Democrats vie for shot at Gardiner's seat

By BRANDON LARRABEE
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, August 3, 2016..........The race to succeed Senate President Andy Gardiner --- a longtime Republican lawmaker from Orlando --- comes with an ironic twist: It could be one of the most-likely Democratic pick-ups this year.

After the dramatic and repeated overhauls to the state Senate map as part of the once-a-decade redistricting process, and the lengthy legal fight that followed, Democrats hope the successor to Gardiner will largely be decided during the party primary Tuesday. The district, which used to span parts of Orange and Brevard counties, is now entirely contained in Orange County.

President Barack Obama carried the new Senate District 13 by more than 13 percentage points in 2012.

That has prompted two former one-term House Democrats to jump into the race, along with Rick Roach, a former Orange County School Board member who has been running for two years. The winner will face Dean Asher, a well-funded Republican opponent, in the November general election. Gardiner cannot run again because of term limits.

Leading the Democratic money race is former Rep. Mike Clelland, a lawyer and former firefighter who stunned the state's political class in 2012 by knocking off Republican Rep. Chris Dorworth --- at the time on track to be a future House speaker. Clelland has raised more than $285,000 and received support from the Florida Democratic Party.

Roach has pulled in more than $96,000, while former Rep. Linda Stewart has raised just over $25,000 while counting on her past record as a county commissioner and legislator to make up for a lack of funding.

The two former lawmakers concede that their interest in the seat was driven at least in part by the redistricting decision. But they also emphasized their credentials in working in the community. In addition to his time in the House, Clelland underscored his work as a firefighter and attorney.

"I've always had an interest in politics," he said. "I've always been a public servant since graduating high school, actually."

Many of the candidates' issues are similar. They all deplore an over-focus on standardized testing in public education; Orange County has been one of the areas touched by the "opt out" movement among parents who tell their children not to answer questions on a state test.

Water is also a key concern, though Clelland said there's less emphasis on water-quality issues than in the southern reaches of the state.

"We do have those interests here, but I think we have a priority interest in making sure that we have enough water," he said.

Clelland said his two years in the House will help him in the upper chamber.

"I think when I get to the Florida Senate, assuming I do, I can hit the ground running and knowing the system a little better," he said. "It took a full year (in the House) to get a good grasp of the way the system itself works."

Roach, 67, has placed education at the center of his campaign. He once took the state's standardized test and posted his results on the internet. The test pegged Roach, who has a couple of master's degrees and trained teachers before retiring ahead of his campaign, as a poor reader.

He said a lack of state focus on education contributes to problems that cost money in other areas, including prisons, health care and transportation.

"Initially, it was education that drove me, until two years ago, when I got in the campaign," Roach said. "Now I've learned way too much, and I cannot unlearn it --- and that is the collateral damage of when you screw up education, you screw up so many things that impact Floridians."

Roach said his experience, including 16 years on the Orange County School Board, would make him the most effective of the three on education issues. And he said the Legislature has too few educators to go along with its collection of lawyers, businesspeople and the like.

"If we keep sending legislators who don't understand this education piece ... that general revenue budget is going to swell in all the wrong places. And you're going to continue to rob it from education," Roach said.

Stewart framed herself as someone who knows the district, and vice versa, given her eight years on the county commission and two in the House --- positions in which she represented parts of the current Senate District 13. She focuses on the environment and touts her work on issues of interest to the LGBT community, like her drive to add anti-discrimination language to the Orange County charter.

Stewart also comes across as someone willing to say what she thinks.

"You just need to have somebody up there like myself who will stand up and declare the obvious and make people listen," Stewart said.

Stewart highlighted that she is the only candidate who has sponsored a bill that ended up on the governor's desk ---a provision about bail bondsmen that was folded into larger legislation. She said Roach would face "a huge learning curve" if he was elected to the Senate, and took a swipe at Clelland's record in the House.

"I just don't think he is up to be senator," she said. "I didn't notice him being that up to being a representative."