Democrat governor hopefuls: ’18 our year
5 candidates share platforms in bid to replace Scott
They checked all the boxes on the list of liberal priorities, condemned President Donald Trump, and said 2018 is — finally — the year Democrats will return to the governor’s office after 20 years out of power.
Each of the five candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor was in South Florida on Friday. Each was interviewed for an hour by the editorial page editors of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post.
And each was seeking an edge in the race to be governor. Andrew Gillum, Gwen Graham, Jeff Greene, Chris King and Philip Levine were attempting to earn endorsements from the newspapers in the the Democratic strongholds of Broward, MiamiDade and Palm Beach counties before the Aug. 28 primary.
The candidates for the Republican nomination, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, declined to
participate, said Rosemary O’Hara, the Sun Sentinel editorial page editor. Andrew Gillum, Tallahassee mayor
Gillum said that Democrats need to nominate a true liberal — like himself — instead of the kind of centrist the party has been unsuccessfully running for governor for the past 20 years.
He said it was a mistake for Democrats to think that DeSantis, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, is so far to the political right that his party should repeat its strategy of nominating a centrist.
Gillum said Democrats have to broaden their appeal beyond their South Florida stronghold.
“We’ve got to be able to compete in other places,” he said.
He said he’s campaigned all over the state and had a good reception in the Republican stronghold of The Villages in Central Florida.
Gillum would be the first black governor of Florida if he’s elected. He said race wouldn’t be a disadvantage in the November election.
If he’s the nominee, he said he expects that he’ll be subject of attacks because of an FBI investigation into corruption in Tallahassee, where he’s mayor. He hasn’t been implicated in any wrongdoing. He’s also received scrutiny for a trip to Costa Rica with longtime lobbyist buddies.
“I’ve been elected for 15 years without so much as a smidgen of a stain on my public record,” Gillum said. “I’m confident that I’ve done nothing wrong. Nothing unethical and nothing illegal.”
CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Like all the Democratic candidates, Gillum wants to repeal Florida’s “stand your ground” law. “I have opposed that reckless law since the beginning,” he said. “Now you’ve got individual citizens being judge, jury and executioner off their own subjective view that they’re under threat.”
He said he favors reforming the bail system. He said 60 percent of people in jails haven’t been found guilty of crimes and can’t get out because they cannot make bail. Many are there for nonviolent crimes, largely drug offenses.
ECONOMY: Being a low-tax state isn’t as big a plus as some people argue, Gillum said, dismissing the idea that “just be the cheapest thing out there and companies will flock to you. It’s a myth.”
He doesn’t favor governments giving out incentive money to companies they want to attract.
He said it’s more important to have an educated workforce, good transportation and infrastructure, and a quality health care system. Expanding the Medicaid program to get more coverage for poor people means fewer health care costs will be passed on to people with insurance.
IMMIGRATION: He defended his call for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
Gillum said the agency has become toxic. It didn’t come into existence until after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and abolishing it doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be border enforcement.
But ICE, he said, has become a force for deportation and separating parents and children at the border. “I think it has a stain on it,” he said.
Gwen Graham, former Congresswoman
If Graham’s elected, she would be Florida’s first female governor. She said being the only woman in the race is an asset, given the outrage many women are feeling under the Trump administration.
“One of the things I want people to understand is I am glad people know I am a nice person. … But don’t mistake that for any single bit of lack of resolve,” she said.
Graham won election to Congress in 2014 to represent a North Florida GOP-leaning district, bucking what was an otherwise banner year for Republican candidates.
“Everyone was taking bets against me,” she said. “Now, no one will bet against me.”
OTHER CANDIDATES: When Graham and DeSantis were in Congress together, Graham said her takeaway was that he always seemed to be focused on running for a higher office.
“My biggest issue with Ron is he hasn’t been present and focused on doing the job I believe he was elected to do,” she said.
DeSantis’ opponent Putnam also has sought to portray the congressman as being fixated on the national spotlight instead of his district, which spans from the southern Jacksonville suburbs to southern Volusia County. GUNS: Graham said if she’s elected governor she’ll sign an executive order banning military-style assault weapons.
She recalled visiting Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shortly after the Parkland massacre and seeing “bullet holes” in the windows.
MONEY: Graham lamented the high cost of running for office, even as billionaire Greene indicated he would spend as much as $100 million to $200 million of his own money on the race.
“I would like to see some significant reforms to our campaign finance in Florida so that anybody who wants to run for office can run for office without the fear of how do I raise the money to do it,” she said.
VOTING RECORD: She fended off criticism that she didn’t vote with Democrats enough while in Congress. She voted in support of building the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, but she said that decision was based on research she had done showing a pipeline would produce less carbon emissions than transporting the oil by rail or barge. AMERICAN DREAM MIAMI:
Graham dismissed a negative ad — put out by Greene’s campaign — that criticized her family’s involvement in building an office-residential park adjacent to the planned American Dream Miami megamall, a project that has sparked concerns from environmentalists. Graham said she ended her involvement in the family business in 2014 when she was elected to Congress and would recuse herself if the matter came before her as governor.
Jeff Greene, Palm Beach billionaire
Greene said he won’t be renewing his Mar-a-Lago Club membership and doubts he’ll be invited back.
The Democrat, a Palm Beach neighbor of the president, says he joined the private club years ago when Trump was giving money to Hillary Clinton. Greene said he didn’t immediately cancel the membership because he wanted the ability to share his views with the president.
“I was able to stand up to him right in his own dining room,” Greene said.
He said he hasn’t been billed for dues in over a year. He’s faced criticism from his opponents for a comment he made a day after the election calling Trump “a great guy.” On the campaign trail, he’s been an ardent critic of the president.
MONEY: Greene said he could spend $100 million to $200 million of his own money on his gubernatorial campaign, but he doesn’t think his wealth is what sets him apart and makes him the best choice.
“What sets me apart is my background and my resume,” he said, discussing how he came from a modest background to amass a real estate fortune.
EDUCATION: Greene said he doesn’t want to divert money from the public school system toward charter schools run by for-profit management companies.
“We need to be putting every ounce, every penny of our resources into our public schools,” he said.
Greene cited his experience starting a private school — called The Greene School in West Palm Beach — as helping to shape and inform his views on education. Even though Palm Beach County has an A-rated public school district, Greene said he doesn’t view it that way, and he thinks it could be improved.
“Immediately we have to get two years of real pre-K for every child. … We need to have real pre-K for every 3 and 4 year old as soon as possible,” he said.
GUNS: Greene said he supports banning military-style guns and requiring universal background checks.
OTHER CANDIDATES: He said frontrunner Graham doesn’t have the experience of running a large organization. He questioned Levine’s temperament for the job. He said King runs a “small business,” and said Gillum’s role as mayor of Tallahassee is mostly “ceremonial.”
“The only reason someone likes me runs for governor is to do something for the most vulnerable,” Greene said.
Philip Levine, former Miami Beach mayor
Levine pitched himself as a can-do problem solver who will be able to barrel through roadblocks to get things done if he’s elected.
He repeatedly described himself as the guy who produces results. He said he’s not among the “folks who study things to death and get caught up in analysis paralysis.”
And, he explained, the “speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.”
It’s part of Levine’s attempt to turn a potential liability — his reputation for having a short fuse during his two terms as Miami Beach mayor — into a selling point.
ENVIRONMENT: Levine touted his time as Miami Beach mayor, during which the city implemented a $500 million plan to combat sea-level rise with a controversial program that raised roads, put in sea walls and installed pumps.
He said both investors and residents were losing sleep and confidence in the future of the city of Miami Beach. He said he couldn’t say everything was done 100 percent correctly, “but I think we did a majority correct, and I think we instilled a sense of confidence.”
He said, as governor, he would make sure Florida complies with the Paris climate accord, from which Trump withdrew the United States.
Levine said he’d tackle the problems at Lake Okeechobee, including the spread of blue-green algae plaguing the state.
He said he’d appoint scientists and ecologists to the state’s water management districts; restore the Department of Environmental Protection, which he dubbed the Department of Environmental Exploitation under outgoing Gov. Rick Scott, and appoint a state chief resiliency officer.
EDUCATION: He said it’s a mistake to put so much emphasis on testing for things like math and science, “when the person’s interested in fashion and art or interested in becoming a welder.”
He pledged to increase teacher salaries by $10,000 a year and to reduce state spending on charter schools, which remove money from the public school system and enrich politically connected insiders.
He said school security needs to be improved, but the money should be separate from dollars that go to education spending.
SOUTH FLORIDA: He said the region, his home base, would do especially well if he’s elected.
South Florida legislators are “going to get a lot more done for South Florida if I’m governor. It doesn’t make a difference if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. We will for the first time ever be able to help obviously the entire state, but I think South Florida has been very neglected.” One way he’d achieve his goals: Retaining his Wynwood-based campaign marketing machine if he becomes governor, using it to communicate with constituents of Republican legislators reluctant to adopt his priorities.
Chris King, Winter Park businessman
King stressed some of the positions he says set him apart from his opponents, including a bullet tax, a plan to provide free community college and his support for ending the death penalty.
“We’ve got to set big high expectations,” he said, stressing he’ll offer fresh ideas. “We’ve got to dream again.”
GUNS: King touted his bullet tax, which he described as a bold way to generate the funds needed to improve school safety and ending gun violence. He wants to ban assault weapons, putting the issue on the ballot if necessary.
MEDICAID: Not adequately providing health care to Floridians is hurting the state’s economy, King said. He said the state should expand Medicaid. If the Legislature won’t approve an expansion, King said he’d also try to put the issue directly before voters in the 2020 election. AFFORDABLE HOUSING:
As an affordable housing developer, King said he wouldn’t allow state lawmakers to continue raiding a trust fund meant to aid affordable housing efforts. ‘STAND YOUR GROUND’:
King said race played a role in the outcome of a controversial shooting near Clearwater. Michael Drejka, 47, who is white, fatally shot Markeis McGlockton, 28, who is black, after being shoved to the ground during a July 19 dispute over a handicapped parking spot.
King said there’s “no doubt” an arrest would have been made if he had been in McGlockton’s shoes.
“I believe the state of Florida would be on fire about it,” he said. “I believe it would be a national outrage. I believe justice would look and feel very different.” ENVIRONMENT: King vowed to take on Big Sugar if elected governor. He blames the powerful lobby for stifling environmental efforts in Florida. OTHER CANDIDATES:
King gushed about his respect for frontrunner Graham and praised Gillum. He expressed concerns that Greene’s message doesn’t extend beyond his wealth and business success. King also said he has concerns about Levine’s temperament.