I’m running for Congress (FL CD-2) to help flip the House and send Neal Dunn and Paul Ryan back home.
First, let me tell you briefly about myself:
- I moved to Tallahassee in 1952, where I attended public schools and FSU.
- I enlisted in the Navy in 1961 and went to boot camp right out of high school. I was only 17 and had to get my mother’s written permission; she was glad to get me out of the house for the summer.
- I was an enlisted reservist sailor for the next seven years, during which I spent two years active, on a ship on the East Coast.
- After that, I got a direct commission as a Naval Intellgence Reserve Officer for the next 15 years, and retired as a Lieutenant Commander.
- As an FSU graduate student in the meantime, I was active in the voting rights movement in the 1960s and 70s, and that led to me to became Executive Director of the Florida Commission on Human Relations 1972-74.
- I then began a career as a political and corporate speechwriter – the next seven years writing for President Jimmy Carter, Sen. Ed Muskie and other Democrats in Washington DC.
- By the 1980s, I was speechwriter for the CEO of Time Inc. in Manhattan, after which I returned to Tallahassee and freelanced for corporate and nonprofit clients until recently.
- This enabled me to run for political office. I was elected to three terms as Leon County Commissioner 1998 to 2010, during which I earned a reputation for integrity, hard work, and rational decision-making.
- Incidentally, during those 12 years, we balanced our county budget every year, with no net increase in taxes, and we improved services. In fact, in my last year, we had the fourth lowest per capita operating budget among Florida’s 67 counties.
- Then because of our great admiration for President Obama, we moved to DC five years ago so I could write speeches at the Exim Bank, Department of Energy and HUD.
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After the election of Donald Trump, I had the misfortune to get angry about the poisonous direction of new policies, so Esther and I decided to move back to North Florida so I could run against Neal Dunn in the 2nd District.
I’m fully aware that the odds are against any Democrat winning in this district in 2018.
- Because of partisan gerrymandering, Trump won 66 percent of the vote in this newly-drawn district last year.
- Registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats, and many of those Democrats tend to vote Republican.
- And about 57 percent of the voters last year were in the 17 rural counties – excluding Bay and Leon.
And let’s face it – our state party and national party have neglected rural voters in recent elections – conceding to Republicans wide swaths of the American electorate.
So I’ve got a hard row to hoe. But I’m in this race to win. And I’m convinced that winning is possible.
This requires communicating a strong message for working families, especially in the rural counties – a lot of outreach, including door-to-door contact by me – an aggressive media campaign – and raising enough money to be competitive.
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To that end, I have a strong, clear message based on this simple principle:
In America, everybody does better when EVERYBODY does better.
I’ll repeat that – In America, everybody does better when EVERYBODY does better.
It means we can’t afford to leave anybody behind, which our Republican leaders seem determined to do.
- We can’t afford it economically, because ensuring our future prosperity requires all hands on deck – a healthy, skilled workforce producing what rest of the world wants to pay for – working families earning what they need for a good life – good jobs located where people live – and quality schools to prepare all children for productive lives.
- We can’t afford it morally, because leaving large numbers of Americans behind is an affront to our national spirit and the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
- And we can’t afford this spiritually, because our Creator reminds us repeatedly not to turn our backs on anyone, not children, not the elderly and sick, and not the stranger.
So what does this translate into?
Three overall policies:
- Good jobs
- Decent health care
- Integrity
First, Good Jobs.
It’s plain to see that there are not enough good jobs here that enable all working families of North Florida to reach their full potential.
There are not enough good jobs that pay enough so you can own a home, have affordable health care, afford college for your children, and have a secure retirement – jobs that provide security and dignity.
This is especially true in the rural communities of North Florida – the virtually forgotten part of this state – and I’m determined to have an impact here.
We can begin with a comprehensive infrastructure program – not just rhetoric, but serious investments in highways and bridges, sewer and water service, stormwater treatment facilities, ports and harbors, efficient energy, and improved rural telecommunications and high-speed Internet.
These require direct public and private investments to create good jobs – not phony tax credit schemes that let private investors charge working families outrageous fees and tolls.
In fact, I’ve done this before – on the Leon County Commission. A decade ago, as the economy slid into the Great Recession, my fellow commissioners and I accelerated our capital programs and created hundreds of local jobs for unemployed construction workers.
Second, we need – and deserve – decent health care.
The Affordable Care Act was the first lucky break in decades for tens of millions of working families – the 20 million who had no health insurance, plus millions more whose only choice was junk insurance riddled with exclusions and notorious for refusing to pay claims.
I know about that, because, as a self-employed consultant with three school-age children in the 1990s, a junk health insurance policy was my only choice.
Yet Speaker Paul Ryan and Congressman Neal Dunn want to take today’s decent health care away from working families – and turn back the clock.
Dunn voted for the RyanCare health plan in May that would have eliminated ACA health coverage for 63,000 men, women and children in District 2 alone – gutted Medicaid coverage for veterans and nursing homes – and done nothing to bring down uncontrolled cost increases by the medical industry.
It would’ve brought back pre-existing conditions – junk insurance policies – and left millions of families with no coverage at all.
Fortunately, they lost on RyanCare, but they’re back again.
Speaker Ryan and Congressman Dunn just voted for a 2018 budget that would reduce Medicaid and Medicare programs by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years – to finance lavish new tax breaks for the wealthiest corporations and one-percenters
The reason?
They call these programs “entitlements” – a word they love using to trash critical safety net programs. Their underlying message is that you may work hard and play by the rules all your life – but in the end, you’re not “entitled” to anything they don’t want you to have.
Instead of that, I will strengthen the ACA by working to reduce premiums that many people have encountered – to strengthen insurance markets and Medicaid – to bring down the soaring cost increases charged by the taxpayer-funded medical industry that enabled Congressman Dunn to become a multimillionaire executive and banker.
Third, the working families of North Florida deserve integrity.
You deserve a Congressman who votes for the public interest, not personal financial gain.
When Congressman Dunn’s voted for the RyanCare health plan, he knew it would increase his personal medical industry and banking profits – and slash his income taxes – at your expense. Not only that, Congressman Dunn benefits from minimal federal financial disclosure requirements that allow him to obscure the sources of his wealth and income – so you can’t tell how much he owns and makes.
I will soon fully disclose my personal finances, in detail – just as I did as county commissioner every year, and posted on my commission website – so you don’t need to take me at my word.
More broadly, my 12-year record as Leon County Commissioner shows a principled independence – a willingness to take political risks – knowing that working families depended on me to represent their interests alone.
Further, through my years as a Navy enlisted sailor, I lived many of the financial struggles that working families experience – and their search for dignity through work.
And I know how to work with my hands. I've renovated three homes in my lifetime as my own contractor and construction worker. (I finally got it out of my system, so I won’t do that again.)
In each project, I learned the value of hard physical work, of collaborating with craftspersons, and of taking pride in building something special.
In short, I am committed to integrity in my personal and public dealings.
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So that’s it – good jobs, decent health care, integrity – based on the principle that everybody does better when everybody does better.
This is my commitment to the working families of North Florida. It’s not complicated.
I’ll be taking that message to every one of the 19 counties in District 2 in the coming year. I’ll be devoting full time to that effort – every day until November 6, 2018.
But I’ll need your help to – you can take your pick:
- Volunteer with the several party organizations.
- Register voters through the various efforts getting organized.
- Gather the over 5,000 signed petitions I need to get on the ballot.
- Spread the word with yard signs, canvassing, letters to the editor and social media, make phone calls, and much more.
- Get out the vote.
- Help raise money.
- And finally, get fired up about taking back the U.S. House.
I know I’m fired up. I can’t wait to take that oath of office and take my seat in Congress in January, 2019 – and bring strong, honest representation back to the people of North Florida.
Thanks for being such a great audience – and being such great Democrats.
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