Senate District 8 Profile: John Thrasher

No candidate in Senate District 8 has received more attention that John Thrasher.  As a former Speaker of the Florida House, there was no question that Thrasher's entry into the Senate District 8 race would create a splash, but few anticipated the statewide focus his candidacy would bring to the race.  By election day on Tuesday, well over a million dollars will have been spent on the Senate District 8 seat and most of that will be because of him.  Television commercials from mysterious 527 groups, both for and against him, have flooded the airwaves.  Direct mail campaigns have filled up mailboxes and Republican phones are ringing off the hook with robo calls.  And, in the last few weeks, one of the other candidates in the race has engaged in increasingly shrill accusations against the Thrasher campaign.  It seems that the entire focus of the campaign has turned to John Thrasher---you are either supporting him or you are diametrically opposed to his candidacy.

Because John Thrasher has been so extensively covered in other media, and because of the time constraints that I have been subject to this past week, I thought it best to provide links to a few stories that might offer voters unfamiliar with Thrasher to learn a bit more about him.

The PoliticsFla blog has been rather critical of Thrasher throughout this abbreviated campaign, criticizing him on everything from using state aircraft for flights to naming an arts center after himself.  The Florida Times-Union, in endorsing Thrasher, said some of the accusations that have been leveled against him simply are not true.  Thrasher did, however, admit to violating state ethics laws after leaving office in 2001 and did pay a $500 fine for lobbying lawmakers.

Thrasher's supporters have made an effort to remind voters of the clout Jim King held in the State Senate and to make the case that the former Speaker would enter the Senate with instant influence.

Whatever the voters' decision is on Tuesday, it's a shame that the Democratic Party did not field a candidate in this race.  Because of the fact that no Democrat stepped forward to run, Tuesday's election is open only to Republican voters  to decide this race (Several write-in candidates did qualify, which closed the primary, but it is highly improbable that they would be able to garner any support in the general election.)

Tags: Art Graham, Dan Quiggle, Jim King, John Thrasher, Stan Jordan

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 6:38 AM and is filed under 2010 Races, Local Politics, State Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.