With state Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, resigning his seat to serve in the administration of newly elected Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown, the four candidates who filed to run for the seat in 2012 are moving up their calendars to take part in a special election later this year.
The seat includes parts of Duval, Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties. With the Legislature starting the redistricting process at the beginning of 2012, the geographic boundaries of the seat will be impacted after the special election, though no date has been set for either the special primary or general elections.
Two Democrats will be battling for their partys nomination. Both Terry Fields and Audrey Gibson are veterans of the Florida House and Jacksonville politics. While they had been planning to run in 2012, with Hill resigning they changed their plans and will now run in the special election.
A native of Jacksonville, Fields served in the Florida House, first being elected back in 2000. He rose to become the ranking Democrat on the Insurance Committee. Before his tenure in Tallahassee, Fields played an active role in local politics, serving on the Duval County Civil Service Board and on the Jacksonville City Council. A former longshoreman who worked in the Jacksonville port, Fields has promised to help make transportation and infrastructure improvements if he is elected to the Senate.
Gibson served in the House as well, representing parts of Duval County, and she served as her partys floor leader as well as the ranking Democrat on both the Economic Development and Community Affairs Policy Counciland the Roads, Bridges and Ports Policy Committee. She also served as a congressional staffer.
Robert Allen Jones, who currently works in maintenance at the Sawgrass County Club in Ponte Vedra, filed to run for the seat as a Republican. While he was initially in the 2012 race, Jones told Sunshine State News last week that he was going to run in the special election. The Republican has promised to run a grass-roots campaign and has called for reforming education to teach students about personal finances, focusing on the importance of credit scores, the stock market, 401(k) plans and other resources.
John Strifler, a Jacksonville resident who has worked for the state government, filed to enter the 2012 race with no party affiliation. The Strifler camp informed Sunshine State News over the weekend that their candidate would take part in the special election. Strifler has vocally condemned lobbyists and the Legislature for failing to pass SB 234, a measure which would have restored open carry rights in Florida. While more than 40 other states currently have open carry laws, attempts in Florida to push the open carry law fizzled during the 2011 session. Strifler has also called for comprehensive immigration reform including more effective enforcement of existing immigration laws, less regulations on small businesses, rolling back the privatization of the state prison system and ending offshore drilling and expanding alternative energy exploration.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (85) 727-0859.
