Republican state Rep. appointed to Miami-Dade County Commission seat<\/a><\/p>\nThat left HD 113 without a representative, and it isn\u2019t clear when \u2013 or if \u2013 Gov. Ron DeSantis will call a special election to fill that seat. If DeSantis doesn\u2019t call a special election, HD 113 will be vacant until November.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re missing out on appropriations that can help with flooding and traffic. We\u2019re missing out on the budget,\u201d said Diaz, a 31-year-old who has worked as a political consultant, owned a printing press business, and now runs a tree grafting service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re missing out on oversight. So, if there\u2019s anything wrong with any departments down here\u2026 we don\u2019t have someone from this district who will look into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
HD 113 is a competitive seat. So far, five candidates including Diaz are in the race to replace Lopez.<\/p>\n
The other Republican hopefuls include former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and Frank Lago, a real estate consultant.<\/p>\n
Running as Democrats are Gloria Romero Roses, who owns an assisted living facility, and Miami-Dade Young Democrats president Justin Mendoza Routt.<\/p>\n
HD 113 is also a tossup politically.<\/p>\n
As of this month, 36.1% of the district\u2019s 75,919 registered voters have no party affiliation, 32.8% are Republicans, and 28.3% are Democrats, according to figures from Miami-Dade County\u2019s Elections Department.<\/p>\n
Although DeSantis has the power to call a special election to fill a vacancy in the Florida Legislature or Congress, the governor sometimes takes weeks or months to call one.<\/p>\n
During DeSantis\u2019 current term, it has taken anywhere from one to 92 days for the governor to call a special election, according to a staff report from the Florida Senate\u2019s Committee on Ethics and Elections. That is an average of 35 days for 28 special elections called between 2022 and the present.<\/p>\n
In contrast, the ethics and election committee report stated, it took an average of 7.6 days for past governors to call special elections for 65 vacancies, the state senate committee report stated.<\/p>\n
DeSantis\u2019 office did not return inquiries for comment.<\/p>\n
Democratic State Senator Tina Polsky of Broward has proposed a bill that would require the governor to call a special election within two weeks after a vacancy occurs. Should it pass, the bill will become law on July 1.<\/p>\n
Diaz would rather not wait that long. He said he has been trying to find an attorney willing to sue DeSantis to force him to call a special election for HD 113. But Diaz said no one, including the American Civil Liberties Union, has returned his calls.<\/p>\n
In an email to the Spotlight, Keisha Mulfort, deputy director of communications for the ACLU of Florida, said that DeSantis\u2019 \u201crepeated, anti-voter practice of failing to call timely special elections deprives citizens of representation and often violates the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the governor isn\u2019t required to call a special election \u201cif the legislature is not scheduled to be in session.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A map of Florida House District 113 which includes the northern portion of Coconut Grove as well as Shenandoah, Silver Bluff and Key Biscayne.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, there was no practical way to hold a special primary and general election before the end of the legislature\u2019s regular session in mid-March,\u201d Mulfort wrote.<\/p>\n
Longtime lobbyist Ron Book said it\u2019s uncertain if someone could even be elected to HD 113 in time to participate in the April 20-24 special session, which Governor DeSantis has called for the sole purpose of redrawing Florida\u2019s congressional districts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy spend whatever it costs for an election if the person is unable to serve?\u201d Book asked. \u201cBetter to wait and save the money since you are going to have a primary in August and an election in November.\u201d<\/p>\n
But state lawmakers fulfill an important function even when the Florida Legislature is not in session, said Nancy Lawther, legislative liaison for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
The constituent service lawmakers provide is critical, especially at a time when Tallahassee is addressing issues that directly impact local communities, she said.<\/p>\n
Diaz said that\u2019s why he set up his tiki hut as an impromptu office. Diaz said he\u2019s made two appointments with constituents, \u201cwhich is exciting because I expected zero.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, Diaz said he has offered to share the space or hold regular meetings with his rival candidates to compare notes on how to best represent the district.<\/p>\n
Lago and Barreiro did not respond to a request for comment in time for this story, but the district\u2019s two Democratic candidates shared their displeasure about the current state of affairs via email.<\/p>\n
Mendoza Routt wrote that leaving the district without a representative this legislative session \u201csilences our community and leaves Miami-Dade without full representation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCritical decisions are being made right now on housing affordability, skyrocketing property insurance, healthcare access, and cost-of-living pressures, yet tens of thousands of Floridians have no elected voice at the table,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe governor needs to stop playing games and set a timely special election immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romero Roses called on the governor \u201cto fulfill his duty\u201d by calling a special election.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouse District 113 deserves actual representation now. Miami-Dade is being left without a voice at a time when working families and small businesses are being priced out of their own neighborhoods,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published in the Coconut Grove Spotlight<\/a>, a WLRN News partner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have a complaint about what the Florida Legislature is up to this year? Good luck, if you live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-158795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-tallahassee","9":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","10":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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