Frank Farkas and Dwight Dudley are two candidates running to represent Florida House of Representatives District 68, the newly-drawn district that includes USF St. Petersburg. The elected representative will serve as the voice of both citizens and students in Tallahassee for the next two years.
“Not many people get to be personally affected by President Obama or Governor Romney,” said St. Petersburg City Councilmember and USFSP Professor Steve Cornell, “but the local level politicians, they have a very real and direct effect on the lives of their constituents.”
Since 2002, much of the new house district was part of District 52. The incumbent representative, Republican Jeff Brandes is running unopposed for a seat in the Florida Senate to represent St Petersburg
“My years of experience as a legislator will help me make the tough decisions we face for funding our top priorities and help me solve the problems facing all Floridians,” Farkas said. The chiropractor in practice for over 30 years spent eight years in the Florida House representing District 52, and spearheaded a campaign for USFSP autonomy.
Farkas, along with Florida Senators Jim Sebesta and Don Sullivan, sponsored the 2001 joint bill to grant USFSP control of its own budget and finances. The bill, signed into law in 2002, was a compromise from the original plan to sever USFSP from Tampa, creating a separate university within the state system, as New College in Sarasota and Florida Polytechnic in Lakeland.
Dudley, who worked for eight years as a public defender in St. Petersburg and spent another 16 years in private practice, also served in the Florida House as a legislative aid and analyst.
“There is a strong desire and need for ethics reform in Tallahassee,” said Dudley, who intends to clean up the “corruption” if elected.
Dudley has accused Farkas of being a puppet for special interest groups, and criticized his recent vote in favor of Progress Energy to charge customers to repair their plant, as well as his support of a large telecommunications tax that seems to benefit telecommunication companies. Farkas said Dudley has been consistently late to pay his property taxes, and scrutinized his work as a defense attorney who represents clients accused of murder, rape and other offenses.
The new Florida districts were approved in March 2012. Redistricting happens every 10 years and sets the boundaries of voting districts based on population gains or losses, using data from the U.S. Census.
