Democrats discuss insurance, schools in state House debate

The three Democratic candidates running in the special election for a Central Florida seat in the state House squared off Wednesday on issues ranging from insurance to schools and transportation.

All shared their frustration with Tallahassee, with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and a GOP supermajority in the Legislature.

The debate, sponsored by the Orlando Sentinel and Spectrum News 13, included Rishi Bagga, a civil attorney and the Democratic candidate for the seat in 2022; Marucci Guzmán, the executive director of the nonprofit Latino Leadership; and Tom Keen, who has served on Orlando’s Citizens’ Police Review Board and Veteran Advisory Council.

The Democrats and three Republicans are running in a Nov. 7 special primary election for District 35, which includes parts of eastern Orange and Osceola counties. The winners of their party primaries will face off in a general election on Jan. 16.

The special election was prompted by Hawkins’ resignation earlier this year to become president of South Florida State College in Highlands County.

Bagga, 40, said that as a former prosecutor, “I know a bully when I see one. And Ron DeSantis and MAGA Republicans are mercilessly bullying our state,” including having passed “hurtful legislation fanning the flames of division and staying silent in the face of hate.”

Guzmán said she was the best fit for the district as a Hispanic woman and cited her work leading Latino Leadership, the Santiago & Friends center for autism and the Clínica Mi Salud free clinic.

“Whether increasing access to health care, helping families with unique abilities or providing affordable housing, I have been doing this work from day one,” she said.

Keen pointed to his Navy experience and business background. But he also slammed both Hawkins and former Republican state Rep. Rene Plasencia, whom he mentioned was “the spouse of one of my opponents,” Guzmán, for having resigned from office to take political “swampy jobs.”

Plasencia resigned seven months early in March 2022 to take a job with IBM.

Asked about the property insurance crisis, Bagga said he would push for a state homeowners assistance program “to make sure that they don’t lose their homes.”

Keen said homeowners should be given “the advantages that big insurance companies have had,” while Guzmán said insurance companies should be held accountable through auditing so “when they’re asking for a handout from the state, that handout is being passed to the residents of the state.”

On affordable housing, Keen and Bagga both criticized the Legislature for taking away local control. “So often the Legislature has preempted us and taken away our right to make those decisions for ourselves,” Bagga said.

Guzmán said that she’s worked with local governments “to find creative avenues to increase homeowner ability for the working class. We need to keep being creative, not raiding the Sadowski Fund,” the money designated for housing that has long been diverted to other projects.

District 35 includes the booming neighborhood of Lake Nona. Bagga said growth needs to be balanced with protecting the environment, and said tourist dollars should be looked at as a means of funding transportation.

Keen said the Legislature needs to “take those handcuffs off of counties” and let them increase impact fees to fund roads and public transportation. Guzmán said communities need to be able to fund “quality of life,” including transportation infrastructure.

All three vociferously opposed books being removed from school libraries and restrictions on what could be taught to students. Keen said only a “very slim minority” of parents were pushing book removals.

“The people banning the books aren’t the ones that are reading them,” Guzmán said.

She also said children should learn “accurate history, their history, and we should not be letting Tallahassee dictate to teachers what they should be teaching.”

Bagga agreed that “we absolutely have to fight back. … These [laws are] bad for students, because it subjects so many students to bullying and being targeted just because they look different.”

Bagga said an office of gun violence prevention, similar to one created by the Biden administration, could be bipartisan legislation of his that could make it through a Republican-led Legislature.

Keen said working to reduce the rise in homeowners insurance, “not five years from now or three years from now, but next year,” was doable even with a GOP supermajority.

Guzmán said she’d already worked to pass two bills helping people with autism.

“To me, it’s very important to have a Democrat win this race that can have those conversations in Tallahassee that on day one has the experience to get that work done,” she said.

The candidates in the Republican primary, Osceola School Board member Erika Booth, flight attendant and former probation officer Ken Davenport and former congressional candidate Scott Moore, did not all agree to attend a planned GOP debate so it was not held.

Meanwhile, initial mail-in ballots for the primary in Osceola County were mistakenly sent out with voters’ party affiliation on the envelope, a violation of state law.

Michael Hargon, owner of the Osceola elections office’s vendor Magnolia Press, said the blame was “a shared responsibility.”

“If the data had not been sent to me with the party affiliation, which is outside standard practice, then the issue never would have happened,” Hargon said.

Osceola County Elections Supervisor Mary Jane Arrington said no one in her office approved the final document before it was sent. Replacement ballots have been sent out, she said.

“We didn’t have the opportunity to correct it,” she said. “But the buck stops here. It’s a mistake and we did everything in our power to correct it.”

Staff writer Natalia Jaramillo contributed to this report.