Staff Reports
Incumbent state Rep. Jamie Grant has beaten Republican rival Terry Power in the battle for House District 64, ending one of the more acrimonious primary fights this election season.
HD 64 covers a northwestern section of Hillsborough County and some of eastern Pinellas County. At 7:30 p.m., Grant was leading 67 percent-33 percent in Hillsborough (23 of 39 precincts reporting) and won 60 percent-40 percent in Pinellas (all precincts).
Grant, 35, was first elected in 2010 and has been re-elected three times since. But a challenge to the 2014 results led to a brief period where he was out of office, resetting his term limit. (A separate recounting of that electoral history is here.)
Power sued Grant in circuit court to get him disqualified, saying he violated the state’s term limits provision. That suit is still pending in Leon County.
Grant also suffered some bad press when the health care tech company he helped found folded this summer. Power had hammered him on all the public funding that went into developing the firm.
Power, a 60-year-old Oldsmar retirement plan consultant, campaigned as a President Donald Trump acolyte. He also pledged to donate his $29,000-plus legislative salary to charity if elected.
But he had his own bad press as his ex-wife filed contempt proceedings against him for not paying nearly $88,000 in back alimony. That’s despite lending his campaign around $74,000, records show. Power has said he doesn’t owe his ex-wife anything.
Grant now will go on to face Democrat Jessica Harrington and independent Andy Warrener in November’s general election. The district has a heavy Republican lean.
6 comments
Jennifer Herberr
August 29, 2018 at 12:31 am
Nananana nananana hey hey goodbye!
Just so he knows where this came from.
Jan Killilea
August 29, 2018 at 7:47 am
We haven’t heard the last of Terry Power. Undoubtedly he is already circling the wagons looking for a sponsor for an alimony reform bill. Unless of course he leaves the state.
Debbie Leff-Kelapire
August 30, 2018 at 2:10 pm
Of course Terry will leave Florida. Why should he stay? He can work from anywhere.
And thanks to Sanders v Laird, he has zero worries about threat of arrest.
Had Terry won, he would have been stuck in Florida and probably been forced to pay his ex more money.
Thanks to the Florida Bar and you bitter ex-wives pushing Terry’s ex because they were terrified that he would beat Grant, she’ll end up with zero.
Now who gets the last laugh?
Terry’s ex is a grownup, and for 10 years, she’s had the opportunity to get job training to make a better living, or if she wanted to be a homemaker, a new husband. And if the new husband paid alimony to some deadbeat ex wife who remained stuck in revenge alimony mode, the former Mrs. Powers would have been fighting with us on the side of reform.
I guess one reaps what they sow.
Tammy
August 30, 2018 at 2:48 pm
Yup, Terry will be better off. Not to mention Jamie has voted for alimony reform. It’s the rest of Florida who will suffer. Oh well.
The good news: No more money for Muriel and still no money for Jan. Hahahahahahaha
Michel Buhler
August 30, 2018 at 3:08 pm
Which only goes to show that lawyers and entrenched politicians own the system… the rest of us people that work our butts off have to pay people who although able bodied and able minded, prefer to take handouts or fund this cesspool.
Lee Kallett
August 30, 2018 at 5:51 pm
Terry Power losing the primary to an incumbent who is a supporter of alimony reform is truly not a loss for all of us advocating for alimony reform. However, now that Terry Power doesn’t pose a threat to the Family Law Section members of the Florida Bar because he planned to cap the obscene rates family law attorneys charge, the interest from current attorneys representing his ex-wife will definitely wane now that the election is over. More than likely the zealous representation of his ex-wife will come to an abrupt end. Perhaps it would be wise for her to consider a settlement rather than ongoing litigation which benefits nobody but the attorneys.
Comments are closed.