A Central Florida native with extensive national political experience and a wealthy Lake Mary businessman are vying for an open seat representing a deep-red Republican district.<\/p>\n
The victors of two crowded primaries, Democrat James Pericola and Republican Joe Strada, will go head to head in the general election for congressional District 11, which after a controversial redistricting earlier this year now takes in most of Lake County, all of Sumter County and a large part of west Orange County extending as far east as Hunters Creek.<\/p>\n
The seat is open because long-time Republican Congressman Daniel Webster is retiring at the end of his current term.<\/p>\n
Registration statistics heavily favor Republicans, with GOP voters accounting for about 44% of the district\u2019s electorate. Democrats comprise about 27% of registered voters, according to the Florida Division of Elections.<\/p>\n
A Libertarian candidate, Ralph Groves, also is in the mix.<\/p>\n
The candidates<\/p>\n
Pericola grew up in Central Florida but has spent much of his career in Washington D.C., with a resume that\u00a0 includes working for the administrations of former President Bill Clinton and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham. More recently, he was the founder of a D.C.-based government relations and consulting firm.<\/p>\n
He said he was inspired to run for Congress after he watched his mother, who still lives in Volusia County, struggle to obtain and pay for proper health care as she grew older. He said he wants to help other people in similar situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not in this for me or any sort of lifetime goal,\u201d Pericola said. \u201cIt\u2019s standing up for people that I grew up with, standing up for my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he has focused on running a \u201cgrassroots\u201d campaign and spending long hours knocking on doors, starting in The Villages \u2014 an area with a lot of Republican and senior voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gotten to know a lot of the people out there, and they are afraid,\u201d Pericola said. \u201cThey\u2019re angry and they\u2019re scared because they know they\u2019re coming for their social security and Medicare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strada is a political newcomer who made a splash when he entered the race and then immediately loaned his campaign $5 million, committing at least $1 million to a TV ad campaign called \u201cFull of Crap,\u201d which is his view of Washington, D.C.<\/a><\/p>\n He has declined interview requests from local outlets and dodged debates and public appearances, though he was recently profiled in a 2800-word piece published in Forbes magazine that recounted how Strada got his start in the business world at age 19 by purchasing a donut shop with his father.<\/p>\n Strada later became a salesman for Del-Air and started his own company, Strada Services, in 2003, the article said.<\/p>\n If Strada wins the November elections, Forbes estimates he would likely become the wealthiest member of the U.S. Congress, exceeding that of Republican Representative Jefferson Shreve from Indiana, who started the storage company Storage Express, and that of Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott, who was involved in founding the hospital company that later became Columbia\/HCA, according to Forbes.<\/p>\n While Pericola moved to west Orange County in the months leading up to the election, Strada lives in Lake Mary, outside of District 11. That\u2019s allowed under to the U.S. Constitution, which requires members of Congress to live in the states where their districts are located once they are elected, but not within their districts\u2019 boundaries.<\/p>\n A group of homeowners has sued Strada and his company in July, accusing the firm of installing subpar components in thousands of new homes that didn\u2019t meet state and federal safety codes and put residents at risk.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n