Michael Moskowitz, the high-power attorney, lobbyist and one of Broward’s most prominent money-raisers for Democratic candidates, died late Saturday, just a year and a half after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, his family confirmed. He was 68.
It was days after he got to see his son Jared Moskowitz sworn in as a Broward County commissioner as an appointee by Gov. Ron DeSantis, an event he was so determined to witness that his family made arrangements to take him to Parkland City Hall by ambulance. Hospice had come to his house to help care for him two days earlier.
The swearing-in was meant to add two new members to the county commission, but Moskowitz was the main attraction: Scores of political well-wishers, and some former clients, waited patiently to kneel down to him in his wheelchair, shake his hand, or rest it on his shoulder and whisper their congratulations about his son’s latest accomplishment.
A graduate of New York University and Brooklyn Law School, Moskowitz had a reputation of being the go-to lawyer to get things done.
As an attorney, Moskowitz in 2020 represented Sheriff Gregory Tony against lawsuits filed by Tony’s former political adversaries, who questioned his eligibility for sheriff. Moskowitz appeared in court by Zoom, apologizing to the judge for his hat while he was undergoing cancer treatment.
He has previously represented the Florida Panthers seeking an $80 million Broward bailout using tourist taxes. And in 2011 he represented the longtime president of the Broward Teachers Union when criminal accusations began to surface.
Broward County Mayor Michael Udine, who has been friends with Moskowitz for 25 years, said he was also a generous philanthropist. “He was a pillar in the community, he was the first call people made [to host for] charitable organizations. … He was a great lawyer and a great family man.”
Moskowitz’s political acumen drew attention as he wined and dined donors at his Parkland estate to help some of the top names in the country get elected.
In 2008, former President Bill Clinton lured more than 120 people to Michael Moskowitz’s 6,000-square-foot Parkland home to stump for his wife.
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s staffers greeted guests at the door and collected checks of $1,000 or more per person. Guests dined on hors d’oeuvres brought around on cocktail trays by wait staff, including pigs in a blanket, sushi and lamb chops as Bill Clinton talked about his wife.
Then in 2015, Moskowitz hosted Hillary Rodham Clinton herself when she ran for president.
Over the years Moskowitz hosted events for former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, former Democrat Joe Lieberman, of Connecticut, and former State Education Commissioner Betty Castor. In 2014, he hosted Joe Biden, then the vice president, as Biden campaigned for Charlie Crist’s run for Florida governor.
Moskowitz was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2020.
His son Jared Moskowitz is also the former Florida Division of Emergency Management answering to DeSantis, a former state representative and former Parkland vice mayor and commissioner.
Jared Moskowitz said it was his dad who took him to his first presidential rally, that of Democrat Jesse Jackson, in elementary school and encouraged his political ambitions when he was just 25 and naysayers told him he was too young. “He was the only person who thought it was a good idea,” Jared Moskowitz said.
Mitch Ceasar, the former chairman of the Broward Democratic Party, had been friends with Moskowitz for more than 40 years, even attending his son’s bar mitzvah. He said people were attracted to Moskowitz because of his intellect and sense of humor.
Although he was thrilled to support the two new county commissioners sworn into office last Wednesday, it was Michael Moskowitz he went to see and say his goodbyes.
“Thank God I got to visit with him the other day,” he said.
He said Moskowitz believed in the Democratic party in part with how he grew up, in middle class in Brooklyn, he said. “He believed in equal rights and facts matter. He really cared about those things decades ago.”
In addition to his son, Jared, Moskowitz is survived by his wife, Marilyn, and son, Brett Moskowitz, of Atlanta, daughter Jessica Isrow, of Parkland, and four grandchildren.
His son-in-law is Parkland City Commissioner Jordan Isrow, and Moskowitz was eager to help with advice.
He used to joke “there’s the Kennedys and there’s the Moskowitzes,” said Marilyn Moskowitz. “I was beyond lucky to be his wife.”
The funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Temple Beth Torah Sha’aray Tzedek in Tamarac. The burial will be later in the week in New York.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at or 954-572-2008 or Twitter @LisaHuriash.
