Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Former lawmaker possible Brenda Snipes replacement
Chris Smith, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer and veteran of the Florida House and Senate, emerged Tuesday as a candidate for Broward Supervisor of Elections.
“‘Interested’ is the word I’d use, yes,” he said in a telephone interview from Tallahassee, where he was attending events surrounding the organizational sessions of the Florida House and Senate, where he used to serve. “If called to duty, you know I’d have to consider it.”
He said he wouldn’t put himself in the category of those who are actively pursuing the job — at least not yet. He said many people have approached him about the job.
Smith said he headed to Tallahassee on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes submitted her resignation to Gov. Rick Scott at the conclusion of days of vote counting and recounting the 2018 midterm elections. Her performance was widely panned.
Right away, Smith said, people started talking to him about the job. “Mostly, ‘Hey, you should really think about it. It is something that we think you would be good at,’ ” he said.
Smith served eight years in the Florida House, rising to his party’s top job there. Later he spent eight years in the Florida Senate, also rising to the job of minority leader. He left both the House and Senate because of term limits.
Smith, 48, narrowly lost a 2016 Democratic primary challenge to County Commissioner Dale Holness. He’s also known for organizing the pre-election “Souls to the Polls” even in the AfricanAmerican community in Fort Lauderdale before each election.
Though he’s been a prominent voice in the Democratic Party, Smith has enjoyed good relations with Republicans. “I’ve always worked good across the aisle,” he said.
Though a Democrat, he was a Republican appointed to the state Constitutional Revision Commission that served in 2017 and 2018.
He’s now an attorney with the Tripp Scott law firm in Fort Lauderdale, a firm that’s led by prominent Republicans.
On Monday, Smith sat next to Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera at a swearing-in event for the Florida House, where both used to serve. Lopez-Cantera is likely to be governor on Jan. 4 when Snipes’ resignation goes into effect and may be the one who appoints a new Broward elections chief. (Outgoing Gov. Rick Scott is supposed to be sworn in to his new job in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3 and Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis doesn’t take office until Jan. 8.)
Smith said he and Lopez-Cantera didn’t discuss the supervisor of elections post.
He has some background in election law. After the infamous 2000 presidential election, with its multiple ballot and votecounting problems, he was vice chairman of the committee that rewrote Florida election laws.
Other people interested in the job — David Brown, a political consultant who lost the 2016 Democratic primary to Snipes; Richard DeNapoli, state Republican committeeman and former Broward Republican chairman; and Lori Parrish, former Broward property appraiser and County Commissioner — have said they’d take the job to fix the office and wouldn’t seek election to a full term in 2020.
Smith said he hasn’t thought about that. “I’m not even at that stage yet,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “This just really came up in the last 24 to 48 hours that I’ve been up here.”