It was a crowded group of candidates sitting on the dais Friday afternoon at a debate for the Florida House District 47 seat in Hillsborough County being vacated by Republican Kevin Ambler, who is running for state senate.
The 5 Republicans running include Rich Reidy, a legislative aide to County Commissioner Ken Hagan, attorney James Grant(the son of former state legislator John Grant), former Verizon official Irene Guy, businessman Tom Aderhold, and former County Commissioner Brian Blair.
The forum was a Tiger Bay event, which traditionally gives out an award to the audience member who asks the best question. In this case, the winning question was the first one asked to James Grant,who was asked his stance on the controversial Pre-Abortion Ultrasound bill that Governor Charlie Crist has yet to decide on.
Grant asked if he wasn't contradicting himself in supporting that bill while at the same time boasting in his campaign literature that emphasized limiting the role of government. He replied that he was "as pro-life as they come," and that there was a serious balance between the two thoughts to contend with, but the answer for him was when life begins, and since he believes it happens at conception, "I have no greater right to take that life than I have to take your life."
Despite the massive oil spill that continues to flow as much as tens of thousands of barrels a day in the Gulf, several of the candidates t said they weren't willing to abandon the practice of offshore drilling. Brian Blair replied, "When planes crash, do we stop flying? No. " Rich Reidy did say that drilling within the 3-10 miles off the coast of Florida is "unacceptable." Tom Aderhold was extremely critical of BP, calling their safety record one of the worst in the industry.
In recent years, there has been momentum amongst editorial writers and others to extend term limits for state lawmakers. The law since 1992 has been eight years, but there has been criticism that experience is required and has gone missing with some leading state legislators. Several candidates said it was worth exploring. Irene Guy said that the problem sometimes was the voters 'don't pay attention to what's going on," and thus bad legislators continue to get re-elected. Steinberg and Aderhold said they would continue the status quo.
This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.