Ben Pollara: Why I support Jeff Brandes for Florida Senate

I’ve been a member of the Florida Democratic Party since I first registered to vote at 18. I’ve never voted for, nor given money to, a Republican running for a partisan office. “Hyperpartisan” is an apt description of my political state of mind. But the other day, I contributed $1,000 – the maximum I could give under Florida law – to state Sen. Jeff Brandes’ re-election campaign, and I could not have
been happier to do so.

My donation wasn’t solicited. In fact, I asked Sen. Brandes first to make sure he would be OK with receiving a contribution from a known marijuana activist and liberal agitator such as myself.

So why did I betray a lifetime of lockstep Democratic loyalty to make a contribution to a conservative, Republican, state senator? The reasons are numerous, but it boils down to this: Jeff Brandes is an ideas guys and I’m a firm believer that modern politics in our state and country is largely bereft of ideas, and of elected officials who will fight for those ideas.

Brandes also happens to be a guy who takes up ideas and causes that aren’t necessarily ones with broad support among his colleagues and then does the hard work of educating and advocating until they are.

Take civil asset forfeiture reform: In the 2015 Session, Brandes floated the issue with a modest trial balloon. In the upcoming Session his bill is even more comprehensive and its House companion is being carried by Rep. Matt Caldwell, a member of leadership who presumably has the Speaker’s assent.

Civil asset forfeiture reform is one of the core reasons I decided to throw my support to Brandes. The ability of law enforcement to seize personal property without even an arrest, much less a conviction, is a travesty of the highest order and beyond simply being wrong. It also has the perverse incentive effect of increasing arrests for the bounties they could bring to law enforcement agencies.

Another reason for my Brandes man crush should come as no surprise. He has spearheaded comprehensive medical marijuana legislation in the Florida Senate for two Sessions. While his 2015 bill didn’t receive an initial hearing, it drove a conversation in Tallahassee and ultimately resulted in Sen. Rob Bradley‘s much less ambitious proposal becoming much more so as it wound its way through committee stops that Session. Unfortunately, the House simply stopped working three days before the Session ended. But had the amended Bradley bill passed the Senate (my whip count at the time showed it would have, by a supermajority) and then the House, it is very likely John Morgan would have made good on his promise not to place medical marijuana back on the 2016 ballot.

But don’t think that the inspiration for my bipartisan Brandes bonhomie is driven solely by criminal justice reform measures. His proposal to protect students of for-profit colleges is an idea that threads the needle between the Republican orthodoxy of fealty to the free market and the Democratic tendency to regulate out of existence. In this case, the for-profit educational institutes — in my mind — serve a population under served and ill-served by traditional four-year colleges.

I likewise applaud his forward-thinking efforts to reform current law to legitimize and legalize ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. Anyone who opposes such efforts has clearly never taken a Yellow Cab from Miami International Airport. And his “Right to Try” legislation is personally meaningful because one of my close friends and business partners is the father of a young girl suffering from a rare disease, and needs every potential treatment option available to her.

The areas of my disagreement with Brandes are significant and myriad. He’s profoundly wrong on a woman’s right to choose, voting for every anti-choice bill to come before him. I could not disagree more strongly with him on guns and, in particular, his efforts to essentially create a state of emergency right to concealed carry. His bill to reform “good faith” requirements on insurance companies strikes at the heart of my principles of siding with consumers over corporations in matters of civil justice. And those are just three (major) areas in which my views diverge dichotomously from his.

I put that all aside because Jeff Brandes thinks about, cares deeply for, and stands up and fights for issues. That’s a rarity in Florida politics.

Redistricting may well pit Brandes against a competitive Democratic opponent, quite possibly current congressional candidate Eric Lynn, who I like and who I also gave money to support (pre-Charlie, if you’re reading this, Governor). If that happens, Senator Brandes can count on another $1,000 from me in the 2016 general election.

I’m proud to put my partisanship aside and support a man who has ideas and ideals. Man, it’s a strange feeling not acting out of cynicism in Florida politics.

Ben Pollara is a political consultant and a founding partner of LSN Partners, a Miami Beach-based government and public affairs firm. He runs United for Care, the Florida medical marijuana campaign and is a self-described “hyper-partisan” Democrat. Column courtesy of Context Florida.