For U.S. Congress District 16, We Recommend Vern Buchanan

Through four terms in Congress, Vern Buchanan has proven himself a marked improvement over his predecessor, Katherine Harris. While we do not agree with the Congressman on many issues, he has nonetheless been a responsive representative who has addressed the largest concerns of his constituency.

While Buchanan sometimes tends to play to his party's base in terms of rhetoric, his actions have been more balanced and pragmatic. As a result, he is sometimes accused of pandering. Yet what is a representative if not an agent exercising the will of the majority in his or her district?

Buchanan also took an impressive lead with the state's pill mill epidemic, a matter where there was no special interest driving the issue, only constituents in communities that had been negatively impacted by our state's utter lack of meaningful response to what had been a profound crisis.

The Congressman has also shown a willingness to buck his party from time to time when his district disagreed with the Republican platform, a quality we find too rare in the modern GOP. We are also impressed with his willingness to acknowledge a lack of expertise on particular issues and seek out the insight of credible experts.

We applaud his opponent Henry Lawrence's effort to provide the voters of this district with a choice. Going up against an incredibly well-funded incumbent whose party has a significant advantage in terms of registered voters in the district is indeed no small task. Lawrence is an active and well-respected member of this community who we believe would give an honest best effort to his constituents as a member of House.

That being said, Mr. Lawrence has not made a case to replace the incumbent for such a monumental task as joining the ranks of Congress. Most notably, his campaign for the office has lacked any degree of organization. While running a Congressional campaign is also no small task, overseeing the vastly more complex machinery of such an operation as a Congressional office is infinitely more challenging. We fear that Mr. Lawrence's learning curve would be too steep.

Many constituents find Rep. Buchanan's long history of allegations of unethical behavior both before and after getting elected to office troubling. We do not disagree. However, when examined by his record, Mr. Buchanan seems to clearly be the most qualified choice in this race. That being said, we would like to see him take a larger leadership role on environmental issues that threaten not only our quality of life in District 16, but also our tourism-based economy.

Florida, particularly areas like ours that exist along its shoreline, remains in particular peril when it comes to rising sea levels and will need strong representation in lobbying for policies that might be unpopular with representatives of less-affected districts, or even the constituents of his own. There are some areas in which populism must yield to courageous leadership, and we hope Rep. Buchanan will have the fortitude to lead effectively on such issues.