The Post‘s Andrew Abramson spotted this message along Dixie Highway in Lake Worth.

With Democratic Palm Beach County Commissioner Jess Santamaria remaining enigmatic on his 2010 reelection plans, Republican and longtime Wellington Councilman Carmine Priore says he’d consider running for Santamaria’s western District 6 seat if it’s open next year.

That’s potentially good news for a local GOP that hasn’t been able to recruit a District 6 candidate. The bad news: Priore says he’ll cross party lines and support Santamaria if the incumbent runs again.

Santamaria says he’ll announce in January or February whether he’s running. Meanwhile, attorney Elissa Pearl has opened a Democratic campaign in District 6.

Pearl and Santamaria recently met for the first time.

“Our philosophies are similar and it appears that we care about the same things,” said Pearl after the hourlong sit-down in the commissioner’s office.

Santamaria, 72, called the 37-year-old Pearl “a good person” with “a young person’s idealism. We need people like that.” But Santamaria said a commissioner’s job is tough and complicated.

“My question is, (for) Elissa Pearl or anybody else, do they really have the background, the experience, the education, the training, the psychological framework to handle all of these variables on a day-to-day basis?” Santamaria said. “My first impression is, she’ll have a lot to learn.”

Pearl lives just outside District 6, which irks potential GOP candidate Priore. If Santamaria doesn’t run, Priore said, he’d consider the race because “I wouldn’t want to leave the door open to someone that doesn’t live in our area.”

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Pleased with the grass-roots volunteer organization for her 2010 Democratic campaign for county commission, school board member Paulette Burdick has put paid consultants Eric Johnson and Neil Schiller on hold — at least temporarily. Burdick is running against state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, in a Dem primary to succeed term-limited Commish Jeff Koons.

Burdick paid $1,000 in June for the consulting expertise of Johnson, who’s also chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and who works with Schiller on several local races.

“My idea was she didn’t need them,” said Palm Beach Democratic Club President Elna Laun, an unpaid Burdick backer and adviser. “I think I was one of many” offering that advice, Laun said.

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Both GOP District 27 state Senate candidates — Wellington Councilwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto and former state Rep. Sharon Merchant — are from Palm Beach County, but about 60 percent of the GOP primary voters are in Lee County.

In the scramble for Lee County support, Benacquisto will be in Fort Myers Friday for a fund-raiser whose hosts include state Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann, school board member Elinor Scricca and longtime Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson.

In an industry known for its prevailing liberalism, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Boca Raton resident Dion DiMucci is truly The Wanderer.

DiMucci — better known simply as Dion from his chart-topping Teenager In Love/Runaround Sue/The Wanderer days — turned 70 this year and is a registered Republican who has developed an admiration for conservative GOP congressional hopeful Allen West. West lost a challenge to U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, last year and is gearing for a 2010 rematch.

In a type of gig Dion says he hasn’t done before, he’s scheduled to introduce West at a Boca Raton Republican Club meeting this month and then perform a not-yet-determined number after West speaks.

Dion was part of Buddy Holly’s ill-fated 1959 Winter Dance Party tour (he skipped the doomed plane ride with Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson), and his likeness is included in the iconic crowd shot on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover (he’s right behind Tom Mix and Oscar Wilde).

To the extent he’s ever been identified with politics in the past, it’s for his 1968 recording of Abraham, Martin and John, which associated him with the folky progressivism of the era.

“I still believe in it,” Dion says of the song. But in other ways, he says, he doesn’t understand the dominant liberalism of the recording industry.

“It’s puzzling to me because I’m a rock ’n’ roller and rockers believe in truth and freedom. I don’t believe a lot of them know what the two words mean,” says Dion. “I think a lot of them have confused it (freedom) with license — giving you permission to do anything you want without regard to the consequences.”

Dion describes himself politically as “kind of an independent. … I’m liberal with my love but conservative with my thinking.”

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West Boca Community Council President Sheri Scarborough is said by well-placed sources to be considering a run for the school board seat of 21-year incumbent Sandra Richmond. One of the council’s vice presidents, Frank Barbieri, was elected to the school board last year.

As attentive readers of the Politics column undoubtedly recall, Democratic activist and former teacher/principal/school administrator Marcia Andrews is also looking at a run for Richmond’s seat. Richmond hasn’t opened a campaign, but has said she’ll “probably” seek reelection next year.

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College student Gary J. Lew is one of three candidates who have filed for the Democratic nomination to succeed term-limited state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, in 2010.

But Lew is a registered Republican. He says he signed up with the GOP because of an interest in libertarian-leaning Ron Paul, but avers that “I have never in my life voted Republican.”

He says he’ll switch his registration to Democratic.

Pat Rooney Jr. — the president of the Palm Beach Kennel Club dog track, restaurateur, attorney, radio personality, South Florida Water Management District board member and older brother of Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney — says he’s leaning toward running for a northern Palm Beach County state House seat next year and will announce his plans in September.

Rooney, a Republican, is eyeing the state House District 83 seat of state Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, who faces term limits in 2010 and is running for state Senate.

Republicans already in the race: Nancy Cardone, Francisco Rodriguez and Nick Wukoson. Former Palm Beach Gardens Councilman Hal Valeche — who ran against Tom Rooney in the 2008 GOP congressional primary — is also looking at the race. Democrats Tony Arena, Gary Lew and Mark Marciano have also filed for the District 83 seat.

Although Palm Beach County voters approved a limit of two four-year terms for county commissioners, whoever Gov. Charlie Crist appoints to replace retiring Commissioner Addie Greene might end up serving more than 11 years.

Find out how after the jump…..

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A proposal to extend term limits for state politicians has been removed from a constitutional amendment originally written to offer a property tax break to Florida’s veterans.

State attorneys told the Senate Ethics & Elections Committee there was no way the legislature could create two separate constitutional amendments with one resolution. Committee members then determined that including both proposals in one ballot question could doom the proposed tax break. The committee’s unanimous vote was taken April 7.

The bill (SJR 1550) from Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, originally included just the property tax break. The proposal to extend term limits from 8 years to 12 years was added by Community Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, during his committee meeting last month.

The bill and its House companion (HJR 1155) both have one more committee stop in their respective chambers.

LAKE WORTH — Former mayor Tom Ramiccio is planning to run for mayor again in November, when he expects current mayor Jeff Clemens to step down to pursue a 2010 campaign for state House to replace term-limited state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach (who’s running for the county commission seat of term-limited Jeff Koons).

Clemens has shown interest in running for Brandenburg’s District 89 seat, but hasn’t made an official announcement. Pete Brandenburg, husband of the state House incumbent, has already launched a campaign. Clemens and Pete Brandenburg are both Democrats.

Gov. Charlie Crist said today if lawmakers want to offer a constitutional amendment to extend term limits, “that’s their right.”

“That’s up to the people,” Crist said. “If the legislature wants to give the people the opportunity to look at that, that’s their right.”

So should voters be given a chance to increase the sales tax by one penny to help pay for public education?

Crist wouldn’t say.

“I don’t know that that’s very likely,” he said, noting the measure would need 75 percent approval from the House and Senate to be placed on a special election ballot this year.

A proposal to extend term limits for state lawmakers from 8 years to 12 years is headed to the Senate floor after a “slick move” this afternoon from Senate Community Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton. The measure would have to be approved by 60 percent of state votes in 2010.

Bennett added his amendment to a bill from Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres. Aronberg’s bill (SJR 1550) was designed to give a property tax break to disabled veterans.

“The reality is the political process and to get a bill through the process you have to work with other members,” Aronberg said.

Bennett said his intent was to create two separate ballot questions within one bill. It was not clear if that was possible. If not, Bennett said he would remove his amendment on the Senate floor.

Statehouse gadfly Brian Pitts told the committee it was a “slick move” at best from Bennett and “dishonest” at worst. He was reprimanded by Sen. Thad Altman, R-Melbourne.

Longtime school board member Paulette Burdick tells our Laura Green that she will run for the Palm Beach County commission seat of term-limited Jeff Koons in 2010.

Burdick is a Democrat whose current term on the nonpartisan school board runs through 2012.

Term-limited state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, has also opened a campaign for Koons’ District 2 commission seat.