For the Florida House D72 Seat, We Recommend Lesa Miller

The Florida House District 72 race features Republican Bill Connerly and Democrat Lesa Miller.

Republican Tommy Gregory, recently hired as President of State College of Florida, is vacating the seat. Gregory voted in lock step with the Republican Party, even when it departed from traditional conservative principles, including home rule. He joined Rep. Will Robinson and Senator Jim Boyd in voting for legislation allowing Manatee County to permit its own overpriced and unwanted parking garage on Holmes Beach and to study the annexation or consolidation of the three island cities. He also supported legislation that limited a community’s ability to collect impact fees from developers.

We believe that Connerly would be a carbon copy of Gregory, a politician who espouses conservative rhetoric but works to advance the interests of developers and other deep-pocketed industries that have captured the party. As chair of the Manatee County Planning Commission, Connerly faithfully served developers, including his embarrassing push to recommend that the county commission eviscerate our local wetland protection policies.

As an engineer, Connerly certainly knew better. That record, combined with a look at the interests filling his enormous campaign war chest, is all we need to know about who Connerly would be serving if elected.

Miller is a 30-year Florida resident and graduate of the University of South Florida and Stetson College of Law. She has been actively involved in the community and is running a grassroots campaign focused on real issues facing Floridians, including real solutions to our property insurance crisis, restoring environmental protections, and protecting women’s reproductive rights. We believe she would be a much more effective representative for D72.

Miller was recently a guest on The Bradenton Times Podcast. The episode is embedded below.