Scott Powers
Lucius Perry Gregg III, a professional tennis coach and co-developer of several mobile device credit card patents, has filed to run for Congress in Florida’s 8th Congressional District.
Yet Gregg also reportedly has indicated he might be sitting out this election cycle.
Gregg, 60, of Cocoa — who goes by Perry Gregg — has filed for a chance to take on Republican Rep. Bill Posey in a Space Coast-based district that Republicans have owned for generations.
Gregg initially filed to run in February, then reportedly indicated to Brevard Democratic Party officials that he was suspending his effort in favor of a possible future campaign. Still, in late May, after the Federal Election Commission advised him of a problem with his statement of candidacy document, he refiled a revised statement, which the FEC posted May 27.
He could not be reached for comment by Florida Politics.
Gregg holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and computer science from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of California at Davis. As vice president for engineering at Cimbal Inc., a California-based mobile communications network company, Gregg shared in four patents granted in 2010 for a system to provide contactless communications between credit and debit cards and mobile phones and other mobile devices.
He currently lists his occupation as a tennis coach. He is coaching his son, Lucius Perry Gregg IV, a ranked player in the ATP Tour, the second tier of the Association of Tennis Professionals.
Lucius Perry Gregg Jr., the candidate’s late father, was one of the first African American graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy and went on to nationally distinguished careers in the military, the sciences, academia, and business.
CD 8 currently represents Brevard and Indian River counties and a mostly rural area in eastern Orange County. However, redistricting likely will change that. There is some speculation that a new district could be carved out of the northern Treasure Coast, which could involve Indian River County and part of Florida’s 18th Congressional District, which stretches from there into Palm Beach County.
Posey also has a Republican primary challenger, Patrick Wells, an Army veteran, defense contractor and occasional actor from Sebastian.
Posey, of Rockledge, is in his fifth term representing CD 8 and previously served two more terms from the same base when it was included in Florida’s 15th Congressional District.
Since Posey was initially elected to Congress in 2008, he has won each of his General Elections and his only primary (last year) by more than 20 points.
If Perry Gregg III intends to hold open a phantom campaign fund for a possible future run, he won’t be alone.
The only other Democrat filed as a candidate in CD 8, Dena Grayson of Indialantic, has been running phantom campaigns in that district for three cycles now, though she has not been collecting any campaign donations. She is a former active Democratic congressional candidate in neighboring Florida’s 9th Congressional District, where she lost the Democratic primary in 2016. She is married to Democratic former Rep. Alan Grayson, who likewise has sometimes been an active candidate and sometimes a phantom candidate in various elections.
