VOTE FOR REFORM: Elect Adam Morley and Jaime Perkins to Florida House of Representatives

I agree with the St. Augustine Record's assessment.  Vote for Adam Morley and Jaime Perkins.  We need thinking legislators, grounded in science and facts,  not lickspittles and pawns for corporate power.  It's time for PAUL RENNER and CYNDI STEVENSON to be retired by the voters of St. Johns County.  Enough developer corruption, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery







RECORD ENDORSEMENTS: 4 vie for House seats Tuesday

Posted at 6:21 AMUpdated at 6:21 AMSt. Augustine Record
We begin these two endorsements with the same caveat outlined in our endorsements Friday for local county and city commission seats — we’ve had it with “politics as usual.” That, more than any issue, colors our comments. The Florida Legislature, particularly the House, has become a body united under a small, factional cabal of those in leadership positions. There are 120 members who, for all practical purposes, may as well be one.

This is not about party policy. It’s more the way the policies are twisted into law and the way they’re bankrolled by special, private interests. It’s so commonplace they don’t try to hide it anymore. They may as well issue receipts for payola. Understand, we do not believe it would be different under a Democratic majority. This isn’t about left and right. It’s about wrong and right.

You may find a handful of candidates who claim to be moderate, but their voting records seem to say otherwise. It is a culture in need of a cure.

HOUSE DISTRICT 24

Paul Renner is a poster boy for the politics of party. He lost a race for a Duval County House Seat by two votes in August of 2014. He ran as the hometown boy. Following that defeat, he moved quickly to Flagler County to pursue a campaign for a House Seat in a special election — four districts south of his residence. He won in January of 2015, no longer a hometown boy, but a winner nonetheless.

He was targeted immediately for leadership by the state party, which almost immediately handed him his own PAC; The Florida Foundation for Liberty. He’s on track to become House Speaker in 2022. That takes the support of House Republican colleagues. And that’s accomplished in Tallahassee by spreading hundreds of thousands of dollars of PAC money around to various re-election campaigns of colleagues. Thus his rise to power is very much a self-fulfilling party prophecy.

Check, and check.

From a completely selfish standpoint, it might benefit Northeast Florida having a local House Speaker. That isn’t something this area has enjoyed since John Thrasher in the 1990s.

Adam Morley has been on the losing end of two previous races with Renner, and we have to give him credit for staying in the fight. Morley is easy to explain. He is what he appears to be, his platform simple — local candidate, local issues, local concerns, local outlook, local solutions. You hear that a lot. But he makes his case pretty well.

Let’s face it. With the party makeup of St. Johns County, it would be an uphill battle for a Democrat to win anything. But we recommend you give Morley a look if you, too, have lost patience with the political process in Tallahassee. We’d like to see Morley look at a county race down the road if this effort comes up short. That’s really the arena in which his St. Johns-centric and environmental views could get more traction. Nonetheless, we recommend him for the District 24 House seat.

HOUSE DISTRICT 17

Cyndi Stevenson has a history of public service in St. Johns County. She was first elected to the County Commission in 2004. She was subsequently re-elected in 2008 and 2012. She resigned to run for an open House Seat in 2015. We’ve said it before. Stevenson was a straight-up county commissioner. Her best attributes were thoroughness and independence. In an era of runaway growth, we were never sure where she’d land on any given project. She wasn’t on any “side” of the development issue, to her credit. She did her homework.

That said, her efficiencies and attributes at home seem to be diluted in the rarefied air of Tallahassee. We don’t see her independence which, admittedly, isn’t easy to pull off in the House. There’s rarely been House leadership as calculating and vengeful as Rep. Richard Corcoran’s regime. And the easy way to survive in Tallahassee is to follow.

She has a built-in advantage in terms of seniority in a system where seniority is everything. She (and Renner) was elected in a special election. She has two “bonus” years in the House before term-limiting out. We’d like to see her take full advantage.

But we’re not certain where her focus has been or will be. And that was not well-articulated in our meeting with her.

At that same meeting, her opponent, Jaime Perkins, was candid, open and clearly a person with direction and drive. It was bracing to hear fresh perspectives rather than party dogma.

To Perkins’ credit and nerve, she’s running as an NPA. Yet, if she were to win all the Democrat and Independent votes of St. Johns County’s voters, Republicans could still outnumber the two groups. She is clearly in an uphill fight.

But our editorial board agreed she is a viable alternative in this race. We also agreed that she may have jumped into the deep end of the pool a little early. If she doesn’t prevail for the House seat, we encourage her to look at more local offices next time around. She seems especially fitted to the City Commission. She has a future, and it is well past time St. Augustine had dependable, invigorating minority voice on the ballot.

The two candidates are very different. Both have strengths. Stevenson has a history of service and Perkins, we believe, has a future in it.

We’d like to see either leading, rather than following — no matter how the race ends in District 17. We invite you to view our meeting with them on The Record’s Facebook page or at staugustine.com and decide for yourselves. There is no “wrong” choice here.