St. Pete Democratic activist says he may oppose Arthenia Joyner

By Mitch Perry on Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 2:11 pm

Schauer has written a letter to Nan Rich, the Senate Democratic leader, in which he says that he will run again Joyner (and can be found on Peter Schorsch's blog).

But Schauer tells CL he’s yet to officially make that declaration, and admits that its late in the primary season. But he says that if he does not run this year, he will begin campaigning the day after the election this fall to knock her out in 2012, where he says her senate seat will be up again for re-election.

Schauer has been involved in politics for four decades, and says he doesn't have any strong compunction to now all of a sudden get into the heat of the battle. But he says Joyner's lack of respect for her constituents demands that somebody challenge her. "Nobody else seems to want to step up to the plate,"he says, vowing that if he does not run this year,"the campaign will start right after this election."

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St. Petersburg based Democratic party activist David Schauer, treasurer for the Pinellas County DEC as well as for St. Pete Pride, says he’s disgusted with District 18 state Senator Arthenia Joyner, and is strongly considering challenging her in the August 24 Democratic primary.

Schauer told CL today that he will travel to Washington next week and speak with the Victory Fund and other groups that financially support gay candidates for possible funding assistance.

Joyner is running for re-election this year after winning the Hillsborough/Pinellas/Manatee based senate seat in 2006, succeeding Les Miller. Previously she served in the Florida House for six years.

But Schauer says Joyner’s been an ineffective legislator who ignores her constituents, saying, “My gut reaction is that she sees the voters as a nuisance to keep her job.”

As an example, Schauer mentions an annual Democratic party dinner event that he organizes that he tried to invite Joyner to.

He said that combined he and Pinellas Democratic party chair Ramsey McLaughlan both contacted her office over a dozen times, and said the only response they received came from a Joyner staff member asking them not to use a particular e-mail address. He said that Joyner then called state party chair Karen Thurman to get her put on the event, but then says she didn’t even buy a ticket to the dinner, and “still demanded to be featured” at the event, which to Schauer “just showed complete arrogance and lack of respect.”