Education
B.A., cum laude, Harvard University, 1978; J.D., Washington and Lee Law School, 1983.
Hometown
New Port Richey
County
Pasco
Affordable housing and disaster relief are the two most important challenges facing Florida. As for disaster relief, we need to grant incentives for people to fortify their homes against wind and flood damage and remove restrictions against filing legitimate damage claims against insurance companies. We need to halt new development in high-risk areas.
As for affordable housing, we need to cap increases in insurance premiums, utility rates, and rent. We need to remove restrictions against renters filing legitimate claims against absentee landlords.
We need to repeal recent legislation deterring nonprofit and nonpartisan organizations from helping people exercise their right to vote. We can't allow their red-herring alarm about voter fraud deceive the public. We need to carry out the people's decision to grant voting rights to convicted felons and repeal recent legislation requiring them to pay all related fines, as those fines are often impossible to determine and, in most incidents, were converted to liens by the original sentencing judges.
i would support legislation reducing our dependency on fossil fuels and encouraging alternate renewable energy sources. I would also support legislation educating the public, and especially our children, about the imminent danger of climate change, and what we can do about it. We are facing a global crisis, and there is only so much Floridians can do, but social change begins at home.
A woman's choice whether to carry a pregnancy to term should never be the province of government. The current six-week ban is illogical and dangerous, as women who didn't even know they were pregnant are forced to seek health care on the street. I support Constitutional Amendment 4 preserving a woman’s right to an abortion.
I would support legislation banning assault weapons and revoking the recently enacted "right to carry" law. The Second Amendment right to bear arms was never meant to protect the right to possess weapons designed to wreak the most bloodshed in the least amount of time. Gun violence is usually a result of passion, so there should be some sort of "cooling off" period, as well as mandatory training, before the licensed sale of a firearm. The "Stand Your Ground" legislation should be reversed, as it has only misled people to believe that they can shoot first then claim self-defense.
We need to pay our teachers and counselors more. Florida is last in average public school teacher salary (okay, West Virginia is last, but they don't count, they're not America's Vacationland). Home schooling and charter schools (luxuries not available to the middle and lower classes) are siphoning resources from our public school system. We must reaffirm our commitment to our State Constitution's guarantee of a "high quality system of free public schools." Republicans want to privatize education, subjecting our children's future to the bottom line.
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