House District 50: Where Plasencia, Dirschka stand

In House District 50, voters in the Nov. 6 election will decide between Rene Plasencia, a Republican incumbent focused on education issues, and Pam Dirschka, a Democrat and first-time candidate hoping to clean up the environment.

The district stretches across eastern Orange and northern Brevard counties including critical environmental regions of the Indian River Lagoon, the Econlockhatchee River and Split Oak Forest.

The electorate leans slightly Republican — GOP voters account for 35 percent while Democrats have 34 percent of registered voters in the district. The rest are registered with no party affiliation or minor parties, according to voter registration data. owner and teacher. Most recently she’s become involved with canvassing and organizing for the Democratic Party in Brevard. She used to own a computer consulting business with her husband and also a windsurfing business.

If elected, Plasencia said he would again sponsor a bill that aims to end the current merit-pay system for teachers, which counts 30 percent of a teacher’s merit pay on students’ test scores.

He proposed such a bill last year, which would make teacher evaluations a local issue, but it died in a subcommittee.

Dirschka said she was worried about the health of the Indian River Lagoon, as statewide bodies of water struggle with red tide.

“We’re in real danger of losing our tourism business and what makes Florida a special place,” Dirschka said. “We have to take strong measures to protect what’s here and to restore it to what it was.”

With Florida’s unemployment rate hovering at about 3.4 percent, Plasencia said the state should keep incentivizing the creation of high-wage jobs to boost the region’s low wages. He said there are opportunities to do that on the Space Coast, UCF’s modeling and simulation center and Medical City at Lake Nona.

Plasencia also touted his record of proposing bills that get passed including the “Scott Pine Bill” in 2016 that allows spouses of law-enforcement officers killed on duty to opt into a benefit pension. He pushed legislation requiring mandatory recess for elementary-school children, which was included in a larger education bill.

Dirschka said she supports Medicaid expansion, with an eye toward creating a singlepayer or Medicare-for-all health-care system over the long term.

She also said she opposes the creation of a toll road at the Split Oak Forest and wants to preserve the rural boundary near the Econ River.

Plasencia offers greater government experience than Dirschka and also a more substantial war chest.

He’s raised about $224,000 and has $28,430 on hand while Dirschka has raised about $14,000 with $4,653 on hand.