Candidate Profile: Andy Mele

Longtime clean water activist Andy Mele (Democrat) is challenging incumbent Republican Will Robinson for the Florida House of Representatives District 71 seat.

Mele, who has served as both Waterkeeper and Executive Director for the environmental organization Suncoast Waterkeeper, has routinely taken on phosphate giant Mosaic and powerful local developers on water issues.

Prior to his time with Suncoast Waterkeeper, Mele was Executive Director of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the seminal environmental group formed by folk singer Pete Seeger in 1966.

Mele is a longtime resident of Sarasota and Manatee Counties. He holds a master's degree in environmental science and wrote a book titled Polluting For Pleasure that led directly to the elimination of millions of dirty outboard motors that were spilling tens of millions of gallons of oil and gasoline into America’s waters every year.

At Clearwater, he helped force General Electric to sign a consent decree requiring removal of 300,000 pounds of toxic, carcinogenic PCBs from the Hudson. With Suncoast Waterkeeper, Mele was the architect of a mobilization effort in Desoto County that helped lead to a 4-1 rezone rejection vote against Mosaic and fought to keep developers out of the precious coastal mangroves in Manatee County.

"Will Robinson may be a nice guy, a local blueblood," says Mele, "but times have changed. As a far-right Republican, he takes his marching orders from the likes of Donald Trump, Red Tide Rick Scott, and Mitch McConnell. We have to fight back against policies that have paved the way for more and worse red tides, that have allowed over 700 square miles of native habitat and agricultural lands to be strip-mined, and mountains–real mountains–of radioactive waste to be piled up in the Florida heartland. We have to change the policies that have created this water crisis, that allow development and phosphate mining to drain the state’s aquifer–free of charge–and force communities to pay billions for desalination plants."

Mele says his expertise is key to serving those who think our coastal resources are worth protecting.

"The best way to fight back is to elect people who know the water," said Mele, "understand that the environment IS the economy, and who know the policy solutions to the toxic Republican politics that are selling our state for short-term profits with no sense of creating a sustainable future for Florida."

Mele will be up against a formidable opponent in Robinson who comes from a well-known family and has raised more than $126,000 for the race, giving him about 10 dollars to spend to every dollar in Mele's account. But Mele points to the 2018 race in which upstart Democrat Tracy Pratt came within 8,000 votes of beating Robinson, despite being outspent four to one.

"That is not going to happen again," said Mele. "Sure, all Robinson has to do is hold out his hand and as in 2018, every polluter in the state, including Mosaic, will fill it with money. He won’t even have to campaign. But I will not be taking contributions from polluters. There is too much at stake to go up to Tallahassee compromised. I am going to put the public back in public policy."