Coastal Broward voters should return Rep. Chip LaMarca to Florida House

Narrow and elongated, northeast Broward’s House District 93 lies between Dixie Highway and the Atlantic Ocean and stretches from Port Everglades to the Palm Beach County line. It includes the affluent coastal areas of Fort Lauderdale — plus the neighborhoods of Rio Vista, Victoria Park and Coral Ridge — as well as Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Lighthouse

Point, Deerfield Beach, Sea Ranch Lakes, coastal Pompano Beach and Hillsboro Beach. It’s the only legislative district in Broward in which registered Republicans are competitive with Democrats.

Nineteen people represent parts of Broward in the Florida Legislature, and 18 of them are Democrats. The lone Republican is Rep. Chip LaMarca of Lighthouse Point, who represents House District 93. In a deep blue delegation, he’s quite literally a party of one.

LaMarca, 52, of Lighthouse Point, is a construction company owner, former Broward County commissioner and exLighthouse Point commissioner who was elected to the House two years ago with 53 percent of the vote. He faces a re-election challenge from attorney Linda Thompson Gonzalez, 70, of Lauderdaleby-the-Sea. She is a retired assistant inspector general for the U.S. Department of State who served as a U.S. Foreign Service public affairs officer at embassies in several Latin American countries.

Gonzalez is a well-prepared candidate who has studied the issues and has an impressive resume. However, despite our disagreements with LaMarca on a number of policy votes, we endorse his bid for a new term, for three reasons.

First, LaMarca can serve as a bridge between liberal Broward and the ruling

Republicans, who at best are indifferent to the concerns of close to 2 million Broward residents and at worst, in an excessively partisan state Capitol, hostile to this Democratic-leaning county. Second, he works effectively across the aisle with Democrats who dominate the county’s Tallahassee delegation. And third, there are more than 260,000 registered Republicans in Broward — one of every five county voters — and they deserve a voice in Tallahassee.

Rank-and-file Republicans in Tallahassee are expected to know their place and follow their leaders, who control every aspect of their political lives from office space, to seat assignments, to committee posts.

LaMarca generally toes the party line, but not always. He wisely voted against a bill that would have allowed teachers to carry guns in classrooms and another that targeted labor union membership. Unlike many GOP colleagues, he favors local regulation of vacation rentals and sponsored a bill to protect home rule. Unfortunately, that last bill went nowhere. For while Republicans may say government closest to the people works best, those in charge of Tallahassee believe they know best.

But LaMarca also has opposed Medicaid expansion and supported the requirement that parents obtain a notarized consent form before allowing their daughter to have an abortion. He also supported restrictions on petition initiatives, making it much harder for citizens to take action when Tallahassee refuses to listen. And he voted to build three new toll roads through rural parts of Florida, over the objections of surprised communities along the way. These toll roads, which will cost billions of dollars, leapfrogged over other vital projects in the state’s 10-year transportation plan because a Senate president wanted them and acquiescent lawmakers obliged.

“Chip has a terrible voting record that can’t be glossed over easily,” Gonzalez said.

On guns, LaMarca displayed a “thank you” note from the gun control group, Moms Demand Action, in our interview. But the group, which does not endorse candidates, has designated Gonzalez as a “gun sense” candidate. Gonzalez also is backed by the Brady Campaign and by the Sierra Club.

In the 2020 legislative session, which was upended by the coronavirus pandemic in its final days, LaMarca sponsored a $250,000 line item to help Lauderdale-by-the-Sea change from septic tanks to sewers. However, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it, as he did hundreds of other projects as the coronavirus pandemic cratered the economy. LaMarca also was the primary House sponsor of a new law that lets collegiate athletes profit from their athletic exploits.

LaMarca has deeper roots District 93, living there since 1971. Gonzalez was a registered Republican until several years ago, when she switched parties and became a Democrat. In a joint candidate interview with the Sun Sentinel editorial board, she said she had followed the partisan preferences of her parents in Michigan, but that she worked for gun control and voluntary pre-kindergarten education and supported national Democratic candidates.

Through Sept. 4, LaMarca had raised nearly $264,000 in this campaign, among the most of any House race in the state. Gonazlez had raised $64,000 and loaned her campaign $70,000.

The overwhelmingly white and affluent district is one of what Democrats consider “flippables” in the state House: a Republican-held seat that Democrats believe they can win. Not so, LaMarca told us: “Chip LaMarca’s going to be just fine in this district. It’s not a flippable seat.”

For several decades, District 93 has been the only part of Broward that has been kind to Republican legislative candidates, such as former U.S. Rep Clay Shaw and former state Sen. Jim Scott. It’s the only legislative district in Broward with roughly equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. Two years ago, when LaMarca defeated progressive challenger Emma Collum, it was the most expensive House race in the state.

The outcome of the race is largely beyond either candidate’s control. This is a presidential election year, which means a much higher turnout in November. President Donald Trump is not popular even in this district, and the simple arithmetic shows that LaMarca needs Democratic votes to win. As he noted in our interview, he’s not publicly supporting Trump’s re-election. “There’s no sign in my yard,” he said.

For Florida House District 93, the Sun Sentinel recommends Rep. Chip

LaMarca.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.

LaMarca