STATEWIDE
Governor: Andrew Gillum You didn’t really think we’d pick Ron DeSantis over Gillum, did you? The Tallahassee mayor’s rallying cry has been simple: Healthcare for more Floridians, including low-income ones; a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines; and more investment in public education, including higher salaries for teachers. DeSantis — who served three unremarkable terms in Congress, voted regularly to repeal the Affordable Care Act and has remained noncommittal on some of the toughest issues facing the state — has tried to call that agenda radical. Hardly so, and you know what else hasn’t been rad? The last 20 years of Republican control that have left Florida lagging in education, amongst other things. Lastly, the only reason DeSantis seems to be the Republican nominee is a glowing endorsement from Trump. It’s time for a change all the way down the ticket, and it starts at the top.
U.S. Senate: Bill Nelson Who cares if he’s old? Bill Nelson went to space, dammit! Jokes aside, Nelson’s record as a lifelong politician has allowed the public to investigate his record, which has seen him help write legislation on drilling bans and support Obamacare in recent years. Scott is our soon-to-be former governor who refused to accept Medicaid expansion funds from the federal government. He’s the dude who turned down money for high-speed rail, left public schools strapped for resources in the name of spending cuts and entered his tenure as governor as a former CEO whose for-profit chain of hospitals had to pay a record Medicare fraud fine. Nelson may not be the kind of liberal that Bernie Bros get boners over, but he’s way more trustworthy than Mr. “Hey, look at my ‘NAVY’ hat instead of my beady little eyes."
Agriculture Commissioner: Nikki Fried Her opponent, Fort Myers real estate appraiser Matt Caldwell, has strong ties to the NRA, and since lawmakers moved the Division of Licensing — which handles the concealed weapons permit program — from the Florida Department of State to the state's Department of Agriculture in 16 years ago, the connection is enough to make us lean towards Fried. A lobbyist for marijuana interests, Fried also lobbied for foster kids and school boards in her past, which makes her a bit more trustworthy when it comes to looking out for consumers, too.
Attorney General: Sean Shaw He’ll have to better explain why TECO’s contributions to his campaign don’t play into his statement that dances around the idea of prosecuting the power company if it knowingly ignored worker safety in a 2017 boiler room accident that killed five workers, but Sean Shaw should replace Pam Bondi as she terms out as attorney general. For-profit prison company GEO Group “has given $3,000 to Moody's campaign and $45,000 to her independent political committee, Friends of Ashley Moody, which doesn't have contribution limits,” according to the Tampa Bay Times (Moody also danced around that topic at a recent debate). Ultimately, Moody’s opposition to Amendment 4 and her reluctance to fully back a February Broward County bill that included gun restrictions pushes us to Shaw, who unabashedly supports gun safety reforms, defending civil and equal rights and the idea the he’ll serve as a check on a Republican legislature.
CFO: Jeremy Ring Being associated with Rick Scott has its disadvantages, and Florida’s current CFO Jimmy Patronis was appointed by the governor after Jeff Atwater resigned in 2017. The CFO is tasked with paying the bills, auditing government agencies and keeping tabs on pension investments amongst other boring, yet important, tasks. Together with the attorney general and agriculture commissioner, the CFO sits on the state's cabinet to help keep the governor in check. That’s why we’re going with Jeremy Ring, a former state senator who has shown an ability to reach across the aisle and get important legislation complete.
U.S. HOUSE
District 12: Chris Hunter In this race you’re choosing between Gus Bilirakis — whose dad held the very same seat for two dozen years before his son, who has been in it for 12 years now — and a 45-year-old former FBI agent who echoes the sentiments of many Democrats who refuse to step in line with with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Both want to curb offshore drilling, but Bilirakis, 55, has supported many of Trump’s ideas, including the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, while Hunter has been critical of many of the president’s decisions.
District 13: Charlie Crist Like assault weapons and hate the Obamacare? Consider first-time candidate George Buck your Yosemite Sam. Charlie Crist, a former Republican, had the foresight to switch teams before the GOP went bonkers, and he’s the one we trust to keep it real, reach across the aisle and keep Trump in check for the duration of his presidency.
District 15: Kristen Carlson As we’ve pointed out, Congresspeople vying for seats in 2018 are largely judged on their probability of propping up or standing up to a president who is, at his best, unpredictable. Kristen Carlson’s opponent — 42-year-old Republican Ross Soprano — epitomizes hyper-partisanship, so we’re going with the 64-year-old Lakeland Democrat and former prosecutor who has has spent many years in the agriculture industry.
District 16: David Shapiro Vern Buchanan (a six-term incumbent) is relatively moderate when compared to his Republican colleagues, and that makes him easier to support than the other elephants in the room, but his vote for Republican tax cuts, an iffy reputation when it comes to the environment, plus a vote against the Affordable Care Act is enough to push us toward the new guy — 59-year-old, DACA-protecting Sarasota lawyer Shapiro.
FLORIDA HOUSE
District 58: Phil Hornback Hornback was a latecomer to this race, but the real estate broker and former middle school science teacher wants to increase funding for public education, raise teacher pay, and expand both Medicare (his opponent Lawrence McClure opposes expanding the program) and background checks on gun purchases.
District 59: Adam Hattersley Small government, anti-regulation Army vet or a Navy vet who believes that increasing funding for education could help the state’s economy? Adam Hattersley (Navy) trumps Joe Wicker at every turn and is the district’s best chance at having someone willing to work across the aisle.
District 60: Debra Bellanti After two years in office, Jackie Toledo has shown a lack of spine and worked with Rick Scott on a law that gives state funding to “pregnancy support centers” that are nothing more than bogus health clinics that use deception and shame to keep unplanned pregnancies. Go with Bellanti, who wants to expand Medicaid and spending for mental health services in school..
District 63: Fentrice Driskell You could do much worse than pragmatic former Tampa City Councilman Shawn Harrison, but Polk County Harvard and Georgetown grad Fentrice Driskell is much more excited about prioritizing health care and education when she gets to the house.
District 64: Jessica Harrington Like Jackie Toledo, James Grant shies away from the big fight. We don’t know a lot about first-time candidate Jessica Harrington, but she’s made increasing funding, expansion of Medicaid and stronger gun safety laws a priority.
District 65: Sally Laufer First-time candidate Laufer has expressed support for a ban on fracking, Medicaid expansion and better gun control legislation, but Chris Sprowls has way more experience. He also supports the stand your ground law and opposes Medicaid expansion, too. Send him home.
District 66: Alex Heeren Incumbent Larry Ahern is terming out, and this 31-year-old district technology coordinator for Pinellas County Schools wants to accept federal Medicaid expansion funds, ban assault weapons and increase funding for public schools (including more money for mental health services and support staff). His opponent, Nick DiCeglie, may be a smart small business owner, but his opposition to additional gun control is a no-no.
District 67: Chris Latvala Latvala wants to add anti-discrimination protections to state law for LGBT people and supported an unsuccessful effort to amend the school safety bill to include bans on assault weapons and large magazines. He’s also a Republican who wants to ban fracking. Someone needs to be a bridge, and this guy might be able to do it.
District 69: Jennifer Webb Moderate Democrat Jennifer Webb opposes pressure-packed standardized testing in schools and believes in diverting more resources to public school (instead of charters) and expanding Medicaid. Her opponent isn’t so bad, but his opposition to an assault weapons ban and expansion of Medicaid leads us to fill in the bubble for Webb.
FLORIDA SENATE
District 16: Amanda Murphy A fiscally conservative Democrat who has reached across the aisle during past turns in the Florida House, Murphy also wants to advance mental health reform, increasing spending on public schools and improve public transit options.
District 18: Janet Cruz It’s probably too late for incumbent Dana Young to walk away from mistakes. Young voted for a 2016 bill that would’ve cleared the way for fracking, supported a 2015 abortion waiting-period bill that was ruled unconstitutional and also voted to send more taxpayer money to charter schools. Cruz opposed those first two, promises to not back away from a tough vote and is a staunch supporter of public schools who believes that the seat she hopes to win “should be purple — we should represent everyone in our district.”
District 20: Kathy Lewis Tom Lee is well connected, relatively moderate, supported a plan to expand Medicaid and also spoke against arming teachers in the wake of the Parkland shooting. His No vote on banning assault weapons and large-capacity magazines and AR-15s is no bueno, so we’re ditching the experienced lawmaker for the first-time candidate, Lewis.
District 24: Lindsay Cross Education, affordable healthcare and healthy environment are at the forefront of Cross’ campaign (who has the Sierra Club endorsement), and while incumbent Jeff Brandes hasn’t always sided with his Republican colleagues, the prospect of giving the party another tool in its 20-year rule of state politics isn’t one we’re into.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY COMMISSION
District 2: Angela Birdsong Builders should pay higher impact fees to help with public services and ease transportation burdens, and they should also have to incorporate affordable housing into new development projects. That’s what Angela Birdsong thinks, but all Ken Hagan (who is terming out of his District 5 seat and running for this one) seems to be talking about these days is the damn Rays stadium. His feud with (and avoidance of) Bay area reporter Noah Pransky and friendliness to developers is also a little tired, so we’re going with wholly new blood in this seat.
District 4: Andrew Davis An ambitious newcomer seeks to upend incumbent in what may be Hillsborough County’s most conservative region. We like it, and we like the way he fought for the removal of a Confederate monument last summer, too. We also enjoyed an August 2017 challenge to candidates, where Davis called for them to give any campaign donations received from the development industry to charity. We’ll see if he can pull off the upset.
District 5: Mariella Smith At 61 years old, Commissioner Victor Crist isn’t the senior member in this three-way race (that title belongs to 75-year-old former county commissioner Joe Kotvas), but it seems like Crist’s time may be running out. This month, the 11,000-member Greater Tampa Realtors endorsed his opponent, Democrat Mariella Smith. The move shocked Crist (who has received the group’s endorsements in elections since the '90s). Realtors' government affairs Chairman Andy Joe Scaglione told the Tampa Bay Times that the group made its decision because they considered Smith an advocate for "responsible growth while protecting our neighborhoods and environment, which is good for property values and homeowners."
District 7: Kimberly Overman Her opponent, Todd Marks, may have beaten exciting candidate Aakash Patel in August, but his lack of a real strategy to help shape the county hurts him in this race against proven community activist with real ideas and a pro-transit agenda that’s right for the area.
PINELLAS-PASCO CIRCUIT JUDGE
Group 4: Roxanne Fixsen The races for judge are nonpartisan, mostly uncontroversial affairs, but we’d like to recommend Stetson grad Fixsen because of the fact that she once had the foresight and compassion to work on a case that let two dads adopt a pair sisters in foster care. "This was 14, 15 years ago,” Fixsen told CL in a recent profile, alluding to an unfriendly towards adoption by same-sex couples. “We presented all the facts to the judge, who I’m assuming had similar pressures as us, and was hoping that the judge would look at the facts of the case, which this judge did.”
Check out our recommendations on proposed state constitutional amendments and local referenda and our quick-hit voting guide, too.
This article appears in Nov 1-8, 2018.