Race Analysis: Florida CFO

The race for Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, a cabinet post that manages the state’s finances, including accounting, auditing, and investment–while also handling insurance consumer services and fraud investigations–sees Democrat Adam Hattersley challenge incumbent Republican Jimmy Patronis.

Patronis is a partner in his family’s popular Panama City restaurant business who served in the Florida House from 2006 to 2014. He was appointed by Governor Rick Scott in mid-2017 to finish out the term of former Florida CFO Jeff Atwater when the latter resigned in order to take the position of CFO for Florida Atlantic University. He was then elected to the post by a 4-point margin in 2018.

Hattersley is a Massachusetts native who holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan. He served as a nuclear submarine officer in the U.S. Navy from 2000 to 2008 and was awarded the Bronze Star for his service. Hattersley was also an electrical engineering instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. He and his wife moved to Riverview, FL in 2009, where they operate a small business, specializing in printing and marketing.

Unfortunately, the Florida Democratic Party and the party’s top donors have pretty much written off the entire slate of cabinet positions, all but conceding the important regulatory posts and focusing nearly all of the available resources on Charlie Crist’s gubernatorial campaign. As a result, Hattersley has raised but a small fraction of the financial resources that his opponent will bring into the election, giving him very little chance of upsetting a popular incumbent.

This is a shame because voters who are frustrated by Florida Republicans’ abject failure to deliver meaningful reforms to a property insurance market that remains on the brink of collapse following Hurricane Ian, should be witnessing a vigorous debate on Patronis’ ownership of his department’s oversight and efforts that have amounted to too little to late in combatting the fraud that has driven the industries failures, with six additional carriers leaving the state’s market already this year and rates expected to climb again in 2023.

There have been but two Democrats elected to the cabinet in the last two decades and the lack of political tension at the top has allowed the dominant party to escape serious scrutiny let alone repercussions when it has failed to turn out meaningful results for average Floridians and small business owners. Voters of all ideologies and party affiliations should take a serious look at Hattersley and decide whether this is a good race in which to signal their disapproval of the status quo.