Pinellas County attorney Dwight Dudley has beaten former GOP state legislator Frank Farkas in the extremely competitive House District 68 race, 51-44 percent. Independent Matthew D. Weidner received 5 percent of the vote.
Dudley targeted much of his campaign against Farkas for his 2006 vote in the legislature for voting for SB 888, which allowed utility companies like Progress Energy to charge ratepayers for construction costs of nuclear plants regardless of their completion. That vote was nearly unanimous in the legislature at the time, but the public has a much more critical view of it now than it did then, and Dudley was smart in attacking Farkas for that vote.
Farkas went after Dudley for, well, being an attorney. A criminal defense attorney.
That angered Dudley, who told CL earlier Tuesday that it revealed a lack of understanding of the U.S. Constitution on the part of Farkas, who is a chiropractor.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2012.