Political platform statement

Candidate's Website

Why I am running for this office: I am running for office because, as a proud citizen and immigrant from South Africa, I have a grave concern for our State and Country. From the 1950’s to 1990 I lived through the same short-sighted authoritarian and fascist leanings presented by an extreme element of the Republican Party, that drove South African politics at the time. The so-called National Party in South Africa, came to power falsely riding on themes of Christian Nationalism, Patriotism, and Freedom. … sounds familiar?! It is dangerous political stupidity which every freedom loving citizen of our democratic republic must reject decisively by voting for Democrats up and down the November ballot. A cornerstone of the S. African regime was to take complete control of the schools and their curricula to re-write “history” in their image to suit their propaganda. That is a cornerstone of the Republican Project 2025 which is already being implemented by DeSantis and his extreme yes-men in Florida. Please download and read their Project 2025 takeover plan. Secondly, I am running because I am shocked and deeply concerned by the Republican Attack on Women which my incumbent opponent Will Robinson, DeSantis, Rick Scott and Trump whole-heartedly embraces (Trump again trying to do last-minute damage control by re-phrasing his role in the mess he created through his SCOTUS appointees). This is an attack on basic human freedom by Republican men who believe they have the right to partake in private most sensitive health choices of all women to dictate what they can or cannot do. Vote for me in November, and I will represent the will of the people of Manatee County and Florida over mega donors. Vote4Florida.com

Adriaan DeVilliers is a civil engineer who became a U.S. citizen after immigrating from South Africa. He is running a grassroots campaign to return the district's representation to one that focuses on the constituents and not special interests. He advocates for responsible growth and protecting our community’s environmental resources. We find Mr. DeVilliers to be honest, thoughtful, and intelligent. We believe that he would represent a significant improvement over Robinson in representing D71’s interests in Tallahassee.

Mr. DeVilliers was recently a guest on The Bradenton Times podcast. The episode is embedded below.

Adriaan For a Better District 71

Please select any of the highlights or images below for more information.

Responsible Development in balance with Infrastructure.

• Save Florida’s Home Rule

• Protect our Environment (Our Last Frontier)

Health & Reproductive Rights

• This is nothing less than a fundamental human freedom for women

Democracy

• Unite for a more civil, less divisive, and more tolerant Tallahassee

• Restore the voice of the people over government

Schools

• Ensure our schools and teachers are properly funded and not politicized

Private Reproductive Rights - I strongly believe that strangers have no place at all in prescribing what women should do regarding their own health and reproductive rights. We are not a theocracy and not an autocracy. Like men, women should have the freedom to make their own health and welfare decisions. This is a topic deeply affected by religion and it would be good to recall that our founding fathers, all immigrants, left Europe to get away from authoritarianism and religious persecution by the church imbedded in government. This, above anything else, is why our constitution was written to guard against that. Our constitution clearly forbids our government from both promoting one religion over others and from restricting an individualʼs religious practices, i.e. to be neutral. If religion guides the reproductive decisions of one person, that personʼs morals should not be forced onto others with different views. The recent out-of-touch legislation approved under the DeSantis government hit the low income and under privileged communities the hardest. This is doubly so when considering that Florida has been declining federal Medicaid health insurance that would help hundreds of thousands of our people. This is simply put, due to political stupidity.

Out of Control Development, Over-reach by Tallahassee, and Disregard for the Environment - Every person living and driving in Manatee and surrounding counties unanimously agrees that Real Estate Development is seriously out of synch with Infrastructure Development. Since 1996, the majority party in the Florida State House has been the Republican Party. We urgently need a new and fresh approach to the process of ensuring development is planned and executed to allow growth without frustrating the enjoyment of our communities. Recent legislation is threatening to nullify fundamental rights of “Home Rule”, to walk rough-shod over the local communities. Loss of “Home Rule” means that Tallahassee will dictate over local governing bodies and their communities, what developments are allowed. Visualize for example, Ana Maria Island transformed into a high-density, high-rise condominium resort. Additional recent legislation fundamentally takes away First Amendment rights to protest such dictated developments, by making the legal costs incurred by the government in countering such protests, to be paid by the protesting community. This circle of legislation basically says that Tallahassee will decide everything, and the communities had better keep quiet and bear it. As if not enough, recent decisions by Manatee County essentially gave developers the right to build right up to sensitive wetlands, without any buffer zone. One such development was temporarily and denied by a 3 to 3 vote, from which a decision to proceed was not possible. This is important because the wetlands are the best defense against releasing runoff into our bays which contribute to major annual algae blooms. Finally, the topic of out-of-control development is directly related to our high insurance costs. By an inadequate and laisse-fair approach to climate change, every year our real estate insurance has gone up to be unaffordable. Infrastructure is needed to allow for a future where sea levels are rising, and storm intensities increase. Insurance is not a climate change strategy.

Voter Guide

1. November 2024 Sample Universal Ballot

Select & print this 2024 Universal Sample Ballot.pdf file which you can take with you when you vote.

2. How & Why to vote on the 2024 Amendments:

Amendment 1 – Partisan School Board Members – Vote NO

Ironically, another ballot measure, approved by Florida voters in 1998, mandated in the state Constitution that school board races be nonpartisan. After 6 years of DeSantis implementing Project 2025 in FL, we can see the ugly results and trends in politicized schools.

Amendment 2 – Right to Hunt and Fish – Vote NO

When lawmakers moved it onto the ballot (HJR 31), it received only one vote in opposition, from a Democrat questioning why it was needed. On closer examination however, ask “What problems are the Republicans trying to solve” when we already have the right to fish and hunt in Florida? After all, I too like fishing and have little objection to legal hunting.

The real “problem” the republicans are proposing to solve is to legalize “Traditional fishing methods” which includes gill net fishing that is illegal per FL Constitution since 1994 because it is so destructive for non-targeted species like turtles, crabs, and sea mammals! – see NoTo2.org. If they had included language to say it will not overturn the 1994 gillnet fishing law, I would have recommended to vote for it.

Amendment 3 – Recreational Marijuana – Vote YES

Floridians approved medical marijuana in 2016, with more than 71% of the vote, but DeSantis opposed it. Marijuana laws have hit the black and poor community particularly hard over the years and arguably has been used to target them, leading to life-long crime records that severely limits their pursuit of the American dream.

Amendment 4 – Abortion Access – Vote YES – What Is Amendment 4?

Women’s right to make personal decisions about their own medical and reproductive health issues is a fundamental freedom rights issue. It is abhorrent to know that some people, sitting in a remote office from women that are facing these highly sensitive and personal issues, figuratively demand access to their bedrooms to not only partake in the discussion, but to dictate what the women shall do.

This is not a pro- life or pro-abortion issue; it is about the freedom to make that choice based on a women’s personal value system and medical needs.

Amendment 5 – Homestead Annual Inflation Adjustment – Vote NO

The republicans have held a trifecta majority in governing FL since 1996. Thus, any and all regulatory problems we now have, lands squarely on them only. To mention only the gross infrastructure deficit mess that they are pushing off on the citizens, the tax dollars needed to bring infrastructure back into balance is enormous. Amendment 5 will reduce much needed tax income for cities and municipalities by many $ millions.

Amendment 6 – Repeal Public Campaign Financing – Vote NO

Public campaign financing was enshrined in the state Constitution after a 1998 amendment — the same one that made school board positions nonpartisan. A 2010 constitutional amendment that tried to repeal the financing failed. If passed, this Amendment will severely limit campaign financing available for local offices where republicans get $millions from ultra-wealthy corporate interest groups. Vote No will be part of a wider campaign finance reform of the status quo that severely distorts the will of the people.

3. Why to Vote Against Incumbent Will Robinson

The flooding with Tropical Storm Debby happened because Will Robinson signed legislation since 2018 to for practical purposes, strip the cost for infrastructure charged to Developers so that they could make bigger profits. You, the citizens, now own that deficiency while the Developers and Will wash their hands off it and insurers fled the State. Each and every year from now on, if you vote for him again, you will continue to pay $Tens-of-thousands out of your own pocket (as with storm Debbie) for the resultant damages whenever a tropical storm or more severe passes by even 100 miles from your home. The solutions are easy to recognize for me as a Professional Civil Engineer, and while the problems created by decades of Developer pandering are enormous, it is not too late to start fixing it, without financially hurting our citizens that are continuing to be harmed by these fools.

4. Vote Out All Republicans

Please vote for a Democrat in every position on your ballot, not just for the president. The past 30 years of Republican supermajority in the Florida State and local government positions, have led to mass corruption carefully hidden by misleading legislative titles while they pander to their large corporate donors and expand their own wealth at your and my expense. Those costs are not easy to recognize and by the time they become known, they have ruined lives, retirements and opportunities for millions while they are protected from any criminal or civil liabilities by the very same laws they wrote.