Rep. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando
Date of Birth: Nov. 23, 1948
Birthplace: Johnstown, Pa.
Residence: Orlando
Education:Valencia Community College
Occupation: Small-business owner - insurance
Previous Public Offices: Orange County Commissioner, 2002-2010
Family: Husband, three children, six grandchildren
Did you know?Gained some YouTube fame in January 2011, after organizing a 750-strong flash mob at Orlando'sMall at Millenia, to promote tourism.
Linda Stewart is a dyed-in-the-wool progressive who's not afraid to openly advocate for policies unlikely to earn her many supporters in Florida's Republican-heavy Legislature, but she insists she's got what it takes to bridge that partisan divide.
The board that I served on had a Republican mayor; when I got there it was 4-to-3 Democrat to Republican, and when I left it was 4-to-3 Republican to Democrat, she tells Sunshine State News of her eight-year stint on the Orange County Board of County Commissioners. We did not always agree, but I worked very well with the Republican mayor. We compromised, we worked together. I have a great deal of experience working across the aisle.
Her constituents seem to concur in that assessment. Stewart hails from District 47, where she represents parts of central Orlando, College Park, and Winter Park. Registered Republicans slightly outnumber Democrats in the area, yet she won her race with 52 percent of the vote.
This is the first partisan race that Ive been in, and I didnt try to change anything about who I am or what I stood for, she says, referring to the technically nonpartisan nature of the Orange County Commission positions. I think most people who voted for me and kept me in office knew my goals were going to be the same: serving my constituents. I had just as many Republicans and independents helping me out, or I wouldnt have gotten elected.
Stewarts the first in her family to ever run for public office. She tells the News she was inspired to do so out of frustration at what she says was an out-of-touch local government that was not keeping its citizens abreast of projects affecting their quality of life.
We had a big road that was going to be coming through our neighborhood; about 22 neighborhoods would have been affected about it, she explains. They had no committee meeting, and they wouldnt talk about landscaping, and everybody just felt like that was going to degrade all the neighborhoods that were along that road. We also had no parks and no one was fighting for more parks. We needed someone in there to advocate.
At least two of the five committees shes been assigned to by House Speaker Will Weatherford were specifically requested by her: the subcommittees on Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations and Transportation and Highway Safety. Stewart served for eight years, including as chairwoman, on Metroplan Orlando, a multijurisdictional transportation authority. Shes also served as chair of the Orange County Parks and Recreation Board, and on the St. Johns River Restoration Group from 2004 to 2008.
She also sits on the House Regulatory Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Claim Bills, and the State Affairs Committee.
She tells the News shes focusing her legislative sponsorship on bills that pertain to these assignments, feeling that shes in an advantageous place to shepherd them through the committee process.
The first bill shes filed is one that would empower counties to impose a surcharge, of up to $3 per day, on car rentals, if approved by a countys voters in a referendum.
The funds raised would go toward subsidizing public transportation. Fee increases arent likely to sit over well in a fiscally conservative Legislature, though the appeal to home-rule discretion just might. A similar measure was passed by the Legislature in 2006 and vetoed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.
I admit its going to be a little bit of a hard sell, Stewart tells the News. But everybody realizes that we have public transportation needs that have to be met, and we have no funding for it. Metroplan is advocating for it, Orange County government is for it; this is on their priority list. Ive written the bill, but theyre going to have to go out and sell it if they really want it to happen.
She does not expect the measure to impact state tourism negatively, since other states impose much higher surcharges, so the added fines would still keep Florida competitive.
Another bill she will be filing soon will be education-oriented. Stewart hopes to allocate funds for the recruitment of mental health counselors in elementary schools, where she tells the News they are most needed.
I have had several round-tables with mental health providers and the elementary school system, and theyre all basically saying the same thing: they need funding for counselors, she insists. By the time some child gets to middle school and they have mental health problems, its almost too late to remedy it.
Another provision of her education bill would provide a kind of amnesty for students who bring firearms or other dangerous weapons to their campuses. They could turn them in to school officials without facing disciplinary repercussions. I think that might get more of these weapons turned in and not circulating in the school student population.
Stewart tells the News a third provision in her bill would reiterate existing state bans on the carrying of guns on school campuses, even if the owner is law-abiding and possesses a concealed weapons permit. She says she inserted that measure after hearing that other legislators are considering allowing concealed-carry on school campuses.
She knows that as a member of the minority party some of her suggestions will face uphill battles, but given her local government experience, Stewart says shes confident she can make real progress.
I know Im not going to get everything I want, but I believe theres a lot I can get done, so long as Im open-minded , am willing to compromise, and dont close doors [to other legislators proposals], she tells the News. Sometimes you have to take baby steps, because you cant get everything you want the first time you ask. Thats always been my approach.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
