Rep. Carl Zimmermann, D-Palm Harbor
Date of Birth: Feb. 24, 1951
Birthplace: Bayshore, N.Y.
Residence: Palm Harbor
Education:Buffalo State College, Master of Science in Education
Occupation: Teacher, TV Broadcast Journalism
Previous Public Office:None
Family: Wife, two children
Did you know?Has written four screenplays, including the award-winning "Your Horoscope for Today," a romantic comedy.
Carl Zimmermann might have gone down on the state electoral rolls as just another failed perennial candidate, but as his recent accession to the Florida House of Representatives proves, if at first you don't succeed, try and try and try and try again: fourth time's the charm.
I [was diagnosed with] cancer in 1990 and I actually thought I was going to die, he tells Sunshine State News. And Icouldn'tbelieve that I was going to die, hadn't done anything to make a difference in this world.
A Republican at the time, Zimmermann decided to run to represent his Pinellas County district in the state House, but lost his party's three-way primary, earning 38 percent of the vote. But his run gave him name recognition, and 14 years later he decided to give it another shot, this time as a Democrat.
I'm a moderate, I've always been a moderate, he explains of the party switch he made sometime around 2005. There's certain things I feel I'm very conservative about, but on social issues I'm not. When I made the party change, it was when the Republican Party went from being predominantly moderate to predominantly socially conservative.
It's difficult to chalk Zimmermann's political change of heart to mere political calculation. When he reran for the same seat in 2006, the district was and remains today Republican-leaning. Not surprisingly, he lost to the GOP's Peter Nehr, but not without winning 48 percent of the vote. He gave it another shot in 2008, this time losing with 49 percent.
He decided it probably wasn't meant to be, and gave up on electoral politics until supporters urged him to give it one final shot in 2012. This time he won with 53 percent of the vote, and sent the incumbent Nehr packing.
A TV broadcast journalism teacher of some 28 years at Clearwater's Countryside High School, Florida's education system is a top priority for the new legislator. HB 225 (Education Personnel Evaluation) seeks to simplify the way public school teachers are evaluated. For each course they are enrolled in, students would take a pretest the first week of school, and be tested again at year's end. Zimmermann says his proposal would more accurately gauge a teacher's performance than the current system, which measures how well students attain benchmarks but not how much they've actually progressed in the course of a school year.
This is something that teachers themselves are receptive to, and something that gives accurate measurement of growth and effectiveness, he says, calling the bill his top priority for the 2013 session.
His HB 201 (Renovation of Educational Facilities) would require that public school windows all be fitted with bullet-proof or hurricane-resistant glass, and that classroom doors be lockable from the inside. Citing a 2002 study by the federal government, Zimmermann says a school shooter's average life expectancy is 4 to 6 minutes from the moment he commences his atrocity: We have to keep everyone safe for 4 to 6 minutes, and my bill creates the defenses we need to keep everybody safe.
He's also filed HB 677 (Websites Containing Information Concerning Persons Charged with Crimes) which would require privately maintained mugshot websites to take down images of innocent or exonerated arrestees, or face fines and liability to libel suits. Presently, many of these websites will only take down an innocent person's image for costs that can run into the hundreds of dollars.
I've gotten a tremendous number of emails from people who have told me they were arrested in one case, eight years ago and found innocent, Zimmermann explains. But they haven't been able to get a job because every employer Googles and all they come up with is that this guy was arrested and here's his mugshot, and these people are presumed to be guilty.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
