Ryan Nicol
Maria Sachs, a former state Senator who represented parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties, has announced she’s running for a seat on the Palm Beach County Commission.
“My entire career I have spent fighting for the people of Palm Beach County in Tallahassee,” Sachs said in a statement announcing her run. “Now I am ready to bring that experience, leadership and fight home to the Palm Beach County Commission.”
Sachs will run for the District 5 seat in 2020. That seat is currently held by Commissioner Mary Lou Berger, who is term-limited.
Sachs served in the Florida House from 2006 to 2010 before jumping to the Senate. She ran for the old Senate District 30 seat vacated by then-state Sen. Ted Deutch after Deutch won a special election for a seat in the U.S. House.
After the 2012 redistricting, Sachs won a contest against Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff in Senate District 34, earning reelection in a 2014 rematch.
Sachs stepped away from the Senate in 2016.
While in the Legislature, Sachs pushed measures to increase penalties for texting while driving, set up an independent state gambling commission and increase labeling requirements for genetically-modified foods.
A former Sachs aide, Matthew Damsky, accused the lawmaker of sexual harassment in 2016, alleging Sachs had undressed in front of him. He later sought to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Damsky had resigned after improperly racking up charges on office credit cards. Sachs argued he filed the harassment lawsuit to divert attention from his own wrongdoing.
Following Sachs’ time in the Senate, she went on to become executive director at Innovation Florida, a technology company incubator.
One comment
Thomas Leonard
September 9, 2019 at 10:40 am
Do you know which party she represents? Strange thing to leave of your article.
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