Panel Discussion Summary

The League of Women Voters of Seminole County invited all of the candidates for Florida House seats in districts 25, 33, 34 and 37 to speak at their Hot Topics luncheon held on July 22. The League felt that this venue would be a good way to introduce the candidates and give them some time to speak about topics important to the people of Seminole County. This is an exciting year with many of the candidates having primary races wanting to get their message out to the voters.

The format was set to be as non-partisan as possible – candidates were selected to speak first in numerical order (by District), and if there was more than one candidate in a District, they were selected alphabetically within their District. All candidates were given a set time to answer two questions that had been posed to them (earlier) by the League and at the end of the program, by questions from the audience. The time was divided equally among the candidates and the League had two of their members monitoring the time – one with a timepiece and the other with flash cards letting the candidate know when they had 30 seconds left, and when to stop. The moderator was Deana Schott, First Vice President of the Seminole League. She posed the questions and helped keep the candidates within their time limits.

Candidates attending were: District 25 – Larry Metz (R) and Frank Wood (D); District 33 – Leo Cruz (D), James DeCocq (R), Ellen Paul (L), Franklin Perez (L), Alice Sterling (R) – represented by Jeff Deen and District 34 – Steve Barnes (D).

Not attending were Rick Joyce (R- 25) who had another speaking engagement, Jason Brodeur (R 33) RSVP’d to attend but had to cancel, Chris Dorworth (R 34), John DeVries (T 34) and Scott Plakon (R 37) who is unopposed through the November election.

Here is some of what the candidates spoke about:

• Metz talked about the need to downsize government and reform Medicaid, as well as not raiding trust funds.
• Wood said he will fight for children by investing in education, budgetary fairness and protection of our natural resources.
• Cruz looks to expand Florida’s economic base with jobs in the biotech, green and other industries and believes in fiscal responsibility.
• DeCocq spoke about the need for government efficiency, with zero-based budgeting the top priority.
• Paul said she was not a politician, but approached this as an ordinary citizen looking for smaller government, smaller taxes and more personal freedom.
• Perez spoke about creating a school voucher system, ending ‘corporate welfare’, and decriminalizing ‘victimless crimes’.
• Sterling (Deen) said the main focus is jobs, Medicaid reform and changing the culture of government.
• Barnes is looking to apply commonsense solutions to government and focusing on creating jobs as a top priority.

With so many candidates on the ballot this year and so many important issues facing Seminole County, it was important to get the views of our potential Representatives. The League thanks the candidates who participated. The Florida Senate race and candidates is the next Hot Topics to be held on August 19 at Sergios Restaurant in Sanford. There will also be a Forum for the County Commission race August 18 and events discussing the constitutional amendments and Fair Districts coming in September. Visit the League’s website at lwvseminole.org or their blog at lwvseminole.wordpress.com for more information on upcoming events.