As we have written about several times, two of the most competitive state House races in Florida are taking place here in the Tampa Bay area – specifically in District 57, where Democrats are working hard to see Stacy Frank beat Dana Young in a seat previously held by term-limited Republican Faye Culp. The other closely contested race is across the Bay in Pinellas county, where Democrat Bill Heller is trying to hold on to dear life in his re-election bid against GOP upstart Jeff Brandes.
Trying to get the word out for those two pro-choice Democrats is Planned Parenthood. The abortion-rights group is working on helping four candidates running for state legislative seats (the others being Kelly Skidmore, running for state Senate in D25 in northern Palm Beach County against Ellen Bogdanoff, and Amy Mercado, running for the House in District 35 in Orange County).
In addition, the group is e-mailing it's 215,000 of its members statewide to support amendments 5&6, which would force state lawmakers to draw up legislative and congressional district lines in a fashion that would be considered fairer than how they are currently constituted.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.