Peter Schorsch
Robert M. “Bob” Levy, a longtime lobbyist and campaign consultant in Tallahassee and South Florida, died on Tuesday. Levy was 67, having celebrated his birthday March 27.
Levy’s death was caused by cancer, with several friends telling Florida Politics it was linked to Levy’s exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
Levy, president of Robert M. Levy & Associates, “worked as a political consultant and developed hundreds of campaigns since 1977,” his online bio says.
Tributes started pouring in to his Facebook page, including one from Cynthia Henderson, a current lobbyist and former state department head for Gov. Jeb Bush.
” ‘Lead by Example’ is what you look for in a mentor,” she wrote. “Bob Levy was the most selfless giver I’ve ever met and he mentored so many people in the process. The world is truly a lesser place without him.”
State Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, a Miami Republican, said in a text message that Levy “was one of the first people I met in Tallahassee. He was old school. He cared more about substantive discourse than about one-upping anyone in the process.
“He was one of the good guys,” Diaz said.
For 2016, Levy was registered to lobby for 42 clients, including the Florida Movers & Warehousemen’s Association, Florida Nurses Association, Miami-Dade County Clerk Of Courts and even the National Guild of Hypnotists.
He also represented an array of cultural and social interests, such as Miami’s Actor’s Playhouse; The Arc, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged.
Levy focused on health care lobbying and campaigns of judicial candidates. “We support candidates on both sides of the aisle and try to not get bogged down in the politics of the process,” he told FloridaPolitics.com for a 2012 edition of The 4th Floor Files.
When asked which professional accomplishment he was most proud of, he mentioned “the 1987 repeal of the Services Tax.”
“It’s a fading memory for many, but I took six months of my life to co-chair the Sales Taxes Oppressing People campaign – STOP – and in that period succeeded in something not many people achieve in the process – then and definitely not now,” he said. “We got the Legislature to stop and listen to the people and reverse their policy.”
Levy was a Vietnam veteran and was awarded the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, The Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts, his bio says. He attended Valley Forge Military Academy and Penn State University.
“I wouldn’t trade our client list for anyone’s – truthfully – because of the nature of our work,” Levy said in the 2012 interview. “Our clients become our friends and we work as closely as possible with them to achieve their goals. I’m very happy with those who have entrusted their fate in the process with our firm.”
