Smith, Plasencia have earned returned trips to state House
Rene Plasencia and Carlos Guillermo Smith view the world differently, but voters should return both to the Florida House of Representatives on Nov. 3.
Plasencia’s a Republican whose strengths are his pragmatism and legislative know-how. Those are enough to earn our qualified endorsement.
It’s qualified due to Plasencia’s slipperiness on certain issues. That’s not a problem with Smith.
He’s a Democrat who knows how to get things done. And when he takes one of his many progressive stands, Smith sticks to it.
Regardless of party, that’s what voters should get in any candidate.
House District 49
A lot of people have said a lot of things about Carlos Guillermo Smith. One thing nobody has said is that Smith is afraid of a challenge.
Since being elected to the state House in 2016, Smith’s progressive agenda has challenged the dominant conservative mindset in Tallahassee. He hasn’t always gotten his way, of course, but Smith’s overall impact should earn him reelection to the District 49 seat.
His opponent is Robert Prater, an elementary school teacher who finished fourth in the 2018 election for Orange County School Board chair. We’d like to give you more to go on, but Prater declined our invitation to an endorsement interview.
His Facebook page has no policy details and he doesn’t have a functioning website. A campaign spokesman responded in an email that Prater has three key issues: Backing police, rebuilding the economy and investing in education. Helpful, sort of, but the campaign still has a strangely stealthy quality to it.
Prater also sent a statement to Florida Politics that stressed education initiatives.
“District 49 has a choice to make in 2020 and it’s simple. Do they hire an experienced educator to work bipartisan for the needs of the district or continue to get nothing accomplished with a community activist better at demonstrating than legislating?” the statement said.
Prater’s lack of public engagement makes it almost impossible to know where he stands on issues. That’s never been a problem with Smith.
He was a community activist before running for the House in 2016. That election made Smith the first openly gay Latino to be elected to the House and a vocal champion of progressive ideals.
But Smith not just a new-age firebrand tilting against Republican windmills. He’s a been an effective legislator, reflecting the priorities of the eastern Orange County district, which includes the UCF area.
He backed a 2020 bill that kept the legislature from raiding the Sadowski Fund of money intended for affordable housing. That’s a vital issue in pandemicwracked Central Florida.
Smith and Rep. Anna Eskamani have led the fight for greater accountability and anti-discrimination policies in private schools that receive state funding. They also teamed up on a bill that boosted funding for local arts groups.
Smith is a key backer of the proposed Competitive Workforce Act, which would prohibit LGBTQ discrimination in employment and housing. He’s for increased gun control, legalization of recreational marijuana, animal rights and mental health assistance. He wants some Tourist Development Tax funds spent on affordable housing and other public services.
Those are hard legislative lifts, the kind that would appeal to someone who’d stick his head in a helmet full of moray eels for a cause he believes in.
The cause in that particular case was a $50,000 first place prize in “Fear Factor.” Smith was a contestant in 2004. One of the stunts required him to don an aquariumlike helmet and endure eels swimming around his head.
Smith was so pumped to get started, host Joe Rogan said, “You might be one of the weirdest dudes I’ve ever met in my life.”
Considering the life Rogan’s led (standup comedian, mixed-martial artist, MTV host), that’s saying something. We can’t speak to Smith’s eagerness to take on eels, but his passion for helping constituents is admirable.
For the record, he advanced in the eel round but lost in the finals.
Smith may not win every round. But when it comes to tackling legislative challenges, fear isn’t a factor. Voters should return him to office in this election.
House District 50
Getting two-for-one is a good deal at a grocery store or restaurant. It’s not what you look for in a politician.
You want a representative to stick to their promises, not change them to suit the audience. But you also want a representative who is smart, effective, open-minded and plugged into his or her constituency.
Rene Plasencia, a Republican, has enough of those qualities to get our endorsement in the District 50 race. It comes with the hope he’ll learn to control his knack for shape-shifting on certain issues.
Plasencia’s running for his fourth term against political newcomer Nina Yoakum. That experience separates him from his Democratic challenger, a former teacher whose campaign is largely built on reforming the flawed policies exposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I have a lot of empathy for families,” Yoakum said.
Her husband and sister have lost their jobs, so the empathy is genuine. We share many of Yoakum’s views, but she lacks thought-out strategies to implement them.
Plasencia is a policy pragmatist who knows how to get things done in Tallahassee. He’s a voice of what passes for moderation the Republican-controlled House, having voted for Medicaid expansion and against “sanctuary cities” bills. Which brings us to the shape shifting.
Plasencia’s campaign website touts a hard-line position on sanctuary cities. But he voted against bills that would have required cities to cooperate with federal law enforcement when dealing with illegal or undocumented immigrants.”
Plasencia played both sides on issues like Medicaid expansion and fracking.
His explanations may be technically correct, but they are misleading. Voters deserve forthrightness, not bureaucratic doublespeak.
That said, the record shows that Plasencia’s pragmatism is genuine. He favors increasing benefits and extending the eligibility period for people on unemployment. He’s been a good advocate for District 50’s Hispanic community.
He’s led the push to enact the Competitive Workforce Act, which — if the GOPled Legislature ever passes it — would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations.
Plasencia says he’s for more accountability for private school that receive public funding. But — here we go again — he said tax-supported private school teachers are currently held to high standards to get hired. No, they’re not. There’s a Texas-size loophole in the law. He should understand that. “I know that some bills can be overly partisan for electoral reasons,” Plasencia said. “I don’t play those games, especially when it involves people’s lives.”
What he does is play word games too often to warrant a ringing endorsement. But in this race, he is the better of the two candidates.
We still think there’s an effective legislator in there, who could maybe jump-start a trend toward moderation and compromise in Tallahassee. We think voters should give him another chance to be that lawmaker.