Michael Moline
Bill Montford wanted to make one thing clear right away during a candidates’ forum Thursday night in Tallahassee.
“I want to make sure you know that the Nancy Miller who is opposing me is not our City Commissioner Nancy Miller,” he said. “My good friend City Commissioner Miller will be doing some advertising for me to make sure that everybody knows they are two entirely different people.”
The Nancy Miller challenging Montford, the incumbent Democratic candidate for Florida Senate District 3, is a Taylor County Republican who advocates lower taxes, smaller government, and “Florida History and Heritage.”
The city commissioner of the same name has taken pains to point out that she’s not the one on the Senate District 3 ballot. Montfort has acknowledged he is taking “very seriously” the chances for voter confusion.
Montford’s opponent did not appear in person during the forum organized by the League of Women Voters of Tallahassee. On her campaign webpage, she says, “I am a faithful supporter of the Second Amendment. I strongly believe in the right to bear arms, pro-life, and pro-veteran.”
Montford took a more moderate approach to gun rights. He opposed guns on college campuses and open carry laws.
“I believe in the Second Amendment,” he said. “But we’ve got to use a little bit of common sense. If you’re on the watch list of terrorists, you shouldn’t be able to buy a gun.”
He supports the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. A former Leon County school superintendent, he opposes letting the state dictate to local school boards that they must accept charter schools not approved locally.
And he’s dubious of privatized prisons and doesn’t like the way the state is running its corrections department.
In his 11-county district, “I have nine prisons, and we’ve had 30 assaults in my nine prisons since the first of the year — assaults of prisoners on to corrections officers.”
As for global warming, “We have to have the courage to admit what is happening. There are still some legislators who do not think that global warming is an issue. The first step is we’ve got to get that across that, yes indeed, there is an issue with global warming, and then we need to talk about how we will address it.”
And one way to do that is to restrict where Florida lets people build homes and businesses.
“We know where the water will be 50 years from now. Why are we today allowing construction to occur in these areas?”
Montford has served in the Senate since 2010 and has raised nearly $312,000 for his campaign, against exactly $8,541.39 for his opponent.
