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Loading...Florida’s First Openly Gay State Lawmaker Elected
Miami Beach this week elected an openly gay Democratic legislator, a first for the State of Florida.
That changed [Tuesday night] as voters in Florida 113th House district, which encompasses parts of Miami Beach and Miami, elected David Richardson, an openly gay CPA. Though, when all is said and done Richardson may not even be the only openly gay politician headed to Tallahassee next year.
Richardson beat Adam Kravitz, an attorney who founded Jewish online dating service JDate, Mark Weithorn, husband of Miami Beach Commissioner Dedee Weithorn, and Waldo Faura, Jr., an insurance adjuster in the Democratic primary. He received 33 percent of the vote, besting Weithorn who came in second with 26.5 percent.
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Florida Democratic Party chair Rod Smith told Naked Politics that Richardson “represents the rich, diversity that makes Florida great and we are pleased to welcome him to the state Legislature.”
While certainly Richardson’s being openly gay may have played well with certain demographics, the long-term Miami Beach resident went to lengths to place an emphasis on his qualifications, saying that even though he had never before run for office his previous role as an auditor for the U.S. Department of Defense made him well qualified to tackle the state’s financial situation and cut waste where needed.
As Miami New Times suggests, there may be more where this came from as openly gay Democratic candidate Joe Saunders will face Republican Marco Pena for Orlando’s District 49 in November, while Ian Whitley is in the running to take on Republican Holly Merrill-Raschein in a contest to represent District 120 of the Florida Keys.
In somewhat related news, openly gay Mark Pocan won Tuesday’s Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s 2nd Congressional District, the area previously represented by Tammy Baldwin who is currently bidding to be the US Senate’s first openly gay lawmaker.
Related Reading:
130 Reps Ask Supreme Court to Strike Down DOMA
Read more: lgbt Florida, lgbt lawmakers, lgbt Miami, lgbt rights
Image used under the Creative Commons Attribution License with thanks to -Marlith-.
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18 comments
+ add your ownI hope I live long enough to see people run for office without the press mentioning their sexual orientation, only their qualifications that would make them good legislators.
Great news.
Yay! We finally did something right!
Nice to have an example of something wonderful out of Florida for a change.
Florida....great move.
Yes, Florida--but more specific: Miami Beach, where the LGBT isn't as much of an issue as other locales. Hopefully the rest of the state will follow suit.
Woah! Florida? Really?
Finally some positive news out of Florida for a chang!
Congratulations David Richardson!
I long for the day that happens in my distict!
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