Voters have a lot — personalities, policies and politics — to sift through as they make a choice in the special election to fill a Palm Beach County vacancy in the Florida House of Representatives.
There’s a supporter of vaccines, and a vaccine skeptic.
There’s an advocate of slashing property taxes, and a candidate who sees it as foolhardy to implement without a plan for how to pay for fire departments, rescue services and everything else local governments provide.
One hopeful was a champion of LGBTQ+ rainbow pride intersections when Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration ordered their removal — a fight the other candidate called a frivolous waste of tax money.
Beyond the differences over policy, the competition between Democrat Rob Long and Republican Maria Zack is not a friendly one.
Long portrays Zack as a conspiracy theorist who isn’t in touch with the real-life, everyday concerns of people she wants to represent.
“I have not heard her reference anything that would suggest she understands anything about the district,” he said. “I’ve only heard her talk in basically slogans and conspiratorial sort of culture war-related talking points.”
Zack portrays Long as a radical leftist, suggesting that he’s in line with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani of New York — even though Long has been endorsed by one of the most Republican-oriented pro-business organizations in the state, Associated Industries of Florida, and has received campaign contributions from Republicans.
“Rob Long wants to bring radical New York City politics to Florida and we can’t afford him!” Zack said via email.
A third candidate, Karen Yeh, is on the ballot, running with no party affiliation.
Unlike Zack and Long, there is much more comity between Long and Yeh. When their pictures were being taken before a League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County candidate forum (Zack did not attend) on Nov. 12, Yee encouraged photography of Long.
“He looks like a movie star,” she said.
Early voting starts Nov. 29. Election Day is Dec. 9.
Issues
The winner of the special election will fill the final year of the last state Rep. Joe Casello’s term, serving during the 2026 state legislative session.
Property taxes are by far the biggest issue facing lawmakers next year. Lawmakers are considering a range of proposals that could radically reduce property taxes for owner-occupied residences, and place them on the ballot next year.
Zack wants to slash property taxes. Long, currently a Delray Beach city commissioner, said he favors property tax relief. But, he’s said, the impact on government services, such as public safety, roads, and libraries, needs to be addressed.
Long echoed the view of many local government officials, who caution that the idea of eliminating property taxes may sound good to some, but without that source of revenue local governments won’t be able to pay for vital services.
“Would I support targeted tax relief? Absolutely, but there needs to be a plan for it. There needs to be a way to fund our services, especially fire and EMS,” Long said. “Without a plan to pay for that, I’ll absolutely oppose these efforts.”
Zack faulted Long for his position. “One of the biggest issues voters are concerned about is the reduction of property taxes. Rob Long is wrong for our district because he’s already said he wouldn’t support … proposals currently discussed by the Legislature. Instead he offers platitudes and partisan spin,” she said via email.
In a September interview, Zack also offered an unconventional view of the benefits from eliminating property taxes. She has said it would reduce teenage pregnancies — which have already declined precipitously — because family finances would be so improved that one parent could stop working and stay home with the kids.
Zack also said “one research program I did showed an 11% decrease in crime if we end property tax.”
Vaccine mandates could come before the state Legislature next year, after DeSantis’ surgeon general called for their elimination. Zack supports an end to vaccine mandates, calling it “medically and constitutionally correct.”
Long on a South Florida Sun Sentinel candidate questionnaire (Zack didn’t respond to it) disagreed, writing that “Routine childhood vaccines are one of the safest, most cost-effective tools in public health. Eliminating mandates would reverse progress against measles, polio, and whooping cough and shift costs to families, schools, and hospitals.”
Long led the ultimately unsuccessful effort in Delray Beach to preserve the LGBTQ+ rainbow pride crosswalk when DeSantis’ state Department of Transportation ordered it removed, along with others throughout the state.
He saw the state order as “an effort to silence and basically take away visibility from our LGBTQ+ community” and that removing the intersection would leave “a legacy of cowardice and capitulation.”
Zack said via email that it was an example of how “Long is wrong for our community. He is more concerned with painting sidewalks and wasting taxpayer dollars on frivolous lawsuits than supporting our local businesses, and keeping taxes low and spending in check.”
District
Florida House District 90 is bordered by Hypoluxo Road in the north, Military Trail on the west (with a couple of pockets west of Military), the Delray Beach-Boca Raton border on the South and the Atlantic Ocean on the east.
It includes all or parts of Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Briny Breezes, Golf, Gulf Stream and Ocean Ridge.
Candidates
Long, 40, lives in Delray Beach.
Yeh, 64, lives in Boynton Beach.
Voter registration records showed that, as of Nov. 20, Zack, 62, lives in Palm Beach, which is not in the 90th District.
Legislators assume their offices on Election Day, and must be residents of the district at the time of the election, which means Zack still has time to become a resident of the 90th District.
Long said Zack’s residence shows a disconnect with the district and its voters.
She disagrees. “I love this district,” she said.
Zack grew up and spent her early career in Florida, then lived in Georgia, where she worked as a lobbyist and unsuccessfully ran for government and Republican Party offices, before returning to Florida in 2018.
Long is a loss control engineer, runs a political organizing firm, is a former member of the Palm Beach Soil and Water Conservation District board, and a former president of the Palm Beach County Young Democrats.
He is about to leave the Delray Beach Commission. Under the state’s resign-to-run law, he had to submit an irrevocable resignation to run for state representative, which goes into effect whether he wins or loses.
Yeh described many endeavors. “My background is accounting, computer science, economics, and mathematics. I’m an accountant, fraud auditor, licensed real estate broker, licensed community association manager, professional teacher license, math, science, fifth grade to ninth grade,” she said.
If she wins — no-party-affiliation candidates haven’t been successful in Florida — Yeh said by not being in a party she can “introduce the laws the public wants, not exactly what Democrats want and not exactly what Republicans want.”
Yeh was unclear, in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and a reporter, who she voted for in the 2024 presidential election.
First she said she voted for the Republican candidate, then she said she did not vote for Donald Trump. Then she said she didn’t “remember exactly” who she voted for. Finally, she said, “I would say I voted for (Democrat Kamala) Harris.”
2020 election
Five years after Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Zack remains skeptical that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner, arguing that the question warrants further investigation.
Asked in a September interview who won, she said, “I can’t tell you. I assume it was President Trump, but I can’t tell you until there’s a full investigation with all its affidavits and transparency.”
Zack has repeatedly touted a theory that Italy helped steal the 2020 election from Trump.
“It’s hard to know what really happened in the 2020 election,” she said. “I can tell you there were things that seemed extremely wrong.”
Federal judges appointed by Trump and prominent Republican leaders, including former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said there was no basis to claims that Trump won. They affirmed Biden was the winner.
Money
Long had raised $74,786 as of Oct. 30 for his campaign and $59,100 as of Sept. 30 for his Long Lasting Progress political committee, for a total of 133,886.
Zack had raised $39,845 as of Oct. 30 for her campaign and $2,025 as of Sept. 30 for her Friends of Maria Zack political committee, for a total of $41,870.
Zack has also lent her campaign $34,873. Long isn’t self funding.
The largest single contribution to either candidate is $25,000 to Zack from Florida House Republican Campaign Committee, the party organization that works to keep Republican control of the state House of Representatives.
The party isn’t completely unified behind her, however. Immediately after she won the primary, the Republican who lost, Bill Reicherter, said people should vote for Long.
Long has also been endorsed by Associated Industries of Florida, which calls itself “The Voice of Florida Business,” dedicated to the “principles of prosperity and free enterprise.” In 2024, 88% of AIF’s legislative endorsements went to Republicans.
The party nominees have some notable financial supporters.
Zack received a $500 contribution from Marla Maples, a former wife of President Donald Trump. On the contribution report Zack’s campaign filed with the state Division of Elections, Maples’ occupation was listed as “humanitarian.” An invitation to a Delray Beach campaign fundraiser for Zack showed Maples was on the host committee for the event.
Another contribution keeping with Zack’s political views is $1,000 from the Make America Healthy Again political action committee. It was started after the 2024 election by people associated with the most prominent advocate of the so-called MAHA movement and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Long has multiple contributions from real estate and development interests, and from lawyer-lobbyists, such as the prominent lobbyist Ron Book.
One of Long’s notable contributions is from James Batmasian Investment, Ltd.
Batmasian is a prominent Boca Raton developer who pleaded guilty in 2008 to willful failure to collect and remit payroll taxes, and was pardoned by Trump at the end of his first term. Campaign filings show the company contributed $5,000 to Long’s political committee earlier this year.
In 2018, Ashley Moody — then a candidate for the Republican nomination for Florida attorney general and now the state’s junior U.S. senator — canceled an event with Batmasian after questions were raised about her appearing there. And in 2014, U.S. Sen Rick Scott, now the state’s senior Republican senator who was at the time running for reelection as governor, canceled a fundraiser at Batmasian’s home when word got out.
Yeh has put $1,900 of her own money into her campaign, and hasn’t reported any other contributions as of Oct. 30.
Outlook
The district leans Democratic, but the contest could be competitive.
The 90th District’s registered voters are 39.3% Democratic, 30.5% Republican, 29.3% no party affiliation independent, with the rest split among various minor parties. In the 2024 presidential election, Democrat Kamala Harris won 54.6% of the vote in District 90 and Republican Trump received 44.2%, according to an analysis by Democratic data analyst Matthew Isbell.
Special elections, like the Long-Zack contest, almost always have low participation. Lower voter turnout makes the outcome trickier to predict since a small number of voters can have a huge impact.
And the Dec. 9 special election comes during an off year — between Thanksgiving in November and Hanukkah and Christmas in December — when many people don’t think about voting.
“Off year elections and special elections — elections that people generally are not aware of — tend to produce considerably smaller electorates,” said Kevin Wagner, a political scientist at Florida Atlantic University. And a smaller electorate “leads to a much greater degree of volatility.”
“When you get a small electorate, it doesn’t take a lot to shift an election,” Wagner said, explaining that victory depends on “who’s highly excited to vote in this race.”
Zack said her campaign is fueled by grassroots efforts.
“In a special election that’s all about turnout, we’re working to activate Republicans and people in the district that want common sense,” she said. “Our campaign has a great team of volunteers who are putting in the work — making phone calls, knocking doors, going to local meetings to get our message out.”
Voting details
Election Day: Dec. 9, at neighborhood polling places, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Early voting: Nov. 29 through Dec. 7, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Delray Beach Community Center, the South County Supervisor of Elections branch office in Delray Beach, and the Ezell Hester Community Center in Boynton Beach.
Mail voting: The deadline in state law to request mail ballots is 5 p.m. on Nov. 27. Even though it falls on Thanksgiving Day, it still stands, and people waiting until the last minute can request a mail ballot online.
Completed mail ballots can be dropped off at early voting locations during early voting hours. Vote by mail ballots must be returned to, and in possession of, the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on election night, Dec. 9, or they won’t be counted. Postmarks don’t count.
Information: Available at votepalmbeach.gov or by calling (561) 656-6200.
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
