With election day less than 60 days away, the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club on Friday afternoon at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club hosted candidates running for House Districts 64, 66, 68 and 69, all serving the Pinellas County area. The event intended to provide a forum for the upcoming races, allowing members in attendance to ask the most press the the candidates participating on the issues that will likely decide the November's winner.
In attendance were seven of the eight candidates running for the districts: James Grant and Miriam Steinberg, competing for District 64; Larry Ahern and Lorena Grizzle, competing for District 66; Dwight Dudley, competing for District 68; and Kathleen Peters and Scott Orsini, competing for District 69. The only candidate missing was Bill Young, son of the late Pinellas Congressman, who is running against Dudley in District 68.
Despite running for only an hour, the forum managed to give each candidate an opportunity to address some of the campaign season's main points of debate, along with some of the legislature's more controversial decisions. Perhaps the most talked about point of contention was the first issue addressed: the decision to block a federal funding of medicaid expansion earlier this year. Ahern, who voted against the expansion, explained his decision as a defense of the original goals of Medicaid.
“It wasn't designed as a healthcare program, it was designed as a safety net for children, the elderly and the disabled. That's what the program was designed for. It's also the biggest program we fund right now in our budget, so if anything takes place and medicaid gets expanded, because there is no dedicated source for it, it comes out of general revenue. The only place you can get that money is education.”
In response, Dudley, an incumbent who voted in favor of the expansion, reminded the audience of the support the expansion received by the medical field.
“Our groupon/coupon plan is not a suitable option to replace medicaid expansion. Fifty-one billion dollars, the hospitals support it, the doctors support it. We keep talking about 'Let's get back to work. Let's get our people healthy.”
Another topic of note was a discussion was the legislation that would allow for the concealed carry of weapons in the classroom, a response to the school shooting in Sandy Hook. Democrat Lorena Grizzle, who is a public school teacher, spoke of the dangers posed to children by allowing weapons in the classroom and praised the current safety measures existing in Florida schools.
“If you've ever been in a classroom, you know the kids can find anything they can get their hands on. It was a really bad idea to start with. Our best solution is to improve security in our schools. We pretty much have locked doors now, lock down procedures that we practice all of the time. My assistant, who was in the Army, said she would never bring a gun to school with our Special Education kids, because they can find anything in that room.”
The common defense by those who had voted in support of the bill was that it wasn't simply leaving a gun in the classroom, but included training and ensuring that whoever possessed the weapon would know how to properly operate it.
Of course the shadow that floats above every election cycle is campaign spending and the seemingly endless gauntlet of political commercials, posters and pamphlets that Floridians are subjected to. While not overtly critical on the amount of donations allowed, each candidate was clear that transparency was the main goal in any legislative effort.
“I think the bigger problem is how the money is used,” said Ahern. “It's not offensive to me that campaigns can raise money. It's offensive to me when unaccountable third party groups use outside money. Voters that are really trying to get engaged are being fed a bunch of nonsense. I heard David Jolly say that he and Alex Sink could have gone on vacation the last two weeks and nothing would have changed, they couldn't control anything. I think when we look at campaign financing, I believe that the bigger issue is making sure that there is accountability and checks and balances, knowing who is saying what and ensuring the voters are getting accurate information.”
“Five hundred dollars or one thousand dollars is not going to make a big difference, but we do need transparency so we know who is buying our legislature,” added Miriam Steinberg.
The next Suncoast Tiger Bay Club organized forum will be on September 18, bringing out the candidates for Pinellas County Commission Districts 2 and 4.
