Dodge, Terry seek to distinguish themselves ahead of Democratic primary for Congress
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Danelle Dodge and Joanne Terry are both first-time candidates for office, hoping for a chance to unseat long-serving incumbent U.S. Rep. Bill Posey.
Posey, R-Rockledge, is seeking an eighth two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Dodge, a resident of Cape Canaveral, and Terry, a resident of Satellite Beach, face one another in the Aug. 23 Democratic primary that is open to registered Democratic voters in District 8. That district covers all of Brevard County and Indian River County as well as parts of eastern Orange County.
The winner of the August primary will face Posey in the Nov. 8 general election.
Posey won his last two elections by roughly the same margin, getting around 60% of the vote each time.
Both Democratic candidates have cast themselves as political outsiders who can bring a fresh perspective to the office.
Dodge has focused her campaign around constituent services, pledging to use the representative's office itself to provide direct help to residents, in terms of connecting them with needed resources.
Terry said she'll work to bridge the divide between Democrats and Republicans, including moderates who are dissatisfied with the political climate created by former President Donald Trump and furthered by Posey.
While both Democratic candidates see eye-to-eye on many of the hot-button issues, they also diverged on their approaches and tactics to solving problems for the district.
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Roe v. Wade
On the issue of abortion, Terry and Dodge both cited polls that have shown about 60% of Americans support abortion access. Both of them have said they would support passing a law that protects abortions at the federal level.
"This whole argument about abortion isn't about whether abortion is right or wrong. It's about what the role of the government should be in a woman deciding what to do with her own body," Terry said.
Where Terry differed from Dodge is in her acknowledgment that many residents in the district are pro-life, and that she will be their representative, too. She said she hopes for a bipartisan solution to protect abortion rights.
"I would absolutely vote to codify Roe v. Wade, but I want to make sure that we do it in a bipartisan way, so after the next election, it doesn't just get overturned," Terry said.
Dodge said emphatically that she would "absolutely" vote yes on a federal bill to protect abortion access, citing the importance of privacy and medical autonomy.
Supreme Court solutions
Many Democrats over the past several years have toyed with the idea of expanding the U.S. Supreme Court to add more justices, and have discussed other ways to change or even curtail the court's powers of judicial review.
When asked about taking such action, Dodge said she fully supports adding seats to the bench, and that Republicans were the ones who had unfairly packed the court with maneuvers like blocking then-President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016.
"I think we need to repair the court," Dodge said. "We had nine federal judicial districts when we had nine justices, and now we have 13."
While Terry said she's "very concerned" over the Supreme Court becoming more partisan over the years, she said adding justices would be a short-term solution for the problems facing the institution.
Reexamining lifetime terms, as well creating more mechanisms of accountability and ethics for Supreme Court justices, would be better long-term solutions for those issues, Terry said.
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Inflation
Terry said the economy needs to be made more resilient in the long term by transitioning to more clean energy to prevent surging oil prices from driving up the price of everything else. She also emphasized dealing with the tax code and reducing the deficit as measures that would bring positive economic impacts.
In the short term, Terry said, there can be more emphasis on child tax credits, school lunches and housing assistance to help families weather inflationary pressures.
Dodge said some of the inflationary issues currently are caused essentially by price-gouging, especially by oil companies seeking to reap higher profits.
"We had a bill on the floor to address the price-gouging by our oil companies, and our current representative voted 'no' on this," Dodge said, adding that shifting transportation infrastructure away from oil also will be important in cutting costs over time.
Affordable housing
Dodge said that many of those struggling to afford housing right now have been ignored by elected leaders who have no concept what it's like to worry about paying rent and bills.
"More than 40% of people in this county make less than what it takes to afford a two-bedroom apartment," Dodge said.
"I would work with groups … looking for grants and other federal options for how we can support things that are ongoing in the community to bring dollars and resources here and shine a light on what's needed here in our county," Dodge added.
Terry called it "incredible" how fast the cost of housing is going up, and cited rent control as something that enabled her family to survive and get her through college as a young woman.
"I believe our economic growth here needs to be inclusive, not exclusive," Terry said.
Indian River Lagoon
Both candidates said the dire conditions of the Indian River Lagoon were high on their list of priorities for Brevard County. If elected, both said they would hope to be able to secure federal funding and assistance in getting the lagoon on track to being healthy again.
"We need to commit to and fund the comprehensive, 20-year plan to get control of the sources, cleanup and the funding to do everything that's needed," Terry said.
She added that education is a huge component in ensuring people aren't putting chemicals and other nutrients into the waterway and disrupting its ecosystem further.
"I think we need to do it from all angles, and it needs to be comprehensive," Terry said.
Dodge said the lagoon's health and its impacts on the economy and housing values means there needs to be a federal approach, and that all funding needs to be targeted to fixing the problem.
"We also need to work on the infrastructure and we need to do that through federal infrastructure money for our water-treatment systems and plants all around the county to make sure we're not having sewage leaking out into the lagoon," Dodge said.
Campaign financing
Dodge has both outraised and outspent Terry in the campaign so far, according to federal campaign finance records.
Dodge had raised $65,179 and spent $40,758.
Terry has raised $34,768 and spent $19,220.
That fundraising disparity comes with the fact that Dodge has loaned $40,000 to her campaign. That compares with the $12,500 Terry loaned to her own campaign, plus $1,428 in cash she contributed to the campaign.
When it came to individual contributions from other people, Dodge was slightly ahead: Dodge raised $25,179 and Terry raised $20,840.
Fundraising for both candidates has been dwarfed by the incumbent, with Posey raising $750,414 in contributions and spending $396,203 this cycle.
Dodge has racked up support from various advocacy groups and Democratic clubs, including Democratic American Youth for Climate Action, Florida College Dems, Florida Freedom to Read Project and Florida Young Democrats.
Both Terry and Dodge were named a Moms Demand Action Gunsense Candidates of Distinction and were supported by Families for Safe Schools.
Terry is also highlighted on ElectGoodPeople.org.
Members of Congress receive a $174,000 base salary.
Tyler Vazquez is the North Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-917-7491 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @tyler_vazquez
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Congressional candidates seek Democratic nomination to face Posey
