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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Attorney Coretta Anthony-Smith's money haul stirs up race for Thompson's seat
The special election for state Senate in Orange County includes two high-profile siblings and a former congressman. But a newcomer to politics is hauling in more campaign money then all of them. Coretta Anthony-Smith, 54, an attorney from Gotha, is the wild card in the race to succeed the late state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, who died in February. Anthony-Smith is running in the June 24 Democratic primary for District 15, which includes parts of Orlando, Ocoee and western Orange County, against three current or former lawmakers — state Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, former state Sen. Randolph Bracy, who is Bracy Davis' brother, and former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson. The race was already going to be a heated one, with Bracy Davis garnering her mother's endorsement over her brother, Bracy slamming his sister in turn, and Grayson's long history of liberal bomb-throwing. But as of Thursday, Anthony-Smith has raised more than all of them combined, loaning herself $175,000 alongside contributions totaling more than $39,000. An affiliated PAC chaired by Anthony-Smith, Action for Change now, has also raised $66,500, largely from personal injury firms. Meanwhile, Bracy has raised $9,000, most of it loans to himself, while Grayson loaned himself $9,000. Bracy Davis has taken in about $10,000, while the committee Liberated by Democracy, which she chairs, has raised $7,500 this year. 'The money makes it a potential for an upset there,' said Matt Isbell, a Democratic elections analyst. 'It's not a guarantee, and it could also fall flat. But it's definitely a race to watch now, even more than it was already.' Last year, Bracy Davis, 45, endorsed Thompson over her brother when Bracy launched what became a bitter Democratic primary battle, ultimately won by Thompson. Bracy, 48, threw his hat into the ring again the day after Thompson died, announcing via video from Italy that he would run for her seat. His sister announced her candidacy about a month later. Grayson, 67, served two incendiary stints in Congress and has since run unsuccessful campaigns for Congress, U.S. Senate and state Senate. Anthony-Smith, 54, said she became a personal injury attorney in part because of her family's tragic history. When she was a teen, her mother was killed by a drunk driver who ended up serving very little jail time, and her father died of cancer shortly afterward. 'Growing up like that, it causes you to have a certain amount of resilience, a certain amount of determination, a certain amount of 'I will not let this get me down,'' she said. She said she was inspired to run after years of meeting with legislators and testifying before committees in Tallahassee gave her an upfront view of how the process works. And it made her want to do better, especially after she heard insurance company executives speak and was convinced they were not being truthful nor looking out for customers. 'When they called the insurance companies to testify in the House, they were telling citizens that there was a lot of fraud going on, there was a lot of litigation going on, and so that's why they were losing money,' Anthony-Smith said. 'But in reality, they were making money. They were just playing some type of shell game with their affiliates while not paying claims, but raising premiums.' She was hopeful that the Legislature would crack down on insurance companies, but the attempts at reform over the last few years — focused mostly on combating fraud — left her disappointed 'Nothing happened,' she said. 'It just fell through the cracks. … I don't recall the representatives coming back and telling their constituents anything about what was going on in Tallahassee. I don't recall them coming back and letting us know that, 'Hey, there's an insurance crisis that's about to take effect that's going to seriously affect all of our lives.'' Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, said Anthony-Smith's biggest challenge is to get her name out to the public, especially considering her high-profile opponents. 'She hasn't held office before, and that means most people probably are not that familiar with her,' Jewett said. But she's helped by special elections typically having very low turnouts compared to regular elections, he added. 'In a four-way race, you don't have to get to 50%,' Jewett said. 'You just have to get more than everybody else, because we don't have runoffs. She needs to be willing to go out and spend a lot of money, and spend it wisely in ways that make sense for an outsider candidate to try to raise their name recognition.' More than $19,000 of her campaign's spending, according to campaign filings, has been for marketing and merchandise being done through Zoolix, an Ocoee corporation for which Anthony-Smith is the registered agent. That includes her website and campaign t-shirts. She's also tried to get one-on-one time with as many voters as possible. 'I've been going to different churches every Sunday,' she said. 'I've been going to HOA meetings. I've been going to community events. I've been doing a lot of grassroot efforts. I ask people, 'If you cannot donate to my campaign, at least can you donate your time? Can you phone bank? Can you canvas?' Meanwhile, Bracy Davis, as an incumbent House member, is hamstrung by the law preventing incumbent state lawmakers' campaigns from fundraising while the Legislature is in session. A budget deadlock between the House and Senate led to leaders extending the session until June 30 — six days after the Democratic primary. The winner of the primary will face Republican Willie Montague on Sept. 2.
Boston Globe
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
As R.I. considers bill to legalize medical aid in dying, Magaziner's mother-in-law testifies in support
Opponents urged the committee to reject the bill, saying it aims to legalize a practice that Rhode Island's criminal code now calls 'assisted suicide.' McDowell, 72, of Little Compton, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying she is a direct descendant of Stephen Hopkins, a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island who added his 'very wobbly signature' to the Declaration of Independence. Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up She said the musical '1776″ portrayed Hopkins as 'the only drunk in the room,' but she believes he actually suffered hereditary spastic paraplegia, a large group of rare and progressive inherited disorders that cause weakness and stiffness of the legs. Advertisement 'I've lost an aunt, a first cousin, my father, and my beloved brother to HSP,' McDowell said, adding that she is showing signs of the disorder. 'I can barely sign my name now.' She said the strain that runs through her family affects people in their late 60s and early 70s. 'We are dead within five years,' she said. 'There are no cures.' Advertisement McDowell said she has three children and two grandchildren. 'That I may be passing this on to them is a heartbreak I just can't even describe,' she said. 'They will have to decide if they want to test for it or not, if an accurate test even exists.' People should be able to choose a 'well-planned death,' she said. 'Your death via a difficult, painful, and terrifying illness will be a difficult and painful experience for everybody who loves you. It should not have to be this way.' McDowell urged the committee to support the legislation, saying, 'I deserve the right to a peaceful death, preferably at home, surrounded by family and those who love me.' Related : The legislation drew opposition from Barth E. Bracy, executive director of the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee. 'While proponents now prefer to call it by another name, Senate Bill 151 seeks to legalize a practice presently described in the Rhode Island Criminal Code as assisted suicide,' Bracy said in written testimony. 'Assisted suicide is not medicine. It is bad public policy that puts unsuspecting people at risk." Bracy warned that the legislation could result in 'abuse of the elderly and disabled' and 'exploitation of any one of us who may have an estate coveted by others or who may be regarded as a burden.' The safeguards included in the bill are 'porous,' Bracy said. Severely depressed or mentally ill person could receive a lethal prescription without having any counseling, he said, and the bill does not require consultation with a patient's primary care physician. The Senate Judiciary Committee held the bill for further study. Representative Edith H. Ajello, a Providence Democrat, has for years proposed companion Advertisement Kallman, a Pawtucket Democrat, noted the bill has bipartisan support, with cosponsors including Senator Minority Whip Gordon E. Rogers, a Foster Republican. And she noted the bill, titled The Lila Manfield Sapinsley Compassionate Care Act, is named for the late Senate Republican leader who died in 2014. Kallman said the legislation is personal for her. 'My grandfather was a farmer. He was a very staid guy. He did not talk about feelings,' he said. 'And he got cancer in his late 70s.' To prompt a conversation, he began 'littering the house' with pamphlets detailing the 'death with dignity' laws in Vermont and Oregon, Kallman said. 'It was not a conversation that we ever finished because he passed away of that cancer in 2016,' she said. Kallman noted that under the bill, anyone requesting end-of-life medication must be over 18, a Rhode Island resident, and diagnosed with a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less. They would have to make two verbal requests for the medication at least 15 days apart 'to protect against an impulsive request,' she said. They also would have to provide a written request to the doctor that's signed in front of two qualified adult witnesses 'to prevent coercion,' Kallman said. Two doctors would have to confirm the patient's diagnosis, prognosis, and ability to make medical decisions. Related : Brian Bennett, a mental health counselor from North Kingstown, spoke in opposition to the bill, saying he works with young people who are suffering and considering suicide. 'One of the protective factors against suicide is the belief — be it moral, ethical, religious, or civil — that suicide is wrong," he said. 'By legalizing assisted suicide under whatever name we choose to call it in this bill, we put that belief in doubt and remove one more barrier to suicide for some of the most vulnerable among us.' Advertisement Bennett said he fears the legislation could end up being expanded. " If you pass this bill, tomorrow you will have experts sitting in this seat asking you why assisted suicide ought to apply to physical illness and not to mental illness, and frankly, they'll have a point," he said. Clare Kearney, of Barrington, testified with an oxygen tube in her nose. She said she spent years as a nurse working on oncology units and respirator intensive care units. 'I am now a patient myself, going through the horror that I witnessed taking care of my patients,' she said. Kearney said she now has interstitial lung disease and end-stage emphysema, with 25 percent lung capacity. 'The doctors look at me as a miracle,' she said. 'The pain I suffer today is horrific. I have headaches that don't go away because I'm not getting oxygen to my brain. I have back and chest pain, chest tightness, nausea, diarrhea.' Kearney said it's 'an insult' for opponents to say the bill is about depression. 'This bill is about dignity in dying,' she said. 'This bill would help me decide, when the time comes — which will be in a year or two — for me to do to do it with compassion, with my family. If I can't, then I'll go to a hotel and I'll take some pills, and a poor maid will find my body." Advertisement Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alan Grayson jumps into Orlando state Senate race alongside Bracys
The candidates are set for September's special election to fill the late Geraldine Thompson's state Senate seat, and an already headline-grabbing matchup featuring the Bracy siblings now includes yet another familiar name. Former congressman turned perennial candidate Alan Grayson entered the race for Senate District 15 on Tuesday, the latest in a string of elections he's filed for since leaving Congress in 2017. Grayson joined state Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee, and her brother, former state Sen. Randolph Bracy, in the June 24 Democratic primary, along with Ocoee lawyer Coretta Anthony-Smith. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Willie Montague, the unsuccessful GOP candidate against Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost in 2024, in the Sept. 2 special election. Montague was the only Republican to file by the qualifying deadline at noon Wednesday and will not face a primary. Sister vs. brother: LaVon Bracy Davis, Randolph Bracy both running for state Senate The seat in western Orange County, which includes parts of Orlando, Ocoee, Apopka and Eatonville, was left vacant by Thompson's death on Feb. 13 following surgery. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been criticized for his slow pace in scheduling special elections in heavily Democratic seats, set the election dates for the district last week. Grayson, an outspoken progressive in Congress during the Obama administration, has filed to run in at least six different races since he left the House for an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate. He ran for Congress in 2018, 2020 and 2022 and the U.S. Senate in 2022 and 2024, though he dropped out of three of those races early. In 2024, he ran for state Senate in the neighboring District 25 in southern Orange and Osceola counties, coming in third in the Democratic primary behind current state Sen. Kristen Arrington. Grayson and Bracy had previously faced off in 2022 for the congressional seat eventually won by Frost. Bracy was required to resign his state Senate seat in order to run, and his attempt to reclaim it last year led to a bitter primary battle with Thompson that included allegations of each candidate living outside the district and questions about Bracy's finances. During that race, Thompson was notably endorsed by Bracy Davis, who snubbed her brother as did most of the Central Florida Democratic delegation. Thompson defeated Bracy by more than 20 percentage points. Bracy announced his candidacy for Thompson's Senate seat the day after she died, posting on Instagram from Italy's Amalfi Coast that he planned to run again. His sister, endorsed by Thompson's family, announced her candidacy last month. Bracy Davis' mother, civil rights advocate LaVon Bracy, also endorsed her daughter as the best candidate to replace Thompson, who was close friend dating back to their time as college students at the University of Miami. 'I love my brother, and I wish him well,' Bracy Davis, D-Orlando, said when asked about Bracy's candidacy. 'I am not going to be running 'against' anyone. I'll be running for the people of Senate District 15.' 'This is a sad day for the Bracy name,' Randolph Bracy wrote in a text to the Orlando Sentinel that day, citing their late father, Randolph Bracy Sr., the co-founder with his wife of New Covenant Baptist Church in Orlando. 'My sister choosing to run against me dishonors our father's legacy in every way possible.'
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Special election set to fill Senate seat after Geraldine Thompson's death
Gov. Ron DeSantis has set a special election for Senate District 15, so voters in September can fill a vacancy created by the death of veteran Orlando lawmaker Geraldine Thompson, who died Feb. 13 at the age of 79. The primary will be held on June 24 with the general election on Sept. 2, according to the executive order signed by DeSantis on April 8. The west Orange County district includes Eatonville, Apopka, Ocoee and parts of Orlando and has not had representation during the Legislature's current session in Tallahassee. State Rep. LaVon Bracy-Davis, whose mother was one of Thompson's oldest friends, has announced she was running for the seat and submitted a letter of resignation from the House of Representatives effective Sept. 1 to comply with state election laws. 'With the support and endorsement of the late Geraldine Thompson's family, and in honor of her remarkable legacy of service, I am stepping forward to continue her work and fight for the values she held dear,' Bracy-Davis said in her April 10 resignation letter. She called Thompson a 'trailblazer, a fierce advocate, and a tireless champion for justice, education, and equity.' Bracy-Davis will face off against her brother, Randolph Bracy, in the Democratic primary. Bracy is a former House member who held the senate seat for one term, before resigning to run for Congress only to lose in the primary to Maxwell Frost. Bracy unsuccessfully ran against Thompson last year in a bitter race full of name calling and accusations of ethical breaches. 'I love my brother, and I wish him well,' Bracy Davis, D-Orlando, said when asked about Bracy's plans. 'I am not going to be running 'against' anyone. I'll be running for the people of Senate District 15.' 'This is a sad day for the Bracy name,' Randolph Bracy wrote in a text to the Orlando Sentinel that day. 'My sister choosing to run against me dishonors our father's legacy in every way possible.' Their father, the Rev, Dr. Randolph Bracy Sr., who died in 2023, was a local civil rights leader and, with his wife, co-founded the New Covenant Baptist Church in Orlando. Bracy-Davis has been endorsed by their mother, LaVon Wright Bracy, a civil rights activist who was Thompson's roommate in college at the University of Miami and was a bridesmaid at her wedding to Emerson Thompson, who would go on to be the first Black judge in Orange County.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Did Orange County staff orchestrate ‘inflated' teaching contract? Emails prompt questions
Hours after the Orange County Comptroller's office released an audit claiming the county needlessly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on technology classes for seniors, the woman at the center of the controversy said she had the receipts that proved she did nothing wrong. Kietta Mayweather Bracy provided emails dating back to as far as the fall of 2021 that showed her going back and forth with county staff about the classes she would offer through her nonprofit. Read: Orange County overpaid at least $200K to teach seniors technology, audit claims From the outset – years before contracts were signed – all parties were aware of the $250,000 price tag, which was an amount equal to an American Rescue Plan grant the county received. Bracy said the county approached her, asked her to offer the courses and told her what her price needed to be. 'I never negotiated a price. I never proposed a price,' she said. 'The county came to me with the amount and also requested that I use my nonprofit so they can sole source it. They were driving this whole thing.' A proposal Bracy shared set the price per pupil at $1,525 for instruction and $75 for materials. The follow-up emails showed a lack of concern about the cost from staff members, who apologized again and again for the delay in closing the deal. Over the months, emails showed staff making suggestions to Bracy to help the courses fit the budget they had. There were also instructions to help the single-source bid, and finally a commission-approved purchase order. Bracy brushed aside auditors' criticism that the county could have obtained similar services at a fraction of the cost. 'I felt the price was reasonable,' Bracy said. 'We went over and beyond. Even after the classes were over… we still gave assistance to people, even outside of the contract.' Bracy said she had no idea there were any issues until she received a notice informing her she had to pay back more than $101,000 because many students who signed up for the classes did not complete the full eight hours. Bracy said she shouldn't have to give any money back because the county agreed to the price, which she claimed was per class. However, auditors said the January 11, 2023 contract that the purchase order was based on specified the cost as per pupil, and included a proration provision. Bracy questioned the timing of the audit and said it was meant to damage her and her husband, Randolph Bracy, who ran for State Senate and recently filed to run again to replace the late Geraldine Thompson. 'I told the people I would not lay down and allow the county to just railroad me, because the county is wrong,' Bracy said. 'If you're saying that it was overpayment, your office cut the check. The county's office is the one that approved the [purchase order], the county's office -- clearly on email -- shows that this was the price that they gave. Staff from the comptroller's office agreed that had county staff done everything Bracy claimed, procurement violations would have occurred that would warrant investigating. They suggested other contracts would be examined to see if inappropriate sole-source contracts were routine. However, there is no evidence to suggest the audit was political in nature. WFTV reached out to the man who tipped auditors off. The man said he was a contractor hired to examine the county's use of federal funds and discovered the discrepancy in payments during his work. The man claimed he had no idea Bracy's nonprofit – From the Heart Charitable Foundation – had political connections. Politically connected sources reached by WFTV verified the man's general history, including his habit of routinely filing records requests to examine county contracts. They said he had no known ties to adversaries of Bracy's husband. 'I didn't make this up. You saw the emails for yourself,' Bracy said. 'I did no wrongdoing on my part.' WFTV reached out to a spokesperson for the county late Thursday but did not immediately receive a response. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
