Joel Engelhardt
Jessica AbramskySuspended Mike Caruso won’t give up spot on the ballot but won’t give interviews either as Boca Council Member Yvette Drucker spells out her positions.
In what had been shaping up as a major test of whether a Republican could get elected countywide in Palm Beach County, Mike Caruso squared off with Democrat Yvette Drucker.
And then came Caruso’s arrest on child molestation charges.
Now, the Republican Party is fleeing Caruso at the urging of the governor and the candidate hasn’t raised a penny since the Florida Department of Law Enforcement nabbed him on Aug. 18.
Drucker, a six-year Boca Raton City Council member, said she doesn’t want to talk about Caruso and his arrest but text messages from supporters make sure voters don’t forget.
“Palm Beach County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller Mike Caruso, a former Republican state legislator, was arrested … on child sexual abuse charges,” one text from City Wise Florida said. “Don’t let Mike Caruso anywhere near public office!”
Caruso, who is out on bail and living at his Lake Park condo, maintains that he is the best choice for the job he held for one year as an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis before DeSantis suspended him from office on the day of his arrest.
The governor’s office backed the suspension notice with Caruso’s arrest report, which detailed allegations from a family member that he had molested a child younger than 5 years old. Orlando-area Circuit Judge James Craner set bail at $160,000 and ordered Caruso to stay out of Orange County, where his accuser lives.
Caruso, 68, insists that he is not guilty and that he is actively running. But he refused requests for an interview and doesn’t have a campaign website.
“Mike Caruso brings a level of financial expertise, executive leadership and firsthand experience that makes him uniquely qualified to serve as Palm Beach County’s clerk of court and comptroller,” his public relations manager, Juda Engelmayer, said in a statement. “This isn’t a position where someone should have to learn on the job. Mike Caruso has the qualifications, the experience and, most importantly, has already demonstrated that he can do the job.”
Drucker, 51, points to her background in elected office and the private sector to show she is capable of managing the clerk’s office and its 650 employees. Clerk employees oversee court filings from traffic tickets to murder cases, provide clerical duties in courts and County Commission meetings and monitor and audit county spending.
Another key task that has brought the clerk’s job into prominence is directing the county’s investment portfolio. Caruso, who was appointed clerk in August 2025 to complete the term of Democrat Joe Abruzzo when he left to become county administrator, maintained the office’s commitment to investing county savings in Israeli bonds, drawing fierce criticism from opponents of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Drucker, who identified herself as Jewish, said she, too, would continue the policy, which has resulted in the county investing more than $1 billion in the bonds, which pay interest at more than 4.5%.
“My job, once I’m elected, is to understand the portfolio, make sure that we’re diversified, and make sure that, if it’s still good, to invest in Israeli funds,” she said in an interview. “If there’s an issue that we need to diversify more, or we need to move things around because it makes for a good financial decision, then we’ll do that.
“Right now, with Amendment 3 looming and budgets (of constitutional officers) being cut from the state level, it’s very hard to turn away from a bond that is yielding us such high returns.”
Drucker’s parents were Cuban immigrants
Drucker was born in New Jersey and raised in Miami by Cuban parents who immigrated in 1957. As the child of working parents and the first family member to go to college, she cited as one of her life regrets her decision to stay close to home and work her way through college even though she had been admitted to Florida State and Boston University.
“So that’s kind of a disappointing thing. I never got the college experience,” she said at a candidate’s forum in August. “I had to work the entire time that I went to college.”
She worked for 13 years for ADP TotalSource, which handles human resources, payroll and benefits for smaller companies.
With her two children at home, she left in 2008 to dedicate herself to public service. She lobbied in Tallahassee and Washington on issues such as foster care reform, human trafficking, victim assistance, food banks, and “anything to deal with children, family and women,” she said in an interview with Stet News.
She volunteered with organizations such as the Junior League of Boca Raton, committing in her words to making a difference.
“That’s always been the underlying cause for me. What am I gonna do to help someone’s life today? What am I gonna do to save a life? It’s a lot of my work.”
In 2020, the Boca Raton City Council selected her from among 32 applicants to fill the term of Jeremy Rodgers, who left for military deployment. She won a four-way race for the seat in 2021 and has held it since, but is now term-limited.
Caruso entered politics in 2018, narrowly winning a Delray Beach-based state House seat. He held it until DeSantis appointed him to the clerk’s job as term limits loomed. He also had been mentioned among appointees the governor considered for lieutenant governor.
Drucker voted in favor of the controversial, 765-unit downtown Boca Raton development project in January that called for a new city hall but spawned the Save Boca resistance, saying “I have loved this project from the very beginning. I believe that we need more jobs. We need more workforce housing. We need affordable housing. We need more restaurants, and we need a place of being.”
She served on the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization board, which sets priorities for state roadways, and served for the past year as its chairperson.
She suggests that her appeal crosses partisan lines.
“I’m a professed moderate and I’ve always been, and that’s why I have support from both sides and in the middle as well, because I feel like I can have a conversation with folks,” she said.
Drucker raises $300,000; Caruso stuck at $66,825
To run for clerk, she dropped plans to run against former Democratic state Rep. David Silvers for a state Senate seat.
Direct contributions to Drucker’s campaign amounted to $68,687 through Oct. 2. Caruso raised $66,825 after giving back $1,500 after his arrest.
Drucker also has a state political committee, Drucker for Florida, that has taken in $231,450 since May 2024. She has donated $95,000 from that committee to the Florida Democratic Party.
Among Drucker’s contributors is CPG Property Services (formerly Crocker Partners), which gave $25,000. Plus, her PAC got $19,000 from A Sunny Tomorrow, a state PAC that accepts money from developers.
Boca developer James Batmasian is behind $25,000 in contributions to Drucker and her PAC and lobbyist Ron Book accounted for $11,000.
Caruso took in $7,000 from companies associated with Boca Raton real estate investor Joseph Carosella, $4,250 from companies and individuals tied to the Delray Beach-based Banyan Group development company, $2,000 from donors related to Batmasian, and $1,000 each from Ranger Construction and retired road-builder George Elmore.
While Caruso points to his accounting background and on-the-job experience, Drucker said she learned a lot about budgeting and overseeing executives as a Boca Raton council member. But she also says she spoke to the person who is running the clerk’s office in Caruso’s absence, longtime deputy clerk Shannon Ramsey-Chessman.
“She’s amazing. She’s been there for a long time. She has institutional knowledge. I have been in contact with her because I want to make sure that she stays no matter what happens,” Drucker said.
If Drucker wins, she said she would work to restore trust in the office.
“The first 100 days, we’re really gonna have to work internally to really rebrand ourselves to really explain to the community that we’re open for business and that the office is running and that there’s new leadership,” she said.
