
It didn’t take lobbyist Bernie Friedman long to kiss up to Parkland Mayor Michael Udine.
Udine opened a campaign for Broward County Commission on Monday. Less than 48 hours later, Friedman e-mailed invitations to a fund raiser for Udine.
This is not unusual for Friedman. He is a firm believer in the early bird gets the worm, ah, future commission votes. Bernie can always be counted on to be among the first to throw fund raisers for any likely winner for a commission seat.
And Udine is very likely to be the next County Commissioner for Northwest Broward. He is heavily favored to take Commissioner Stacy Ritter’s northwest Broward commission seat. Ritter is resigning to run the county’s tourism promotion operation.
I have no idea if Friedman believes Udine will be a great commissioner. In my opinion, lobbyists don’t care whether the commissioners are terrific public servants or shady characters. They only care if that a commissioner vote for their clients.