GOP leading in effort to retain Cabinet positions
In the race for Florida’s three Cabinet seats, the balance of power appeared to swing toward the Republicans by Tuesday night.
With nearly all precincts reporting, the GOP had leads in each of the three positions, setting up its continuing dominion of the powerful board that sits with the governor.
For attorney general, Republican Ashley Moody defeated Democrat Sean Shaw with 52.2 percent of the vote to Shaw’s 45.7 percent.
For chief financial officer, incumbent Republican Jimmy Patronis led with 52.1 percent of the vote Democrat Jeremy Ring’s 47.9 percent of the vote with about 80 percent of precincts reporting.
The race for agriculture commissioner, however, was far closer Tuesday night. Republican Matt Caldwell led with 51 percent, while Nikki Fried, a Democrat, had 49 percent of the vote.
Here is how the broke down: campaigns
Attorney General
Moody and Shaw battled all fall, especially over defining the most important role of the attorney general, Florida’s top law enforcement officer.
Shaw accused Moody, a former judge and prosecutor from Tampa, of being like current Attorney General Pam Bondi, who he said focuses too much on suing the federal government over issues such as the Affordable Care Act.
Moody supports the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, while Shaw wants to see it repealed. She said she would continue to pursue the lawsuit against Obamacare because she believes the law is unconstitutional.
Shaw, a state representative from Tampa, vowed to attack gun violence by setting up a commission to recommend how to change state laws about the sale of assault-style weapons, 3D printing of guns and mass shootings.
Moody said she would tackle the state’s deadly opioid epidemic, by studying how local governments, hospitals and social agencies have struggled to cope with it.
Agriculture Commissioner
The race featured two candidates with vastly different views of the office.
Fried, a lobbyist from Fort Lauderdale, said she would oversee the agriculture industry but also focus more on the department’s other main duty of consumer protection. She also argued that the agency should take over from the Department of Health managing the state’s medical marijuana industry.
She said she would closely scrutinize the department’s system of granting concealed-weapons permits after reports of mismanagement in recent months.
Caldwell, a state lawmaker who lives in North Fort Myers, said he, too, would evaluate the gun permit process, but he vowed to protect Floridians’ Second Amendment rights.
A member of a seventhgeneration ranching family, Caldwell promised to beef up research funding to study citrus canker and greening diseases and to help small citrus farmers move into alternative crops.
CFO
Patronis of Panama City Beach and challenger Ring of Parkland accused each other of accepting campaign money from criminal or scandalous contributors.
Both candidates said as CFO they would focus on helping Floridians deal with insurance issues. Ring said he wanted to keep insurance costs stable over time, in part to help families rebuild after hurricanes or other natural disasters.
Patronis said he would fight insurance fraud to keep costs down. Ashley Moody clinched a victory in the Florida attorney general race, while Republicans led the other two Cabinet races as well.