Herald Endorsement: Why We’re Changing Our Picks in Florida House District 113

The Herald Editorial previously endorsed Republican state Rep. Vicki Lopez for re-election to Florida House District 113 in November because she has been an effective and independent lawmaker. Next a story published Thursday describing how Lopez helped introduce a bill that financially benefited her family, we should withdraw that support.

Lopez’s Democratic challenger, Jacqueline “Jackie” Gross-Kellogg, is now our pick in the district that includes Key Biscayne, Brickell and parts of downtown Miami and Little Havana. Gross-Kellogg, 56, lives in Key Biscayne and is a program manager at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center.

While not as well-funded or high-profile as Lopez — the “condo queen” who sponsored much-needed condo safety laws after the 2021 Surfside building collapse — Gross-Kellogg’s platform aligns with a district where voters without party politics are at the forefront of registrations. In an interview with the board, she spoke about her opposition to Governor Ron DeSantis’ recent cuts to local arts and culture programs and laws that take away the power of local governments to make their own decisions, tilting the scale in favor of developers and special settings is tilted. interests.

Lopez, 66, has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing, but the story continues The tributarya nonprofit investigative newsroom in Florida, and published in the Herald, is raising questions about the way she used her office.

Shortly after her election in 2022, Lopez co-sponsored a 2023 bill that allowed districts to use cameras to ticket drivers who failed to stop at school bus stop signs. Less than three months after the law took effect, she and son Donny Wolfe III became the new vice president of government relations for BusPatrol, a supplier of school bus cameras. The company, which has an agreement with Miami-Dade Public Schools, then hired Lopez’s former stepson.

Lopez told the editors that she was not the main sponsor or author HB 741 – she was one of twelve co-sponsors – and that BusPatrol’s recruitment of her son was not related to the legislation.

Less than a week after announcing her son’s hiring, Lopez texted Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, asking Nixon to introduce the son to Duval County School District officials. Lopez said helping her son make connections is “normal for a parent.”

The next session, she voted for another bill that boosted companies like BusPatrol by allowing them to earn money for each citation issued. Two ethics experts told the tributary that Lopez should have disclosed that her vote would benefit a company that employed her son. Lopez said that after a Tributary reporter contacted her, she asked House counsel and was told there was no conflict of interest in her vote.

This isn’t Lopez’s first controversy. In the 1990s, she resigned from the Lee County Commission and went to prison under the federal “honest services” mail fraud statute. Her sentence was commuted by then-President Bill Clinton and vacated by the courts fourteen years later. She has said she was wrongly convicted.

In 2011, Lopez worked with the Miami-based nonprofit Girls Advocacy Project when the Department of Juvenile Justice’s inspector general released a report saying she had spent money intended for girls in the juvenile system on personal expenses and falsified data. Then-Government. Rick Scott’s Chief Inspector General decided not to investigate further and initiated the initial investigation drew conclusions without sufficient evidencethe Herald reported in 2012. Lopez said she had not misused any charity dollars and that the investigation was motivated by a personal vendetta.

Lopez’s legislative successes have served her constituents well, and she has not been charged with any crimes. But our job is to advise voters, and the accumulation of these issues is not a good idea.

Gross-Kellogg has long been politically involved as president of the Key Biscayne Democrat Club, former PTA president at Coral Gables High and founder of the nonprofit Friends of Gables High. She believes the state should help condo owners at risk of eviction with special assessments related to the new condo laws and expensive homeowners insurance premiums. She is a staunch supporter of abortion rights.

The Herald endorses this JACQUELINE “JACKIE” GROSS-KELLOGG for Florida House District 113.