Vote ‘non-politician’ Dem Woodson in

The southernmost House district in Broward includes Pembroke Park, West Park and parts of Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Miramar and Pembroke Pines.

Sometimes the best candidate for office is not the one with the flashiest resumé.

That’s the case in South Broward’s House District 101, one of six open House seats in the county with no incumbent seeking reelection. Three Democrats are on the ballot in the Aug. 18 primary to succeed Rep. Shevrin Jones, whose career in the House is ending after eight years due to term limits. He is seeking election to the Florida Senate.

This diverse district of working-class families and small businesses needs a true advocate at home and in Tallahassee. The right choice is Marie Woodson, 60, of Hollywood, a retired social services administrator who is ready to use her lifetime of experience to improve people’s lives.

For 35 years, Woodson worked in Miami-Dade’s human services agency on issues ranging from affordable housing, to earlychildhood education, to mental health, to substance abuse. She has a master’s degree in public administration from St. Thomas University and for the past 24 years has lived in Hollywood, where she has served on two city advisory boards.

Woodson’s opponents are Brian Johnson, 46, vice mayor of West Park and director of a county minority builders’ coalition; and Ashira Mohammed, 43, of Pembroke Park, the town’s full-time mayor and an elected official for the past 17 years.

Johnson and Mohammed have longer political resumés, and Johnson has an impressive list of community supporters. But Woodson, the only nonpolitician of the three, rises above the rest. Her life story mirrors that of many of her neighbors.

She won’t use the job as a stepping-stone to higher office. And her age and expertise in human services will be assets in a Broward delegation that will be younger and less experienced in November.

A native of Haiti, Woodson came to South Florida at 21 and by her account could not speak a word of English when she went to work helping others as a county social worker’s aide in Miami. She’s fluent in three languages — English, Spanish and Creole — and promises to be a full-time lawmaker (the job is officially parttime and pays $29,697 a year).

In her Sun Sentinel questionnaire, Woodson came across as a committed liberal Democrat. She supports Medicaid expansion, more money for schools, universal background checks for all gun buyers and an unemployment system “that actually works.” She said Gov. Ron DeSantis mishandled the state’s pandemic response by blaming victims and waiting too long to order closings. She supports mandatory face coverings in public.

Our one-hour video interview went off the rails a bit as Johnson and Mohammed verbally clashed twice, first about annexation fights between their cities and over Johnson’s claim that town officials in Pembroke Park, population 6,600, are paid too much.

Under the town’s government, elected officials oversee departments, and as mayor, Mohammed manages the administration and is paid $42,000 a year — more, Johnson said, than the town’s median family income of about $38,000.

As Woodson chided her rivals for “bickering,” she sounded like the adult in the room (it was a virtual room with our editorial board).

A fresh face on the Broward political scene, Woodson has never held elective office. But she has raised $82,000, an impressive sum for a novice, and most donors are individuals in Miami-Dade and Broward who contributed $500 or less.

Through mid-June, Johnson has raised $91,000 and Mohammed nearly $25,000.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Vincent “Vinny” Parlatore in November. The Sun Sentinel recommends Democrat Marie Woodson in House District 101.

Woodson