News Articles
GOP leaders ready to endorse Evers in Senate race
Northwest Florida Daily News, January 3, 2010
Tom McLaughlin
Daily News
Florida's Senate leaders, Niceville's Don Gaetz among them, are poised to endorse state Rep. Greg Evers as their choice to succeed Durell Peaden.
Peaden, R-Crestview, will step down from his District 2 seat after the 2010 legislative session because of term limits. He has served 10 years.
Evers, R-Baker, will receive the endorsement be-cause he has demonstrated an ability to raise money in the district and provide evidence he has voter support, Gaetz said.
"Greg Evers has shown he has generated substantially more support than anyone else in the race combined," he said.
Gaetz said he and incoming state Senate President Mike Haridopolos plan to announce their support for Evers soon after the first of the year.
Evers, who says he has raised $164,000 for his Senate campaign, said he was "honored" by the decision.
"I feel like I'm the right man for the job," he said.
Evers, who has served eight years in the Florida House, will get the endorsement over another eight-year House veteran, Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola.
Mike Hill, a Pensacola businessman running with the support of former state Rep. Don Brown, also has entered the race as a Republican.
Murzin said he'd heard rumors in November of the Senate leadership's favoring Evers. He lashed out at the senators for taking sides.
"I am disappointed that a supposedly pro-business senator has chosen to endorse somebody who is working closely with the trial bar and the AFL-CIO," Murzin, who calls himself a pro-business candidate, said of Gaetz.
Murzin said past Senate leadership endorsements "haven't amounted to a hill of beans" and wondered, given his legislative record of success compared to Evers, how Gaetz and Haridopolos had reached their conclusion.
This session, Murzin will chair the Economic Development and Community Affairs Policy Council, which has ultimate say over bills introduced in several House committees.
He serves on four other committees and another council.
Evers serves on five committees and no councils. He will be the alternating chair of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee.
"When you look at where I am in the Florida House and where he is in the Florida House after eight years, there's no comparison," Murzin said. "That means there's something else (behind the Evers endorsement)."
Evers' endorsement comes as rumors were circulating that there was a push to recruit another big-name candidate to the District 2 race. Evers and Murzin acknowledged hearing those rumors.
Murzin said he'd heard that overtures had been made to former state lawmakers Holly Benson and Jerry Maygarden, among others.
"Various folks in the state Senate leadership have said they're looking for someone else other than myself, Greg Evers and Mike Hill," Murzin said. "And numerous people were approached about getting into the race."
Gaetz said he has not tried to recruit any new candidates.
Benson, the director of Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration and a candidate for attorney general, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Maygarden said he has fielded inquiries about running but is not interested.
Hill, a 10-year Air Force veteran who works as an insurance agent, thinks he's going to win the Senate seat despite competing against two House incumbents.
He said he has heard not only anti-incumbent sentiment while campaigning, but also negative comments about the two men he is running against.
"People are just looking for new leadership," Hill said. "They're looking for people who are accessible and available to them instead of to some lobby group."
Brown, who is serving as a consultant for Hill in his campaign, questioned a primary election endorsement by senators.
"If members of the Senate leadership get involved, it should be offensive to the Republican Party," said Brown, a former representative from DeFuniak Springs.
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