Scott Powers
Former state representative and former Orange County Commissioner Linda Stewart announced Wednesday she is running for the state Senate in Orlando-based District 13.
Stewart’s entry into the race creates a matchup of former Democratic representatives who were swept from office in the Republican landslide of 2014, including Stewart and former state Rep. Mike Clelland, who announced his candidacy earlier this week.
Also running for the Democrats in that race is former Orange County school board member Rick Roach, who filed early last year.
The district, currently represented by Republican state Senate President Andy Gardiner, has suddenly become very attractive to Democrats because the redistricting ordered last week gives it a far more Democratic-leaning electorate. Gardiner is term-limited out.
The Republicans running are Realtor Dean Asher, who serves as vice chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and Chuck Sheridan.
Stewart said she had long been thinking about running in the district once Gardiner left, even back she was serving in the House of Representatives two years ago. She said the newly-drawn district covers not only most of her old state house district but also most of her old Orange County Commission district.
District 11 spans most of central and east Orlando and Orange County north of State Road 528.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a very long time,” she said. “Now it fits like a glove. I would really be dumb not to do this. It is probably that 80 percent of the new outlined district has voted for me at least once, if not three times, for the county and the house.”
Stewart runs as a progressive Democrat on issues ranging from public school funding to the environment, women’s issues, and lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender issues. She said that sets her apart from Clelland or Roach.
But mostly she set her target on Republicans.
“Republicans in Tallahassee continue to ignore the idea that when middle-class families are strong, Florida is strong,” she stated in a press release announcing her candidacy. “The only thing they can agree on are more corporate handouts for the big special interests who runs their campaigns and extreme legislation that appeals to the right wing, and not the people of Florida.”
