be awesome.

RPOF Grievance