By Buddy Nevins
Political Writer
Posted September 2 2003

Broward County Property Appraiser William "Bill" Markham, who was elected in 1968 at the high-water mark of Republican power in Broward and today is the lone GOP countywide officeholder, intends to become a Democrat this week, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has learned.

Markham's conversion is a major coup for the Democratic Party, which has had little good news since 2000 when the presidential recount in Florida gave the election to George W. Bush. Although the state Republican Party does not keep statistics, a GOP spokesman in Tallahassee said Markham may be the longest-serving Republican in Florida. He has held the same office for more than 34 years.

"He'll be a wonderful addition to our party," said Mitch Ceasar, the Broward County Democratic leader.
Republicans are understandably upset at the news that they are losing one of the deans of Florida GOP politics.
"It's difficult. He's been part of the family," said Kevin Tynan, chairman of the Broward Republican Party.

The party switch ends a year of reflection by Markham, whose break with the GOP was a tough decision to make. His ancestors were abolitionists in the Midwest who became Republicans around the time of the Civil War. His father-in-law was the late Republican Gov. James Rhodes of Ohio.

It was his razor-thin win in his 2000 re-election that convinced Markham he needed to change parties to remain in office. The political veteran squeaked by the little-known Democratic political novice Arthur Hurley by 1,323 votes of more than 500,000 cast.

Markham has run two polls, one late last year and one this summer, which found he would do well in a re-election campaign as a Democrat, according to one of his political consultants, Ron Gunzburger.

In meetings with state Democratic Chairman Scott Maddox and Ceasar over the past few months, Markham has sought guarantees in return for switching parties. Ceasar has been courting Markham for several years.
In response, the Broward Democratic Party has prodded key Democratic activists to pledge their support for Markham's re-election, according to several Democratic leaders. The goal is to rob any potential challenger of support from political and community leaders for next year's Democratic primary.

Party officials say dozens of elected officials and community and condominium leaders already have agreed to endorse Markham. Amedeo "Trinchi" Trinchitella, the Democratic leader of Century Village in Deerfield Beach, signed the endorsement card and called the pending switch to the Democratic Party "a feather in our cap. He's been good for all the people and [his property assessments are] very fair to everybody."

In interviews with the Sun-Sentinel this year about the possibility of a switch, Markham said his platform would not change if he becomes a Democrat. He said he would continue to emphasize preserving the Homestead Exemption, which allows home owners to exclude the first $25,000 of the assessed value from property taxes, and keeping appraisals as low as lawfully possible.Markham joins a list of former Broward Republicans who became Democrats over the past three decades without any harm to their political careers. But Markham's switch is a particularly bitter blow to the Republicans because he is the only survivor from the time three to four decades ago when the GOP ruled Broward County. The reason for the Republican dominance was that most of the migrants to Broward at that time were from GOP strongholds in the Midwest.

"From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, almost everybody in office was a Republican. The House members, the Senate members, the County Commission, the School Board, most of them were Republicans," recalled Jim Scott, the only Republican county commissioner left in Broward.
Today about 51 percent of Broward's voters are Democrats, compared with 29 percent Republican and the rest independent or members of minor parties.