Janelle Irwin Taylor
Rep. Adam Anderson is endorsing Ed Montanari for House District 60.
Anderson represents nearby House District 57, which covers parts of northern Pinellas County, including Palm Harbor, East Lake, Tarpon Springs, Safety Harbor and Oldsmar. HD 60 is further south in the county, encompassing much of St. Petersburg. Montanari is currently serving on the St. Pete City Council.
“I’m honored to endorse Ed Montanari for State Representative,” Anderson said. “Ed is a proven fighter who Pinellas residents can count on to help lower insurance rates and make our communities affordable again. He will be a strong voice for District 60, and I look forward to working with him in the Florida House.”
Anderson was first elected to the House two years ago. Earlier this year he successfully championed a bill (SB 1582) that would create a grant program to fund scientific and clinical research on rare diseases. His support for the bill stemmed from personal, and heart-wrenching experience with Anderson’s son, Andrew, who suffered from Tay-Sachs disease. The grant program is named after Andrew, the Andrew John Anderson Pediatric Rare Disease Grant Program.
Anderson and his family have been active in advancing research in rare diseases through the Cure Tay Sachs Foundation and their AJ Anderson Foundation. Anderson previously worked with former House Speaker Chris Sprowls to create Tay Sachs Awareness Day in Florida on Aug. 10, Andrew’s birthday.
Montanari said he was ‘honored to have the support’ from Anderson, who he described as a friend. Montanari looked to a hot-button topic in Florida in his praise for the lawmaker.
“I look forward to working with Adam to hold the insurance companies accountable and finally bring down rates,” Montanari said.
Montanari, a Republican, is challenging incumbent Democrat Lindsay Cross in a race where Republicans hope they can notch a pickup opportunity in the lower chamber, where the GOP already enjoys a supermajority.
The race pits an environmental scientist in Cross against a moderate Republican who, for the past eight years, has served as the only Republican on the St. Pete City Council. Cross and Montanari are running in what has been a reliably blue district, but demographics show a path for the GOP.
Democrats enjoy a voter registration advantage of a little more than 3,000 voters, with 40,285 registered Democrats compared to 37,248 Republicans, according to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections’ most recent district voter registration data from July. That’s an advantage for Cross of a little less than 3 percentage points.
But those numbers include only active voters. When counting inactive voters, the advantage for Democrats — and by proxy, Cross — increases to about 6 percentage points, or about 6,000 voters.
Inactive voters are eligible to vote.
A look at historic voter registration data for the district available on the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections website shows that in 2020, the last Presidential Election year, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 6 percentage points. That advantage is now below 3.
But the trend cannot be entirely attributed to the district becoming more red. The number of active voters in the district is lower now than it was in 2020, despite population growth. And the number of inactive voters has grown every election cycle, with 7,238 voters on the inactive rolls four years ago, 12,789 in 2022, and 27,260 this year. (The district in 2020 was House District 68; it became HD 60 in 2022 as a result of redistricting.)
This will be Montanari’s first campaign for partisan office, and it comes at a time of marked political polarization. On one hand, he needs to appeal to Republican voters, many of whom might not appreciate a moderate campaign. On the other hand, the district is home to more than 30,000 active voters who aren’t affiliated with a political party, plus another nearly 11,000 who are on the inactive rolls. The unaffiliated voters could make or break the race for either Cross or Montanari.
Montanari has been raking in support from prominent conservatives, including his highest-profile backer, Daniel Perez, a Representative who is the Speaker-elect. Other supporters include Sen. Nick DiCeglie; Republican Reps. Kim Berfield, Linda Chaney and Berny Jacques; Pinellas County State Attorney Bruce Bartlett; Pinellas Clerk of Court Ken Burke; Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri; Pinellas Tax Collector and local GOP Chair Adam Ross; Public Defender Sara Mollo; Pinellas Tax Collector Charles Thomas; Pinellas Property Appraiser Mike Twitty; Pinellas County Commissioners Chris Latvala, Dave Eggers and Brian Scott; Pinellas School Board member Stephanie Meyer; former Sen. Jeff Brandes; and former St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster.
