Jesse Scheckner
Democratic lawyer Chad Klitzman, who came within a hair’s breadth of becoming Broward County Supervisor of Elections two years ago, is mounting another run at public office.
This time, his sights are set on succeeding Lauren Book in Senate District 35.
“It’s time to shake things up in Tallahassee,” he said in a statement. “The Republican-controlled Legislature has lost sight of the issues that really matter to working families, and I’m running to refocus the conversation on defending our rights and protecting our wallets.”
Klitzman filed paperwork Thursday. He’s the third Democrat running so far for SD 35, after former Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief and Rodney Jacobs, who leads a city-created police watchdog group in Miami.
Vinny Parlatore, a former Broward Sheriff’s Deputy, is the sole Republican running.
At 29, Klitzman is the youngest person in the race, but he’s not inexperienced in government or the legislative process.
In 2014, he interned at the White House Office of Management and Administration during Barack Obama’s presidency.
He was twice selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation for its Summer Transportation Internship Programs for Diverse Groups and spent time working at the Federal Aviation Administration and Assistant Chief Counsel’s Office at the Federal Highway Administration.
Klitzman also did back-to-back internships under U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper’s administration as Colorado Governor and U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, according to an August 2020 interview he gave the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
During his time at Columbia Law School, where he earned his juris doctor, he was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and published an article on college student homelessness and administrative agency operations in the university’s Journal of Law and Social Problems.
He also spent two years working in the legal department at JetBlue Airways, where he focused on intellectual property, government affairs, data privacy and marketing issues.
Klitzman is licensed to practice law in Florida, New York and Colorado. He’s an associate attorney at the Miami office of global law firm White & Case. He previously worked at the international law firm Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison headquartered in New York City.
A search on the Internet Movie Database shows Klitzman is also a screenwriter. He penned the script for Candy Jar, a 2018 film featuring Helen Hunt, Christina Hendricks, Uzo Aduba and Tom Bergeron. It’s streaming on Netflix and holds a 7.4 rating — generally favorable — on review aggregation website Metacritic.
In August 2020, Klitzman lost a bid for Broward Supervisor of Elections by just 607 votes — a margin of 0.3 percentage points. He proved himself to be a capable fundraiser, amassing $164,500 in less than 11 months. It was the second-biggest haul among 10 candidates.
Klitzman is a member of the Broward County Democratic Party Jewish Caucus’ Board of Directors and State Attorney Harold Pryor’s Prosecutorial Performance Indicator Community Advisory Board.
If elected, he would be one of the only LGBTQ members of the Florida Legislature and among its few Jewish members.
Former Democratic Sen. Eleanor Sobel, who represented parts of the area now within the bounds of SD 35, said in a statement that Klitzman “represents the future of Florida and is one of the hardest-working advocates in our state.”
“Having represented portions of this district in the Florida Senate, I know Chad has what it takes to deliver results for Broward and feel confident he will work to make Florida a more inclusive and affordable place to live,” she said.
SD 35 spans a large area of Broward stretching westward into Alligator Alley, including Cooper City, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Southwest Ranches and parts of Davie and Hollywood.
The district leans heavily Democratic, with 43% of all registered voters there belonging to the Democratic Party compared to 32% who belong to no party, 23% who are Republican and 1% who are part of the Independent Party.
Klitzman will likely have to step up his fundraising game to compete in SD 35. In her run last year, Sharief —a doctor of nursing practice and health care executive — raised and spent $680,000 through her campaign and a now-closed political committee. More than 92% of the money came from her bank account.
Book, meanwhile, spent about $2.5 million to keep her seat with 60% of the vote. She reaches term limits next year.
It appears Klitzman is aware of the steeper financial demands that come with running for state office. On Oct. 11, he opened a political committee, Future of Broward, Inc., in order to stack larger corporate and political contributions.
The Primary Election in 2024 is on Aug. 20, followed by the General Election Nov. 5.
