On Wednesday, both Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell and state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez dropped out of the crowded and expensive August Democratic primary for Florida’s open 27th Congressional District. Had they continued their campaigns, they would have both been impacted by the state’s newly amended resign-to-run law.
The new law, which was passed the legislature overwhelmingly and was signed by GOP Gov. Rick Scott last month, now requires any state-level elected officials who are seeking federal office to submit their resignations at least 10 business days before they file to run if the two positions’ terms overlap. (The old law exempted candidates for federal office.)
Candidates need to submit an irrevocable resignation at least 10 days before the qualifying deadline for the federal post they’re running for, and that resignation takes effect either at the start of the term for their new office or whenever local law requires their replacement to be sworn in for their old office. (Note that this law conveniently doesn’t impact termed-out officials like Scott, who is now running for the Senate.)
Importantly, even though resignations required under the law may be post-dated, they have the legal effect of creating an immediate vacancy—one that, for state legislative seats, must be filled at the next election. Javier Rodriguez's resignation would therefor have hurt state Senate Democrats, since they'd have needed to defend his competitive seat this year rather than in 2020, when it's next scheduled to be up.
Javier Rodriguez, who voted for the new law, doesn't appear to have directly addressed the matter in a new interview with Politico, but he did say he wanted to stay in the Senate because he believed Democrats now have a better shot of winning a majority some time in the next few years than they did when he decided to run for Congress last year. Russell did acknowledge that resign-to-run was a factor in his decision, though, saying that his old political foe Marc Sarnoff could have been appointed in his place.
However, another Democratic candidate for this congressional seat is taking a different approach. Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez has filed a lawsuit against the modified resign-to-run law, arguing that Scott and the Republicans are impermissibly trying to apply it retroactively. If Rosen Gonzalez doesn’t prevail in court, though, and doesn't resign, the law says that the governor can strip her off her current post. The filing deadline to run for Congress in Florida is May 4, making the resign-to-run deadline April 20.