The Plant City Republican Women Federated club received two late additions to its August meeting following the announcement of a
special election to fill the vacant district 58 seat in the Florida House.
GOP candidates Lawrence McClure and Yvonne Fry joined political consultant Andrew Taylor Aug. 17 to speak to club members and guests.
Former district 58 representative Dan Raulerson resigned from his seat Aug. 15 to focus on health and his business as a certified public accountant in Plant City. Raulerson announced his resignation July 25 and Fry filed to run July 26. McClure filed his paperwork Aug. 1, the same day Gov. Rick Scott announced a special election to replace Raulerson would be held Dec. 19. Fry and McClure will face off in a primary on Oct. 19. Qualifying for the race ended Aug. 16, locking Fry and McClure in as the only two GOP candidates.
Tampa resident Ahmad Hussam Saadaldin is running with no party affiliation, as is democrat Jose Vazquez of Tampa and Libertarian Bryan Zemina of Temple Terrace.
The two republican candidates, despite both having roots in Plant City agriculture, had never met before deciding to run for the a seat in Tallahassee, but said they’d run into each other a handful of times since filing.
Both candidates said they’ve hit the ground running, something Taylor said is important on their short-run to Tallahassee. Usually, Taylor said, prospective candidates would begin planning a race a year or more out.
“We’re in a unique situation with the race you’re all here for tonight because all this I’m talking about, the prep work and the pre work a year out, didn’t happen,” Taylor said. “All of a sudden everything’s happening at once.”
Both campaigns, he said, did a great job qualifying with petitions on barely a week’s notice. Each has also pushed full-steam ahead, actively campaigning every night, sometimes making multiple appearances in a single day. Three weeks into a race that will only last about 12, Taylor said the work of both candidates has been impressive.
Fry, 45, a mother of two and one of Plant City’s most civilly active citizens, was the first candidate to speak. In her nearly 20-minute address, she spoke proudly of her children’s accomplishments and traced her fascination with politics to watching the results come in for a school board election when she was about seven or eight years old.
Fry outlined her experience working with the business and education communities in Plant City. Fry is the current chair of the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce. She also serves on the board for Main Street Plant City and is a founding member of the Plant City Economic Development Corporation. She has also started or has been an integral component in founding or supporting programs at local schools including the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Academy at Tomlin Middle School and the future fair and career academy at Plant City High School.
Fry said her focus in Tallahassee would be smart and sustainable growth for Plant City’s business community and making sure Plant City’s children are ready for job opportunities in Plant City following high school.
“We want to create community, opportunity and something better for our kids,” Fry said. “Everything I do is for my kids.”
McClure, 30, is a partner in environmental consulting firm Streamline Environmental. He spoke for about five minutes, expressing his passion for deregulating government interference with small businesses and farmers to remove the burden of timely government redundancies.
Through his company, McClure said he works with the legislature on a daily basis to help small businesses and farmers. He said he can use his knowledge of how government works to help the Plant City business community grow and flourish. Win or lose, McClure said he plans to be in Tallahassee at the start of the House’s next session.
“I’ll be in Tallahassee regardless,” McClure said. “I told Yvonne if it’s not me, I’ll need some calendar time.”
The candidates only fielded a few questions from the audience, including how they would vote if the removal of confederate monuments was proposed.
“I would vote no,” McClure said.
“For me, our history is our history,” Fry said. “And good, bad and indifferent, the things that have come before have shaped us, and molded us, and hopefully grown us. And to me, the challenge is what are we gonna make our history now to define who we are and how we behave. What we’re creating, are we being constructive? Those are the things. I think about the time and energy that’s put into this and the major pressing issues that we could be doing something about. To me, that grieves me. I know that there’s hurt and I get that, but I’d like us to be constructive about a lot of other things right now.”
While both candidates have similar goals and views, their approaches to the campaign have been markedly different.
Fry has been operating a social media-heavy campaign including video and photo endorsements from a number of prominent community members and organizations including Florida Strawberry Festival Chair Sandee Sytsma, County Commissioner Al Higginbotham, Carl and Dee Dee Grooms of Fancy Farms and the board of Rise Plant City.
According to Tom Piccolo, a consultant working with McClure, McClure has only received an official endorsement form the Hillsborough County Farm Bureau. The McClure campaign, Piccolo said, is more focused on reaching out to constituents on a personal level.
“It’s a more personal, door-to-door approach,” Piccolo said,” We’re making sure every citizen in every corner of the county has a chance get to know Lawrence. We hope it allows people to be more comfortable talking about issues that are important to them without the pressure of a camera, allowing them to be more candid. It’s about what issues they want to see in the next session.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story listed Jake Raburn as a member of the Hillsborough County Farm Bureau voting board. Raburn is the director emeritus and does not vote in board decisions. He said he will not be making an endorsement in the District 58 race.