Saunders kicks off 2014 campaign

Saunders kicks off 2014 campaign

Orlando – Less than a year ago, Joe Saunders celebrated his historic election to Florida’s House of Representatives with a party at The Abbey in downtown Orlando. On Tuesday, Oct. 15 he returned to the same venue to launch his re-election campaign before a packed house of enthusiastic supporters.

Last November, Saunders defeated former UCF student body president Marco Pena by an eight point margin to become the first representative for the newly created District 49. He was also one of two openly gay candidates elected to the legislature, a first for the Sunshine State.

“After a year in office I can tell you – it matters that we’re there,” Saunders said.

He listed a string of impressive accomplishments for a freshman representative: appointment as deputy whip for Democrats; foreclosure reform; and appointment to three education committees where he sought standards for early learning providers, greater charter school accountability and moved the Arts for All Students Act through three committees.

“We’ll be back with it next year,” he promised.

Saunders also noted that, in a legislature dominated by conservative Republicans, every anti-choice law introduced last year failed. And the Competitive Workforce Act, which would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, took important steps forward.

“In the past, no Republican has supported this legislation,” Saunders said. “Now, with two openly gay representatives amongst them, there are six Republican votes. We’ll build on that.”

Saunders promised that he would work to ensure health care coverage for Florida’s working poor, and to reconsider unfair “common core” standards for evaluating schools and teachers.

Numerous local officials came out to support Saunders at his election kick-off, including: State Sen. Darren Soto, State Rep. Linda Stewart, State Rep. Karen Castor Dentel, State Rep. Victor Torres, Orange County Comm. Tiffany Moore Russell, Orange County Comptroller Martha Haynie, and Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph. Afterward, many planned to venture across Lake Eola to attend a meet-and-greet with potential gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist hosted by Democratic fundraiser Bob Poe.

So far, Saunders has drawn only one Republican opponent for the 2014 elections: retired law enforcement officer Edward Rodriguez. But Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando president Jenna Tosh emphasized the importance of early fundraising.

“2014 is an off-year election, with no presidential race to draw voters to the polls,” Tosh said. “We need early money to announce that Joe will be hard to beat.”

Saunders proclaimed that he is ready for the campaign, as well as upcoming battles in Tallahassee.

“We fought so hard to get here,” he said. “But we have not even begun to show you the game we’ll bring to Tallahassee.”

Photos by Tom Dyer and Lonnie Thompson.

More in News

See More