Gray Rohrer
Corey Simon, the Republican candidate for Senate District 3, won’t participate in a debate with incumbent Democratic Sen. Loranne Ausley set up by the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper and the League of Women Voters.
That was made clear in a full-page advertisement the Florida Senatorial Campaign Committee took out in the Democrat’s Sunday edition.
The ad calls the debate “a liberal farce designed to fool voters.” It calls the League an “overtly partisan” organization and highlights several of their positions on issues, such as gun control, abortion, school choice and immigration, which align with liberals and the Democratic Party in general.
One of those positions is on health care, which the ad notes the “LWV sides with Ausley in supporting protecting the (Affordable Care Act) and the expansion of Medicaid.” The Republican state Senate, though, pushed for Medicaid expansion in 2015, bringing the Legislature to a standstill over the budget when the GOP House refused to go along.
The League of Women Voters is officially a nonpartisan group but has supported liberal causes and has often sued the state over its election laws. One of its most significant cases was in 2015 when the Florida Supreme Court ruled the Legislature broke the Fair District anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendments and installed a state Senate and Congressional map drawn by the League of Women Voters.
“The fact that any legitimate news outlet would consider teaming up with an organization that is this clearly one-sided for the purpose of conducting a ‘fair’ debate is a joke,” the ad states.
It also noted the Ausley’s law firm served as its general counsel, but didn’t specify that it stopped serving that role in 2017.
Simon is a former Florida State University football player and former CEO of Volunteer Florida who is in his first campaign for office. Ausley served in the House from 2000 to 2008 and 2016 to 2020 and was elected to the Senate in 2020. Both live in Tallahassee.
Ausley and Simon will debate at an event held by the Capitol City Tiger Bay Club on Monday.
Senate District 3 covers Gadsden, Leon, Madison, Jefferson, Suwannee, Taylor, Lafayette, Dixie, Hamilton, Wakulla, Franklin, Gulf and part of Liberty counties.
30 comments
PeterH
October 2, 2022 at 2:07 pm
Abstaining from debates, voter suppression, cultural wars, racist dog whistles, controlling women’s reproductive health decisions and irrational gun legalization are all weapons in the Republican arsenal to win elections.
REPUBLICANS ARE AMERICA’S PROBLEM!
VOTE ALL REPUBLICANS OUT OF OFFICE!
Hope
October 2, 2022 at 2:43 pm
PeterH is a shill for Democratic Party talking points…but,
…he, she, it (whatever his preferred pronoun is) will vote Republican when he goes behind the privacy curtain. Plummeting 401ks, runaway inflation, supply chain disruptions, on the verge of World War 3, unstable National Security, high crime rate… even he wants stability and prosperity restored. Democrats are no longer even in the game; it is a done deal for Republicans.
diane
October 2, 2022 at 2:49 pm
Florida Politics needs to start screening for foreign trolls.
Skippy Whipperton
October 2, 2022 at 4:12 pm
This site screens for and censors only those opinions that don’t align with the owners Marxicrat views… so… there’s that.
Roger V.Holdener
October 3, 2022 at 2:21 pm
Democrats are the only ones in the game, the currant Republican Party isn’t even on the field.
Diane Brown
October 2, 2022 at 2:26 pm
If I was a Black Republican, I would have enough sense to keep myself to myself, vice plastering my sellout, my insult to my race to the world. See nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute report quantifying that Republicans are the most racist group in the US. https://www.prri.org/research/creating-more-inclusive-public-spaces-structural-racism-confederate-memorials-and-building-for-the-future/
Tjb
October 2, 2022 at 5:10 pm
What about DeSantis avoiding debates!
Why is DeSantis only doing one debate with Charlie? DeSantis in his November fundraising ad spoke about the “big pair that he had”. Looks like he lost them and he is now afraid to debate . Is he afraid that the voters will see him as a fraud who really doesn’t care about Floridians as he continue his journey as a Presidential candidate.
marylou
October 2, 2022 at 8:24 pm
Last month a Pinellas Deputy was run over at a construction site by an immigrant man that a Florida business employed illegally, which the state makes little effort to stop. Meanwhile, Desantis was flying asylum seekers from Texas to MV. Had Desantis spent Florida tax dollars in Florida, Deputy Hartwick might still be alive.
Tjb
October 3, 2022 at 10:05 am
Why was DeSantis flying migrants from Texas and not Florida. Could he not find migrants in Florida?
marylou
October 3, 2022 at 2:10 pm
Desantis did not even tell Abbott that he planned to kidnap people in Texas and fly them to Martha’s Vineyard. Desantis just took people from Texas! Abbott is angry about it. Imagine what Desantis would be doing if Newsom came to Florida, tricked some people into getting on a plane, and flew them to another state. It would be fun to hear Republican voters squeal about how Newsom doing this would be an act of war.
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
October 3, 2022 at 1:23 pm
Your comment is totally lacking in logic. It’s Biden who is bringing illegal immigrants into our country.
marylou
October 3, 2022 at 3:13 pm
People should not be shipped around, but the Florida Legislature gave Desantis $12 million to remove migrant people from FLORIDA. If Desantis had spent the tax$$ in FLORIDA, the man who allegedly hit the Pinellas Deputy may have gone to MV–or elsewhere– on 9/14, so would not have been illegally employed by the construction company at the time of the accident.
Desantis knows migrant people are lured to Florida by companies that hire illegally so he knows where to find them . Apparently there aren’t enough migrants in the state to fill a plane, so it doesn’t look like Floridians should be too concerned.
Paul Passarelli
October 3, 2022 at 7:32 pm
I am tired of ‘debating’ with idiots. Especially troll idiots with fake aliases.
When will you Democrats stop tossing out random words that do not reflect the truth, do not reflect the facts, do not describe the events even remotely?
Pamela Manwaring
October 3, 2022 at 10:47 am
R u even serious ! Do u even live in Florida ? Apparently not ! We had Charlie once & once quite Frankly is enough ! The guy lies thru teeth all the timr
Mike
October 2, 2022 at 5:44 pm
Republicans have no policy. They just throw insults and stupidity around and never offer any detailed solutions.
Hope
October 2, 2022 at 7:28 pm
Democrats have no policy. They just throw insults and stupidity around and never offer any detailed solutions.
I have corrected your comment. You’re welcome.
Tjb
October 3, 2022 at 10:07 am
What is the Republican plan to stop inflation?
Paul Passarelli
October 3, 2022 at 8:37 pm
“I have a secret plan to fight inflation?” — President Josiah Bartlett — to the room — from “The West Wing”
Paul Passarelli
October 2, 2022 at 11:18 pm
I was *INVITED* to a LWV event in Westport CT back in 2012. When I arrived I was told that because I was a Libertarian I would not be allowed to speak to the crowd. The bias in the room was so far Left, that the GOP candidate’s *ASSISTANT* took a few notes, asked a few questions of the LWV Chair and other officers present then left.
I stayed to listen to the Democrat’s assistant address the room, there was almost non-stop applause. I was stunned. Out of ~ 90 women there were three that I was able to identify during the vomiting of talking points that shared at least a reasonable conservative vibe. It was easy, they were the only three not flapping like trained seals.
I met with each of them briefly, commented on how the supposedly non-partisan temperature was taken, answered their questions, and moved on.
Before I left I tried to thank the hostess. She tried to rationalize the Chair’s decision to not allow me to have spoken to the attendees, because neither Chris Murphy nor Linda McMahon had appeared in person.
The LWV pretends to be non-partisan, and for some reason I cannot quite fathom, they are allowed to perpetuate the lie.
Riverman
October 3, 2022 at 8:11 am
The irrationally ultra liberal LWV has colluded with the radically leftist Florida Politics media propagandist s to weaponize their so called debates with demonstrably leftist controllers and formats that totally negate any possibility for conservative messaging or responses. Conservatives are not foolish enough to participate in the politically impossible so called debates that the socialists democrats set up with booby traps designed to demonize conservatives. Democrats always refuse fair and equal debates.
Charlotte Greenbarg
October 3, 2022 at 8:50 am
LWV has become a puppet of the far left/Democrats. Sad. I had an experience with them when they wouldn’t allow our side to be heard in a debate over a sales tax increase in Broward. The Miami Herald arranged a debate with all sides heard. I was one of the panelists. That was before that paper became a tool of the left. The tax lost 71-29. When all sides are heard, people get the facts.
Concern Citizen
October 3, 2022 at 12:22 pm
Looks like the Republican candidates are afraid to debate. What are they afraid of? Truth and democracy?
Paul Passarelli
October 3, 2022 at 1:05 pm
Ever hear the expression “Don’t cast your pearls before swine.”?
Now, go away you fake alias / troll.
Concern Citizen
October 4, 2022 at 9:34 am
Not a troll. Why are so many Republican candidates avoiding debates? Perhaps they have nothing of value they can offer to the voters.
It's Complicated
October 3, 2022 at 8:55 am
Simon is not wrong about the highly partisan nature of The League of Women’s Voters. IF they spoke to him about it in advance, he should have told them he was not going to participate in their debate. If they did not, it’s on them.
I don’t see how it is stifling free speech to refuse to engage in the activities of Democratic Party shill organizations. No one in attendance is going to be swayed by the debate, and it will be used to manufacture ‘gotcha’ moments to reenforce Ausley’s support for the league’s leftist agenda. It’s actually a prudent decision on Simon’s part. Would Ausley attend a debate organized by the a charter school association, the NRA, or a pro-life organization? Of course not.
hope
October 3, 2022 at 9:49 am
Besides football and his Mom, what does Corey Simon bring to the table? Nothing except what his Racist GOP handlers tell him to. Geeze, seems like the go to play is to find a famous Black football hero, dazzle him with BS, and tell him to run for office, at least in Georgia and North Florida. Then the GOP spends lots on money on slick ads reminding voters that their boy is a football hero who loves his Mom. Lots of Money! Slick Ads! Now, let’s invent excuses not to engage in debates among the candidates. Why? Because there is nothing of substance that the GOP candidate has to offer.
Ann Weeks
October 3, 2022 at 10:09 am
Interesting “he ad calls the debate “a liberal farce designed to fool voters” which the sponsor’s do not charge to attend.
But he is participating in a debate with Ausley held by the Capitol City Tiger Bay Club on Monday.
The Tiger Club where I am located is Republican.
The point is open debate is is a chance to present yourself to the voters.
Sue wiley
October 3, 2022 at 10:37 am
Oh Corey Simon. That isn’t nice what you did and said regarding Loranne and League of Women voters.
If you support the Republican take on controlling my and other women’s bodies and health care, then you should be afraid of real conversation concerning those and other subjects.
Too bad for you and for voters from which you hide your views . I have seen your mailed ads. What is there to say for them?
Tom
October 3, 2022 at 4:00 pm
And let’s no forget what DeSatan and the GOP are doing to Big Al Lawson! I will bet that Big Al isn’t supporting Corey’s candidacy. Big Al is the real deal. Corey is an imposter.
Paul Passarelli
October 3, 2022 at 8:34 pm
Open question for Democrats:
Premise: You cannot have it both ways.
If illegals are made *UNEMPLOYABLE* by imposing *DRACONIAN* penalties on those that hire & pay illegals to work for cash, then the illegals would self-deport, or turn to crime. The consequences is that the cost of goods that use illegal labor is going to skyrocket, and waiting times to get work done will be dragged out enormously.
If we continue to allow loopholes for employers that only include minor penalties, they will keep hiring & paying the occasional fine as a cost of doing business. Progressives will continue to vomit nonsense about living wages, and grandstand touting their supposed moral superiority.
Why don’t we have *NATIONWIDE* penalties for employers that hire illegals? Because the Democrats want the illegals here more than they wasnt to solve the problems they cause!
Q.E.D. Now all you Soros Trolls go away, and take your fake aliases with you.
Comments are closed.