2022 Election House Seat District 65

As you know, I have a personal policy of speaking with candidates for local office before considering them for my vote. I got set back a week from being out of town at a conference, but I am now back on the trail and reaching out.

First up is the race for State Representative, District 65. The Republican is Karen Gonzalez Pittman. Her husband is a physician, and she wants to ensure you know that. We discussed healthcare; she wants to fix it but couldn’t offer any mechanisms to do so. She is definitely NOT on board with Medicare for all but does believe that Obamacare screwed up the entire healthcare industry. I asked for an example, and she said that doctors shouldn’t have to write letters to insurance companies, and patients shouldn’t have to get multiple opinions to get insurance companies to pay for something the attending physician thinks is needed. I agreed with her but explained that those were insurance company policies and had nothing to do with “Obamacare.” As you might expect, she didn’t have a good response to that.

She had a very confusing and inarticulable position on a woman’s right to choose. She stated she believed in the 15-week requirement. I asked, “So a 13-old-who gets raped but doesn’t realize it until after 15 weeks is required to carry her rapist’s baby to term?” Her response was, “oh no, that should be a decision between her and her physician.” I pointed out it was after 15 weeks, and she still insisted it should be between the girl and her physician. It was a strange conversation. I suspect she’s just trying to express a milquetoast position to satisfy everyone.

We did find some common ground on school choice. Mrs. Pittman claims to believe that if a private charter school company closes the school, they should have to return the property, and with that, I agree. She also said that if they remove a student, they should also have to return that money…again, I agree.

Unfortunately, though, she’s all on board with the “Don’t Say Gay” law and made the same point they all do that “the law doesn’t say that.” I explained that laws don’t say a lot of things, but their practical effect is that this is what the law does. I pointed out the requirement was to inform parents if a student came out to them and gave her statistics about the causes of homelessness amongst LGBTQ students. She seemed genuinely alarmed and asked for the studies (which I have sent). Like most people, she didn’t understand the law’s practical effect.

But then she went into a thing about seeing a “transgender” show in a school on Fox News. She explicitly said, “I watch Fox News.” That pretty much told me all I needed to know. I quickly looked up the segment and explained to her that a small child was at a drag show in a RESTAURANT (not a school), and it was a ticketed event. She was sure that somewhere a teacher had held an explicit drag show in an elementary classroom. She’s also OK with book banning.

I’d asked about the coming homeowner’s insurance crisis in Florida. She admitted she didn’t understand the industry, but she was sure that the Democratic candidate, an insurance agent, shouldn’t be the one deciding policy.

I also spoke with the Democrat, Jen McDonald. As usual with Democrats, she was well-informed and articulate in her positions. She believes that public schools should get more funding, that charter schools should have more accountability, and that common sense rules can be put in place to reduce gun violence.

We had a long discussion about the homeowner’s insurance issue. As a local agent, she has a broad understanding of the industry but willingly admitted she was researching to develop ideas of how to address this looming crisis.

We discussed the funding for public schools, and she admitted (without prompting) that too much had been going to Charters, and they were now little more than real estate and money grabs.

She believes there are reasonable steps that could be taken to reduce gun violence, and sees no reason Florida should not have taken the money to get Medicare for everyone. She is also solidly opposed to the DeSantis “woke” laws and the attacks on teachers and schools.

My vote will definitely be going to Jen McDonald.