THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA: Officials Weigh Special Election to Replace Sansom
Feb 22, 2010
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA published this article on February 22, 2010.
By KEITH LAING
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 22, 2010…….The day after former House Speaker Ray Sansom’s resignation from the Florida House, state officials scrambled to determine when he will be replaced.
Sansom quit Sunday evening, hours before a legislative committee was scheduled to investigate his dealings with a Panhandle college.
A spokesman for Gov. Charlie Crist told the News Service Monday that Sansom’s seat will be filled by a special election but that officials hadn’t determined yet when that would take place. The prospect of electing a replacement before the majority of the 2010 legislative session is over looked in doubt with the eight-week session slated to begin March 2.
But candidates who were already running to replace Sansom, who would have been barred from seeking re-election this fall by term-limits, said they were preparing to shift gears to a special election.
The district includes parts of Walton and Okaloosa counties.
Jennifer Krell Davis, a spokeswoman for the Division of Elections, said Monday that officials were already discussing a special election. The only other legal option would have been to leave the seat un-filled until the November election.
The troubles that caused Sansom’s resignation began when he accepted an unadvertised vice presidency at Northwest Florida State College right after officially becoming speaker of the Florida House. A newspaper investigation revealed that during his tenure as budget chairman, Sansom steered money to the college in a difficult budget year, some of which – $6 million – appeared to benefit frequent Sansom contributor Jay Odom, an Okaloosa developer.
The money was officially designated for an emergency operations center at the Destin airport, but later documents indicated that it might be used as an airport hangar for Odom’s private business.
Candidates on the Emerald Coast were already gearing up for a special election.
“To leave a seat vacant during the coming session doesn’t seem right to me,” former longtime Rep. Jerry Melvin, who was already running to replace Sansom in November, told the News Service in a telephone interview. “The people of District 4 have a right to have a voice in any legislation that is passed this year.”
Melvin, 80, a Republican who represented Okaloosa and Walton Counties from 1968 to 1978 and then again from 1994 to 2002, said that there is enough to time to elect a replacement for Sansom before the conclusion of the 60 day legislative session that is set to begin next week.
“There’s plenty of time for the people of District 4 to have a voice,” he said.
If there is a special election to replace Sansom between now and the end of session, Melvin said he would be a candidate in it. And he thinks he would have the edge.
“You don’t want to send someone over who is new to the process right in the middle of a session to press the (vote) button,” Melvin said.
Another Republican candidate whose name is familiar to both Tallahassee observers and Emerald Coast voters, Matt Gaetz, said he agreed a special election should be held quickly for Sansom’s seat.
“My understanding of the law is that when you have the opportunity to have a special election and give a community a chance to have representation, you do it,” Gaetz, who’s father is state Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said in a telephone interview. “I think it can be done before the session is complete. My understanding is that there has to be a primary within six weeks and a general within eight weeks.”
Asked if he would shift gears to run in the special election, Gaetz responded “I’ve already shifted” and said that he would be in the best position for a sooner-than-expected election.
“I recently knocked on my 6,000th door,” he said. “A special election benefits the candidate that is working the hardest.”
Also in the race are two other Republicans, Bill Garvie and Kabe Woods. No Democrats have filed for the seat.