Democrats fielded candidates for every legislative seat; some live hundreds of miles from districts where they’re running

Image via Fresh Take Florida.

Florida’s Democratic Party boasted in this year’s election it was contesting every seat in the GOP-dominated Legislature for the first time in decades.

In at least eight House races and two Senate races statewide those Democratic candidates don’t live in the legislative districts where they are running, according to recent voter registrations, candidate filings and other government records. In some cases, they live hundreds of miles away from the voters they are courting, and many have struggled to raise enough money to compete credibly against Republicans.

Joel Vodola, 45, of Orlando is running for House District 118 — in Miami, more than 200 miles away. Days before Election Day, Vodola said in an interview he was still looking for a place to stay in South Florida. Vodola, the former manager of a steakhouse that closed during the pandemic, said he couldn’t afford to move sooner.

Democrats lost a tight Special Election in the district last year by only 540 votes out of 8,766 ballots. Vodola has raised only $2,600, including loaning his own campaign $800, and spent nearly all that money on his $1,782 in filing fees. That compares to incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Redondo, who reported nearly $125,000 in campaign contributions.

Charles Andrew Lewis, 68, a retiree in Tallahassee, was running for the Senate seat in Senate District 39 in South Florida, more than 480 miles away at the other end of the state. Lewis, who didn’t return phone messages, hasn’t reported spending any money on the race so far. He is running against incumbent Sen. Bryan Ávila, a Hialeah Gardens Republican, who last won the seat by more than 24 points and has amassed more than $86,000 for the election.

It is legal for candidates to run for office in a legislative district where they don’t live — until Election Day, which is Tuesday, Nov. 5, this year. Under Florida law, a candidate or incumbent must live and be registered to vote in the district where they were running at the time of the election and must maintain a residence in the district for the entire term they are elected. Lawmakers are allowed to own multiple homes but can only have one principal, or legal, residence. The rules have been enforced unevenly by House leaders and state prosecutors in past elections.

House Republicans in Tallahassee outnumber Democrats 83-36, and 28-12 in the Senate. Democrats fight hard for influence. Democrats retained 15 House seats and two Senate seats this year running unopposed. To reverse their fortunes, Democrats recruited candidates to run this year for every contested seat. It was a feat that Nikki Fried, head of the Florida Democratic Party, said hadn’t happened in 30 years.

“This is unprecedented,” Fried said.

Recruiting candidates who live in every legislative district — and who could raise reasonable amounts of campaign contributions to compete in Republican strongholds — has been more difficult. Details uncovered about some of the candidates indicated these sacrificial Democrats — who received little to no financial support from Democratic leaders — have never been serious contenders.

Fried and other party officials didn’t immediately respond to questions about the viability of some of the House and Senate candidates they recruited.

Along Florida’s Atlantic coast, Joseph Alejandro Martinez, 27, of Coral Springs was running against Republican incumbent Robert Brackett in House District 34 in Vero Beach — more than 100 miles away from Martinez’s home. The last Democrat to run there got walloped by 36 percentage points.

Martinez, who hasn’t participated in news interviews during his campaign, estimated his net worth in campaign documents as $1,000 but listed no employment income and a $15,000 car loan. Martinez said he was renting a home in Broward County and planning to buy a home in the district. He ended the phone interview after a few minutes and said he didn’t have time to answer other questions.

With just days left before the election, Martinez has raised and spent zero dollars on the race. His opponent, Republican Rep. Brackett of Vero Beach, raised $108,222 and spent nearly half that amount, including $17,000 on campaign and finance consultants.

Some of the recruited candidates were in no mood to talk about their uphill campaigns. Samuel Chang, 26, of Tallahassee, was running 150 miles away in House District 4 in Fort Walton Beach in Florida’s Panhandle. The last Democrat to campaign there, in 2020, lost the election by nearly 50 percentage points. Chang, who works for the state Education Department, told a reporter on the phone he was too busy with his campaign for an interview.

Chang has spent zero dollars on the race so far and has raised $2,395 — compared to $135,328 raised by Republican incumbent Rep. Patt Maney, a lawyer. Maney won his seat unopposed two years ago. He spent $74,237 on this year’s re-election, including $55,094 on campaign consultants.

In Southwest Florida, Democrat Judy Freiberg, 75, of Naples was running more than 200 miles away in House District 55 in Pasco County, northwest of Tampa. She said she was planning to rent a home in the district using connections with friends and others, but she planned to keep her $600,000 home in Naples on the shore of a small lake.

The last Democrat to run in District 55 lost by more than 50 percentage points to incumbent Kevin Steele, a retired CEO. Freiberg has raised $6,589 in her campaign so far, spending just $273 on two overnight hotel stays — only one of which was in the district where she was running. Steele has spent $25,852 on his re-election, including more than $21,000 on campaign consultants.

East of Tampa, Karl Cieslak, 45, of Largo, a hotel manager, was running more than 50 miles away in House District 54, which includes Zephyrhills. Cieslak, who didn’t respond to phone messages, has spent $3,081 on the election so far.

The last Democrat to run there, in 2022, lost by more than 25 percentage points to Republican incumbent Randall ”Randy” Maggard, a multimillionaire executive of an appliance store and cattle ranch. Maggard spent $85,206 on the race, including $32,000 on consultants and $2,800 printing, T-shirts and promotional items.

Amid interviews with beleaguered candidates for this news article, two Democratic activists contacted the journalists working on the story and urged them to abandon their reporting. They included Margie Stein of 140 Florida Blue, part of the Democratic Party’s efforts to recruit House and Senate candidates in every district.

“These are districts that are not necessarily winnable,” Stein said in a podcast interview last month.

She described the party’s strategy as forcing Republican candidates to spend money and attention on challenges in their own districts and trying to increase Democratic turnout statewide to win other, higher-stakes races. “They bring out votes,” Stein said. “So, the winner is the person in the state who gets the most votes.”

Stein also posted on social media warning other candidates about the media inquiries and taunting the reporters, who are undergraduates in the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, that they needed a refresher in high school civics.

Stein called the reporters after they tried to interview Stephanie Lyn Leonard, 62, of Panama City Beach, who is running more than 60 miles away in House District 5 in Marianna, west of Tallahassee. Leonard, a nurse anesthetist, has spent about $6,400 on her race, mostly on yard signs and T-shirts. No Democrat has even run in the district since 2008.

“How do you expect to represent the residents of a district if you don’t know how or where they live,” said incumbent Republican Rep. Shane Abbott of Marianna, who spent $81,722 on his re-election campaign.

At least two Republican House candidates and one Senate candidate, too, were living outside districts where they were running.

Voter records and candidate filings showed Republican Bill Reicherter, 55, who owns a $4 million sign company, was living in Parkland and running about 25 miles away in House District 90 against incumbent Rep. Joe Casello, a Boynton Beach Democrat. Reicherter, who said he also was renting a home in Boynton Beach, has loaned his own campaign about $75,000 — more than the total his opponent has raised from all donors. Casello won his last race in 2022 by about 10 percentage points.

West of Fort Lauderdale, Mery Lopez-Palma, 54, of Southwest Ranches was running in nearby House District 102 against incumbent Rep. Mike Gottlieb, a Plantation Democrat. Lopez-Palma, a multimillionaire real estate lawyer, loaned her campaign about $34,000. No Republican has competed in the district since 2010.

In the Senate, prominent Republican Don Gaetz — a former Senate President and father of Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz — was running in Senate District 1 in the Panhandle. In candidate filings, he listed his home in Niceville where he was still claiming his homestead exemption in nearby District 2. His voter records list another home address, in Crestview, in the district where he is running and where he said he was building a new home.

Redondo, the Republican incumbent in HD118 where Vodola is running long distance, was himself plagued by residency questions in a special election last year.

Just before the election, Redondo had signed a mortgage on a two-bedroom luxury, waterfront condominium for $950,000 that was 20 miles away in House District 113 and required him to live in the condo as his principal residence for at least one year, even after his election, records showed.

House Republicans allowed Redondo to take office. His Democratic opponent, Johnny Gonzalo Farias, sued in circuit court in Miami over the election’s outcome, citing the signed mortgage and asking a Judge to block Redondo from the Legislature. Farias abandoned his lawsuit earlier this year.

In May, Redondo bought a $1 million, four-bedroom home in the district, where voting records and campaign filings show he is living now. He still owns the waterfront condo.

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporters can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.