Farid Khavari Making Second Bid for Governor, this Time as Democrat

Economist and business owner Farid Khavari is making a second gubernatorial bid, this time as a Democrat.

Khavari ran with no party affiliation in 2010 with Darcy Richardson as his running mate for lieutenant governor. Richardson, who lives in Jacksonville, may have been more familiar to many political activists and junkies in the state than Khavari was. Besides serving as the campaign manager for former U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthys independent presidential campaign, Richardson is an expert on third-party politics, having written a multi-volume history on them and he also writes in various media outlets. When the dust settled, Khavari had just less than 7,500 votes, taking 0.15 percent of the total vote.

Filing this week to run for governor, Khavari is now running for the Democratic nomination. The centerpiece of Khavaris campaign back in 2010 was creating a state bank -- an issue that was also at the core of Brian Moores bid against state CFO Alex Sink in the Democratic primary that year.