Fine's battle for final Florida House term wrapped in controversy, inflammatory politics

The legislative race for South Brevard once again sees Republican Florida Rep. Randy Fine fending off an upstart Democratic newcomer, this time in Anthony Yantz.

In what has become a theme in recent cycles, the race for the newly redrawn Florida House District 33 (formerly District 53) is largely a battle of personalities, pitting the controversial three-term representative against an opponent who says he's tired of Fine's divisive antics.

But this year's election also is fueled by major hot-button issues on which Yantz and Fine have taken starkly opposite views, many of which Fine helped to engineer himself.

That includes Gov. Ron DeSantis's Stop WOKE Act, which limits race-related discussions in the classroom and which supporters hailed as a blow to critical race theory, and the much-maligned Parental Rights in Education Act — dubbed by critics the "Don't Say Gay" bill — both of which Fine co-sponsored.

Fine video interview: Election 2022: Meet Randy Fine, the incumbent for State House District 33

Yantz video interview: Election 2022: Meet Anthony Yantz, the challenger for State House District 33

Fine also made national headlines this year when he sponsored a bill targeting The Walt Disney Co.'s self-governing powers after the conglomerate came out against the bill, which critics worried could harm gay and transgender students.

He said the legislation was a major victory in the battle to turn back the involvement of corporations in politics.

"Disney was just too powerful," Fine told FLORIDA TODAY Engagement Editor John Torres in a recent candidate interview. "For those people who like to argue that money determines policy, that big corporations run the show, I think that bill proves they are not right."

Fine known for controversy

Like Fine's previous Democratic opponents, Yantz has difficult work ahead of him.

Fine has mobilized his considerable campaign money machine for what he hopes will be his fourth and final term in the Florida House, raking in $157,000 so far from a mix of political action committees, business and corporate interests, and individual contributions.

It's about half of what he raised in 2020, when he also had to wage a bloody primary fight against Republican challenger Marcie Adkins (Fine was unopposed in the primary this year), but still an obstacle for Yantz, who has raised $16,000 in comparison, mostly from individuals.

Florida House members have a salary of $29,697 a year.

Although District 33 is more politically balanced than other Florida House and Senate districts in Brevard, Republicans outnumber Democrats in voter registration, 36.3% to 32.4%. The other 31.3% are either members of no political party or of a minor political party.

By his own admission, Yantz — a first-time political candidate — has struggled with name recognition in the race, a significant disadvantage against a well-known incumbent.

He is hoping this year may finally be the one where Fine's name is more of a liability than an asset.

"I think people are finally realizing the kind of damage he's bringing to Brevard," Yantz said. "I've had a lot of conversations with people in the community, and they're fed up."

Fine has accrued a long list of controversies over the years.

Locally, he has picked fights with Brevard County School Board members, Republican Party officials, city leaders, political consultants and Facebook critics.

Those personal feuds have sometimes carried collateral damage. A bitter public battle with Brevard School Board member Jennifer Jenkins and Brevard Public Schools — which included Fine's long-standing beef with Superintendent Mark Mullins — culminated in a bill last year penalizing school districts that imposed student mask mandates, in defiance of orders from DeSantis.

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Jenkins had been the most visible board member to support the mandate in Brevard. She blamed Fine's incendiary personal attacks against her on social media for a string of reported harassment and protests outside her Satellite Beach home.

Despite casting the bill as a "reckoning" for both Jenkins and BPS on Facebook, Fine denied the proposal had anything to do with scoring points against her or the school district.

The state rep also was embroiled in a scandal in April, when he threatened state funding for the Special Olympics and the city of West Melbourne after city officials invited Jenkins to a fundraiser for the organization, according to a series of text messages released through a public records request.

Fine later told FLORIDA TODAY he never said he would pull the funding, and only meant that Jenkins' involvement politicized the event and put the funding "at risk." He didn't answer further questions about what that meant.

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Yantz said such incidents were what spurred him to considering running for office in the first place.

"That's not the way a representative should act," Yantz said.

Fine has downplayed his aggressive approach to politics, despite repeated prodding from reporters.

"'Enemy' is the wrong word," Fine told Torres, referring to those with whom he has feuded. "Oftentimes, these are people I have political differences with. I don't know any of these people personally, and, in most of those instances, have no reason to have any personal beef with them."

For all his controversies, Fine is also known for a number of less divisive reasons. A successful businessman, husband and father of two school-age boys, Fine is the only openly Jewish Republican member of the State House and has spent much of time in office fighting anti-Semitism and supporting pro-Israel causes.

He is a leader of a local Boy Scout troop and has helped organize a number of popular food drives to help struggling families, which he often advertises on his Facebook page.

Fine has spent his time on the campaign trail focused on his many legislative victories during his six years in office, counting among them dozens of bills he has sponsored or helped develop, and many tens of millions in state funding for local projects — including more than $50 million last year for the cleanup of the Indian River Lagoon.

Fine also was one of the architects of the state's school voucher program, which allows families to use state funds to send their children to private schools. He has called the program "the largest expansion of school choice in American history."

"I'm very proud of the money I brought back for the Indian River Lagoon; telling California companies they're not going to decide how we do things here in Florida; looking out for the interests of parents," he said in the FLORIDA TODAY candidate interview.

"I work at the job the way I do because it's very effective," said Fine, who is seeking  his fourth and final term in the Florida House of Representatives, which has a limit of four consecutive terms.

Yantz pledges to support teachers, affordable housing

Yantz, meanwhile, has focused on casting himself as a congenial, everyman alternative to the prickly, Harvard-educated Fine, who became a self-made millionaire in the gambling industry before politics.

Sporting facial hair and a smart, sleeve-length tattoo on his left arm, Yantz doesn't look much like a politician — because he's not, he said.

"I'm a people person, first and foremost," Yantz said.

Yantz and his wife, Amber, are both Realtors. They moved from New England to Brevard about 10 years ago, and raised a family here that includes five kids and menagerie of pets, he said.

Funding controversy: Florida Rep. Randy Fine threatened Special Olympics funding over school board member feud, texts show

Yantz has been open about his childhood in the foster care system, which he said helped to shape his values and his approach to fatherhood and politics.

"I was raised in a very small town. One blinking light. And my school saved my life," he said during a FLORIDA TODAY candidate interview. "It was the teachers and guidance counselors that figured out I wasn't being fed, that my half-brother and half-sister lived with me at the time. We were all being beaten. Nothing any child should ever have to endure. … I'm thankful my teachers stood up and realized what was going on."

The state intervened when Yantz was 13, and he spent the next few years bouncing around from foster home to foster home, he said.

"It was a terrible but rewarding experience, because it gave me so much insight to how different families operate, how different schools function, and it made me value the family structure and the school structures they all provide," Yantz said.

Yantz has never run for office or held serious political aspirations until recently.

"I was captain of a soccer team once!" he joked in a text.

While his platform on his website includes few specific policy proposals, he has laid out a list of pledges for the issues he will support.

His top priority for his freshman year in office — if he wins — will be increasing funding for public schools, including teacher pay and mental health resources, he said.

He has promised to support "common-sense gun reform," which includes beefing up the background check system for gun purchases and optional "common-sense" gun ownership courses in schools.

Yantz also has pledged to support green technologies and infrastructure, and to work with experts to rescue the endangered manatee population.

He called on legislators to focus on the affordable housing crisis, which he said is contributing to shortages of teachers and first responders in Brevard. He said he would fight to fully fund the Sadowski Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which subsidizes development of low-cost housing projects across the state.

"We need to work with developers and within our municipalities and figure out how we can create affordable housing for people to stay here, and for people to want to move here to work in these industries," Yantz said.

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'The ultimate bully'

Yantz was critical of much of Fine's recent legislation, including the Stop WOKE Act and the Parental Rights in Education Act.

While he didn't call out Fine by name, he blamed much of the focus around the issues on "really bad rhetoric" that only served to "stir up hate."

However, Yantz stopped short of saying he would work to repeal the bills.

"Our schools already have a system in place to deal with things like a boy going into a girl's bathroom," he said. "By shining a light on them in a different way and making it seem huge and a big problem, and screaming about it, it's harming our communities, not helping."

Going after Disney: Randy Fine: Republican lawmaker's fight with Disney is only his latest battle in culture wars

Yantz said he opposed the 15-week abortion ban, which prohibits the procedure more than 15 weeks after conception.

The already controversial legislation, signed into law in April, has drawn additional scrutiny since June when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case guaranteeing a federal right to abortion.

Fine supported the bill, and spoke in its favor on the Florida House floor in February.

"My opinion on what happens to somebody else is irrelevant when it comes to health care. It is between that woman, their doctor and their family. End of story," Yantz said.

Fine's inflammatory style, tendency toward escalation and name-calling, and divisive legislation were bad for Brevard and for the state, Yantz said, even if Fine has had "small wins, here and there" in office.

"He's doing this because he thinks he's helping people. That's totally a mischaracterization," Yantz said. "He's become the ultimate bully, and he needs to go, simple as that."

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Asked for comment, Fine said: "Who is Anthony Yantz?"

Fine told Torres that undecided voters should look at his record to make up their minds about who to support.

"I bring home more money than anyone else. I get more bills passed than anyone else," Fine said. "I think, if they want the next two years to be like the last six, they should vote for me. If they don't like the last six, then they shouldn't, and I'll be OK with that outcome."

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter: @EricRogersFT.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Stop WOKE, 'Don't Say Gay' loom over Fine's race for House District 33