Fort Lauderdale mayor delays ’18 decision
One of South Florida’s most prominent political figures, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler, who has to leave the job in less than seven months because of term limits, says he hasn’t decided what he’ll run for next — and won’t until after he leaves office in March.
Two possibilities are running for the Broward County Commission or seeking the Democratic nomination for Florida attorney general. Or, he said in an interview recently, he might not run for anything at all.
He was adamant that he hasn’t made a decision.
“There is nothing to disclose. There is nothing to share. I am literally finishing up my job as mayor,” said Seiler, 54. “I don’t think you can serve two masters. And I am trying to figure out what I may do next, but I am not going to forgo any of my current duties and responsibilities in order to chase that.”
He said putting the brakes on planning for his political future was the right move for him. “I’ve been much more relaxed,” he said. “I just realized that me trying to worry about my next position was only going to take away from me performing my current position. And I decided I was not going to play that game.”
The delay could affect decision-making by other candidates. Some may be frozen, not wanting to enter a race that could end up in a primary against Seiler. Others could be emboldened by the void to move in.
And, delaying could make any 2018 Seiler candidacy more difficult. If he decides in March to run for another post, that won’t leave much time to get organized and raise money. The deadline for qualifying for the August primary ballot is in June. Starting as late as March would be unusual, but not unprecedented. By then, most people who want to run for office in 2018 will already be doing so.
“If, in March, something opens up that is attractive to me that I think I can make a difference and I believe I can have an impact,” Seiler said, he would run. “The two I would look at, at that time, would be the A.G. and the County Commission.”
He said he might decide to devote more time to the law firm he’s had for 20-plus years or a bank he’s been involved with since 2009. And, he said, he’s recently become more active in the Orange Bowl Committee, where he’s a third-generation member. Known for the annual football game, it is also a major charitable and community service organization.
For years, Seiler has considered — and others in the political world have speculated about — a candidacy for attorney general. On the sidelines at a Democratic Party fundraiser in March, he said it was the only statewide job he was considering. “I have no desire to serve as anything but attorney general.”
Seiler is well-known in Fort Lauderdale and a proven votegetter, racking up 71 percent of the vote in his 2015 re-election. He touts the city’s fiscal stability under his leadership and good relations with the city employee unions. During his tenure, downtown Fort Lauderdale has enjoyed a renaissance.
He’s also clashed with activists in the LGBT community, an important constituency in Democratic Party primaries. He angered the city’s large lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community by voting against a symbolic city resolution supporting samesex marriage in 2014. A year later, Seiler signed a city proclamation supporting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of samesex marriage.
Early this year, he again angered LGBT activists by appearing at the same Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast with Jim Daly, president of the group Focus on the Family, who has spoken out against same-sex marriage and adoption of children by same-sex couples. Seiler said he wasn’t involved in the decision to invite Daly, and the city provides no funding for the event.
Seiler previously described the mayor’s post as the best political job he’s ever had. He spent eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, where he rose to the upper ranks of Democratic leadership, and is a former mayor of Wilton Manors.
“We’ve got a lot of great things happening in Fort Lauderdale, but we’ve also got a lot of unfinished business,” he said, citing infrastructure needs and the city’s long-range finances. “I’m going to get some stuff done at the city and make sure that when I transition out as mayor, the city is in the best possible shape, and the best possible condition it can be in.”