Almost 10 years ago, a young state representative introduced what became known as the “Docs vs. Glocks” bill. It proposed throwing doctors in jail and fining them up to $5 million if, for example, a pediatrician refused to provide medical care because parents wouldn’t answer whether they keep loaded pistols lying around the house.
Jason Brodeur, the former representative behind that foolish law — which became a national joke and was declared largely unconstitutional by the courts — now wants a promotion to the state Senate seat David Simmons is vacating because of term limits.
Voters in Seminole and southwest Volusia counties should take a hard pass, for reasons that go beyond proposing a law to jail doctors.
They’re better off starting anew with Patricia Sigman, a labor and employment attorney who is making her first run for political office, and who cares more about constituents than special interests.
Sigman, a Democrat, wants to repair Florida’s disastrous unemployment system. She wants to expand Medicaid so more people have access to health insurance, and she wants to restore the state’s role in helping manage growth.
She’s committed to letting cities and counties make their own rules, rather than allowing the state to take control of everything from trimming trees to regulating plastic straws. She wants to strengthen the public school system rather than handing over tax money to private schools so lightly regulated that teachers aren’t even required to have high-school diplomas.
Sigman’s been a lawyer since 1992 and has represented people trying to collect unemployment benefits from a system designed to make the jobless as miserable as possible.
Brodeur, a Republican, had a hand in creating that system.
In 2011, he voted for an unemployment insurance overhaul intended to cut taxes for businesses at the expense of workers. The new law made it easier for employers to deny unemployment, and it worked. A 2015 study found that just 39% of those who applied for unemployment in Florida received a payment, the second lowest rate in the nation.
The overhaul had plenty of other small cruelties, but the worst might have been imposing a sliding scale based on the unemployment rate that reduced the number of weeks workers could collect unemployment from 26 to as few as 12. That’s where the scale stood when the pandemic hit, and that’s why Florida’s workers could only get three months of state benefits before they ran out of money to pay for rent, food and electricity.
Thanks to representatives like Brodeur.
In an interview we asked Sigman and Brodeur if they favored raising the chintzy maximum weekly benefit of $275 — which hasn’t been increased in more than 20 years — and increasing the minimum number of weeks jobless workers could collect benefits.
These are slam-dunks, and Sigman said yes to both. Brodeur said he’d be willing to take a look at changes. That’s the best he could muster, even after all the suffering that jobless Floridians have endured, partly because of him.
Brodeur said he had zero regrets about his vote on the unemployment overhaul or, for that matter, any bills he introduced or votes he cast during his eight years in the House.
Not his 2011 Docs vs. Glocks bill, which was shot down by the courts and cost the state more than $1 million in legal fees. Not his 2015 bill to let private adoption agencies turn away gay couples trying to adopt. Not even his multiple votes in 2018 to let his good friend, developer and lobbyist Chris Dorworth, build a housing and shopping complex within Seminole’s voter-approved rural zone.
Brodeur says (unconvincingly) that his final vote on the bill was a mistake, the result of hitting “an errant button.” Although the errant button defense doesn’t account for his other votes in favor of bill amendments that would have cleared the way for Dorworth’s development.
Brodeur and Dorworth are joined at the hip personally, professionally and politically. The duo have left fingerprints on the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, the Wekiva Parkway and what used to be known as the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority.
If District 9 residents cast a ballot for Brodeur, they might as well be voting to send Chris Dorworth to the state Senate.
Brodeur, who is president of the Seminole County Chamber of Commerce, has raised a breathtaking $3.6 million between his regular campaign account and a political committee, Friends of Jason Brodeur. The contributors represent nearly every special interest imaginable, from theme parks to insurance to developers to pharmaceutical companies.
Some of that money is being spent on false ads that say Sigman’s campaign received money from the Paycheck Protection Program intended to help businesses during the pandemic.
What happened was the Democratic Party of Florida got about $780,000 in PPP money, which it returned after being rightfully scorned.
We asked Brodeur if he had evidence that Sigman’s campaign received any of that money. He didn’t. The ads are false, but Brodeur is standing by the lie.
If this election cycle has taught us anything, however, it’s that voters are less impressed by entitled politicians and their campaign riches. Just ask Betsy VanderLey, the soon-to-be former Orange County commissioner.
Brodeur has the advantage of big-name endorsements and a gluttonous bank account. He has the disadvantage of a dismal voting record and special-interest coziness.
Voters in this Senate district have every reason to be fed up with the business-as-usual politics Brodeur represents, especially voters in Seminole where the future of their beloved rural district is at stake.
Voters can change the system. They can elect Patricia Sigman.
Election endorsements are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, which consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick, David Whitley and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Sentinel Columnist Scott Maxwell participates in interviews and deliberations. Send emails to insight@orlandosentinel.com. Watch interviews with these and other candidates at OrlandoSentinel.com/interviews.