TEA Party Fills Two Vacancies on Legislative Slate

Submitted by Anonymous on July 10, 2010 - 10:57am

The Florida TEA Party has replaced two sidetracked legislative candidates to bring its slate back up to 21 hopefuls statewide.

Osceola business owner Johnny Ferentinos qualified for House District 11 and Central Florida business owner John Perez qualified for House District 91.

"Both districts lost their original TEA party nominees with one withdrawal based on Republican Party of Florida threats and thuggery. The other candidate had to withdraw due to accepting new employment with the federal government," according to a TEA press release.

Because those candidates had withdrawn, the party had seven days to replace them. It did so Wednesday.

Both new candidates live well outside their districts: Ferentinos resides in Kissimmee while running for North Florida's District 11, a seat currently held by Democrat Debbie Boyd; Perez lives in Orlando while running in Broward-based District 91. The seat is open.

Legislative candidates are required by state law to live in their districts upon the date they are sworn into office.

Citing incomplete filing papers, the state Division of Elections last week bounced Ferentinos from his bid to challenge state Sen. Mike Haridopolos in Brevard County.

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