(This story has been updated to include additional information)
Four candidates — three Republicans and one Democrat — have qualified for the special election to fill the Florida House of Representatives District 32 seat, which will be vacated by longtime legislator Debbie Mayfield.
Republicans Terry Cronin, Brian Hodgers and Bob White will face off in a GOP primary April 1, to see who will run against Democrat challenger Juan Hinojosa on June 10.
The April 1 primary is only open to registered Republicans.
Gov. Ron DeSantis scheduled a special election to fill the Florida House District 32 seat in Central Brevard County that will become vacant with the upcoming resignation of incumbent Republican Debbie Mayfield of Indialantic.
Mayfield resigned the House District 32 seat, effective June 9, to run for Florida Senate in District 19, which covers Central and South Brevard. The current District 19 senator, Republican Randy Fine of Melbourne Beach, is resigning, effective March 31, as he seeks a seat in Congress in Florida’s District 6, which covers a six-county area that includes Daytona Beach.
The April 1 primary winner will face Democrat Juan Hinojosa, who lost the District 32 race to Mayfield in November
Political musical chairs
Republican Florida Rep. Debbie Mayfield plans to run for the Florida Senate seat in District 19 in a special election to fill a vacancy.
Mayfield held the District 19 Senate seat until November, when she was forced out by term limits. Instead, she ran for the House seat that she won in November, and Fine, who was term-limited out of the Florida House, won Mayfield’s old Senate seat.
Mayfield contends that the short break in service made her eligible to run again for the Senate seat she was just term-limited out of.
But in a stunning development, the state Division of Elections ruled Tuesday that Mayfield was not qualified to run again because of term limits.
Mayfield claimed DeSantis was behind the ruling as a way to punish her for endorsing Donald Trump over DeSantis before last year’s Iowa’s GOP presidential caucuses. She said she intends to file legal actions over the Division of Elections ruling.
Mayfield, a Republican, currently is a member of the Florida House of Representatives in District 32, representing Central Brevard County. She submitted an irrevocable letter of resignation from her House seat when she declared her candidacy for the Senate seat.
The House District 32 primary and general elections will be on the same dates as the Senate District 19 primary and general elections.
Who qualified?
Democrat Juan Hinojosa (top left) will face off June 10 against the winner of a April 1 Republican primary race between Brian Hodgers (top right), Terrence Cronin (bottom left) and Bob White, in a special election to fill the Florida House District 32 seat, vacated by Debbie Mayfield.
The three announced Republicans for Mayfield’s Florida House District 32 seat are:
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Matt Susin, a member of the Brevard School Board who lives in Suntree, had announced candidacy but did not qualify. He initially won the District 4 seat on the School Board in 2016, and won reelection to a third four-year term in November.
Candidates seeking to qualify by petition had to obtain 340 valid signatures and submit them to the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Office by 5 p.m. Feb. 1, in order for Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic to verify the signatures and certify the results to the Division of Elections no later than 5 p.m. Feb. 3.
Or, candidates can opt instead to pay a qualifying fee of $1,781.82 for candidates running under a political party designation, and $1,187.88 for no-party-affiliation candidates.
Mud already slinging
Florida PC, a political committee in Tallahassee, created a paid electronic communication, citing White’s 2001 arrest for one count of forgery/fraud for making a false statement on a real estate document. White said he was a custom homebuilder at the time and had a dispute over a customer refusing to pay. So he withheld payment to several subcontractors but that he ultimately paid the subcontractors and the charge was dropped. “I was never going to not pay them,” White added.
“That’s pretty desperate to me,” White said of the paid electioneering communication bringing up an issue from so many years ago. “My gosh, anybody can make any charge, any accusations,” he added. “The appropriate question is ‘have you ever been convicted of anything, and the answer is absolutely, not.”
The chairperson of Florida PC, which paid for the electioneering communication, is Alex Alvarado, according to the Florida Division of Elections.
Political operative, Bobby Burns, who runs Space Coast Rocket political blog, is raising questions about whether Cronin is trying to pass his medical practice in Melbourne off as his residence, because his Melbourne Beach home falls just outside of District 32.
But under state law, candidates only have to reside within the district they win when they take office.
Cronin could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Jim Waymer is environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact him at [email protected], on X at @JWayEnviro.
Dave Berman, business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact him at [email protected], on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida House District 32 seat race heats up
