Although the PInellas County Democratic Party failed to find a live human being to challenge Clearwater Senate District 20 incumbent Jack Latvala in this November's election, the veteran legislator isn't running un-opposed. Also on the ballot is conservative activist Tony Caso, one of the leading voices of opposition at Pinellas County Commission meetings on issues like fluoride, affordable housing programs and Greenlight Pinellas.
Labeled by the Tampa Tribune's editorial page as an advocate with "extreme views," Caso says he believes in equal justice, not social justice. He's fairly doctrinaire on the issues of the day, though he probably has more in common with liberals when it comes to his disdain for corporate welfare, particularly when it comes to giving sales-tax rebates to local governments to attract or retain professional sports teams through stadium improvements and construction, legislation that was sponsored by Senator Latvala earlier this year.
Caso also has issues with Latvala's support for the Florida Forever program, the land conservation program that has run into trouble in recent years due to a lack of funding. Caso, a self-described property rights activist, calls the program more of a "land grab" and says the real intention of the program these days is to rewild 85 percent of the state.
Another measure that Latvala led the way on in the 2014 legislative session was getting a bill passed that would allow undocumented immigrant students to qualify for reduced in-state tuition rates in Florida's colleges and universities.
"To me they're illegals," he says, in reference to those students, calling the idea of giving them a break on their college tuition "totally wrong."
"These are people that are breaking the law, yet we're paying for them to go and get a higher education instead of concentrating on our kids and people that are trying to do things the right way," he complains.
While Democrats have been pounding Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature this campaign season for failing to accept the federal government's Medicaid expansion plan, Caso is in common cause with the majority of the Florida House who rejected the notion. "The federal money that they keep talking about is only a three-year deal," he says. "After those three years, there is no more federal money, and the state is on the hook."
Not exactly. The deal calls for the state to then kick in 10 percent of the cost of the program, with the feds contributing the remaining 90 percent. Although there has never been a documented case where the feds haven't paid their fair share when it comes to sharing costs of the program, Tallahassee Republicans have echoed this statement for the past two years that the government can't be trusted to fulfill its responsibilities on this issue. "Because they're spending money on the federal end faster than they can take it in, and they just can't print if fast enough."
Caso is also running on a strong Second Amendment agenda. He says everyone with a clean legal record should be allowed to "constitutionally carry" guns, because the bottom line, he asks, is who are you going to call to protect you when you have kids chasing you by the time you're able to pull your cellphone out and dial? "If you fire a warning shot," he says, "they're going to run. Which way are you safer?"
The Pinellas County Libertarian state Senate candidate is also disappointed in a politician he revered in 2010, Rick Scott. He says that the governor's mantra about getting Floridians back to work runs a bit stale for him when he "goes to foreign countries and cuts deals with them, gives them tax breaks for anyone up to 10 years. What about the people that are here in Florida that do have businesses?" he asks. "They don't get those tax breaks. What happens to them?"
Caso says that he was one of Scott's biggest supporters during the 2010 campaign, boasting that "every" big sign in the Tampa Bay area touting the governor's candidacy was the result of his own effort, "but this guy turned his back on the people, and I cannot support somebody who turns his back on the promises that he made to people."
In their editorial endorsing Jack Latvala for the SD20 seat, the Tampa Tribune wrote that after viewing videos of Caso's appearances at County Commission races, it's evident that "he is not fit to hold public office."
Caso dismissed the criticism as simply one man's unsigned opinion. And he says that he's simply fighting for the "people's rights." But as has been the case since the Tea Party emerged on the scene in 2009, the question is how much of the public is being represented by voices like his?
Election Day is November 4.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2014.