Richard Corcoran and Andrew Gillum to debate sanctuary cities
Debate's on with Andrew Gillum and Richard Corcoran.

corcoran gillum

It took a few days to get the two on the same page, but Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and House Speaker Richard Corcoran on Monday agreed on a time, date and place to debate on sanctuary cities.

The debate will be held Feb. 13 at the Tallahassee studios of Florida Internet and Television and will be moderated by Associated Press reporter Gary Fineout and Troy Kinsey, the capitol reporter for television station Bay News 9.

The idea for the debate was sparked after Corcoran’s political committee spent nearly $1 million on a controversial television ad that suggests undocumented immigrants are a danger to “any family, anywhere.” Gillum was quick to call the ad a “race-baiting” tactic.

“Speaker Corcoran finally agreed to defend his ‘racist’ and ‘fear mongering’ TV ad in a live debate against (Tallahassee) Mayor Gillum, the most outspoken critic of the ad and the most progressive candidate for Florida Governor,” said Geoff Burgan, Gillum’s communications director.

Corcoran has not yet announced his candidacy, but has been flirting with the idea of entering the governor’s race for months and the ad is making it clearer than ever that he plans to do so once the 2018 Legislative Session is over.

This year, Corcoran has prioritized legislation that would punish local officials who do not fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities with hefty fines or removal from office.

The bill passed the Florida House on week one of Session, but that bill is likely dead in the Senate.

Note: There are currently no sanctuary cities in the state of Florida.

Ana Ceballos

Ana covers politics and policy Before joining the News Service of Florida she wrote for the Naples Daily News and was the legislative relief reporter for The Associated Press and covered policy issues impacting immigration, the environment, criminal justice and social welfare in Florida. She holds a B.A. in journalism from San Diego State University. After graduating in 2014, she worked as a criminal justice reporter for the Monterey Herald and the Monterey County Weekly. She has also freelanced for The Washington Post at the U.S.-Mexico border covering crime in the border city of Tijuana, where she grew up. Ana is fluent in Spanish and has intermediate proficiency in Portuguese.


One comment

  • Domino

    February 5, 2018 at 9:31 pm

    Polling less than 1 in 20 likely voters… COMBINED!

Comments are closed.


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