Mitch Perry
Florida Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera is expected to announce his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for Senate on Wednesday in Miami, making him the third Republican to enter the race, with more expected to follow.
In doing so, he’s attempting to reverse a negative trend when it comes to advancing from being second-in-command in Florida. Since the state reestablished the position in 1968, four previous lieutenant governors have lost while running for higher office, with Jeff Kotkamp being the latest example in 2010, when he attempted to become attorney general but lost out to Pam Bondi.
The 41-year-old Lopez-Cantera has an interesting background. Born in Spain, Lopez-Cantera is both Cuban and Jewish. After graduating from the University of Miami in 1996, he lost his first bid for state office in 2002 when he fell short of winning a seat in the state House of Representatives. He was elected to the House in the 113th District in 2004, and was reelected three more times, and was the House Majority Leader from 2010 to 2012.
After being term-limited out of the House, he ran for and won as property appraiser in Miami-Dade County in 2012.
In January of 2014, Lopez-Cantera left his position in Miami-Dade to accept Rick Scott’s request that he serve as his Lieutenant Governor/running mate in the 2014 election, succeeding Jennifer Carroll who resigned ten months earlier following allegations that she was involved in an effort to steer money into Internet cafes.
Lopez-Cantera telegraphed his serious interest in the race back in April, when it was announced that he had created a super-PAC called, Reform Washington, which can and has presumably been raising unlimited contributions for his candidacy. Another indiction that he was running was his appearance last month at the Hillsborough County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner in Tampa.
The fact that the job sat empty for nearly a year exposed to those who weren’t paying attention to how insignificant the job is in terms of responsibilities. While previous governors have given their lieutenant governors plum assignments to tackle, Scott has taken a decidedly hands-off approach with Lopez-Cantera. That’s proving to be a political problem, however, as there have been a variety of stories in the print media over the past month reflecting on how empty Lopez-Cantera’s public schedule actually is.
And Lopez-Cantera has done nothing to rebut those stories.
He better get used to it, though, because surely his opponents will make note of it in a contested Senate Primary.
So far only Jacksonville Congressman Ron DeSantis and former CIA contractor Todd Wilcox have announced their candidacies for the GOP Senate position in 2016.
That’s expected to change, however, within the next week. Pinellas County Congressman David Jolly is expected to announce his candidacy next week, and Panhandle-area Congressman Jeff Miller is expected to announce soon as well.
Lopez-Cantera is scheduled to speak at 1:30 p.m. at All-American Containers in Miami.
Lopez-Cantera’s camp has released these announcement videos. Watch here in English and here in Spanish.
