Herald recommends: Reject Republican who won’t disavow Proud Boys in House primary 106 | Editorial

Rejecting violent extremism should not have been hard for a Republican candidate in this primary. Unfortunately, it was.

In the Republican primary for an open seat in Florida House District 106, the Herald Editorial Board was ready to recommend the candidate who showed greater knowledge and thoughtfulness in an interview.

We changed our minds after hearing her opinion about the Proud Boys. The far-right, self-described “Western chauvinist” group was labeled extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the FBI. Its members helped orchestrate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack last year in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election and disrupt democracy. Several were charged with seditious conspiracy.

It should be easy for even the staunchest conservative to disavow the group’s action. The Proud Boys don’t represent Republican values, even though some of them are members of the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee, the New York Times reported. Because the Proud Boys have a growing influence in local politics, we believe it’s important to elect people willing to stand up to extremism.

Unfortunately, candidate Lynn Su Sutjapojnukul, 51, a mortgage professional, couldn’t meet that standard. When asked about the Proud Boys, she answered, “I haven’t seen anything extremist” at Republican Executive Committee meetings. She added that while “some of them are very extreme,” many are “just about bringing masculinity back to families.”

“I do know some of them who are Proud Boys, they wear their shirts and they seem pretty peaceful to me,” Sutjapojnukul told the Editorial Board. “I haven’t met the hardcore-type people, so it’s really difficult to speak about, because some of them, I know them. I’m an acquaintance of theirs.”

We understand that not all Proud Boys carry out violence or were on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. That’s not the point. It shouldn’t be “difficult to speak about” and condemn efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power. The Proud Boys riled up protesters, identified access points to the Capitol and at times even joined in the violence, a New York Times investigation found.

Sutjapojnukul faces former reality TV star and socialite Fabian Basabe and Douglas John Ross, who refused to sit in for a virtual interview with the Editorial Board once he found out he would be recorded and excerpts of it could be posted online.

Unfortunately, voters have no good alternatives.

District 106 covers Miami-Dade’s coastal areas like Miami Beach and Surfside (Democrats have their own primary on Aug. 23). Independent voters make up the largest share of the electorate, followed by Democrats.

Dubbed the “male Paris Hilton” by New York tabloids in the early 2000s, Basabe starred on “Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive,” a reality show about wealthy young people sent to work on a Colorado cattle ranch. Now 44, Basabe is a stay-at-home father living in Miami Beach who said he’s conservative on fiscal issues but believes the GOP needs to do a better job on social issues. He said he doesn’t know any Proud Boys and that, “I don’t support any level of extremism.”

Basabe had a rocky start in politics. He filed to run for the Miami Beach City Council last year but, after a lawsuit was filed, a judge ruled he didn’t meet the city’s one-year residency requirements and ordered Basabe to be disqualified from running. He blamed the lawsuit on people looking for a loophole to get him off the ballot to maintain power.

Basabe points out the wealthy District 106 contributes more tax revenue to the state than it receives from the Legislature. But his grasp of policy and of his own platform was flimsy in his interview with the Editorial Board.

Unlike Sutjapojnukul, who’s served on a few local boards like the North Miami Beach Redevelopment Advisory Board, Basabe hasn’t been civically engaged, though he said he’s been knocking on doors for the past year of his campaign. He didn’t know what legislation he would advance if elected, saying, “I just haven’t done enough research on that” and promised to do his homework. Though Sutjapojnukul came ready with ideas to boost Florida’s workforce through vocational training and reduce regulations for licenses for certain trade professions, we cannot recommend her.

It was hard to get Basabe’s stance on abortion rights, though, after some prodding, he said he supports exceptions to Florida’s 15-week ban for rape and incest. Sutjapojnukul said she’s “pro life,” but also supports those exceptions.

On affordable housing, one of the top issues facing his district, Basabe said “We need to give the right incentives to the builders and we need to give the right opportunities to the renters and to the homeowners,” but didn’t elaborate.

He mentioned “local regulations that are preventing progress” on housing projects but didn’t explain how the state can address that issue without infringing on the home rule of local governments.

Still, given the choice between an underqualified candidate and one who won’t condemn extremism, we’d rather give Basabe the chance to learn.

The Herald Editorial Board recommends FABIAN BASABE in the Republican primary for Florida House District 106.