Ryan Nicol
Broward County School Board Member Robin Bartleman will enter Tuesday night’s election as the favorite for the House District 104 Democratic nomination.
Looking to play spoiler is first-time candidate Morey Wright. The winner will face Republican George Navarini in the general election.
Bartleman is a veteran of the Broward County political scene. She’s currently the longest-tenured member of the School Board after first joining that body in 2004. She served on the Weston City Commission for the four years before that.
The district covers parts of Broward County including Weston and Southwest Ranches.
Bartleman is giving up her at-large School Board seat in a bid to replace term-limited Democratic Rep. Richard Stark, who announced his plans to run for Weston Mayor.
In addition to her School Board experience, Bartleman has worked as a school teacher and an assistant principal, making education a priority in her campaign. She has vowed to push for additional funding for public education should she take over the seat.
Wright works as a technology consultant and says he decided to run after his mom lost her health insurance while battling breast cancer. He says his mother would have qualified for Medicaid had the Republican-controlled Legislature expanded the program.
Replacing a Democrat in Stark won’t get Democrats any closer to approving such an expansion, though Wright says he would support such a move.
Bartleman has attracted most of the cash in the race, courting more than $105,000 through Thursday. Wright has raised less than $11,000.
Her two decades in local government gives Bartleman a name-ID advantage as well. Wright will be hard-pressed to overcome those advantages in his first-ever experience as a political candidate.
Democrats in the district hold nearly a 15-percentage point advantage over Republicans. That means the winner of Tuesday’s primary contest will be favored over Navarini come November.
