Ana Ceballos
After concerns were raised about Sen. Gary Farmer saying Sen. Lauren Book would not be the best nominee for Senate Democratic Leader-designate because she is a mother, Senate Democrats met Friday to discuss caucus business.
But nothing was resolved.
The drama over the comments escalated when Sen. Kevin Rader sent a letter to his colleagues, saying he was withdrawing his support for Farmer as the future leader because of the “sexist and antiquated comments” he made about Book.
“I just can’t believe that we have a member in our caucus that would insult another member by using sexist and antiquated comments about her children being a hindrance for her to be the Leaders of our caucus,” Rader wrote.
Farmer told Florida Politics he tried to talk to Book Thursday night but could not reach her and would not comment further on the situation.
In his letter, Rader told colleagues Farmer should apologize to Book and caucus members.
“I know that things get heated while we’re here in Tallahassee and it’s the last week of session and sometimes tempers flare up, but there is no room in our caucus for sexist, discriminatory comments!” Rader said.
It remains unclear if an apology was made during the caucus meeting Friday. But after it ended, senators said “nothing was resolved” and that they were not aware that Farmer had apologized to Book, who quickly walked into her office after the meeting adjourned while declining to comment.
Sen. Oscar Braynon said there is “no vote yet” on who will be the leader-designate.
One comment
Fed Up
March 9, 2018 at 4:16 pm
Bravo Sen. Rader! Good to know that there are some members of the legislature that respect women for who and what they are – complete equals!
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