Committee of 2 to replace Traviesa on fall ballot

Timing can mean a lot in life, particularly in politics. Take District 56. At the start of the week, it looked as if state Rep. Trey Traviesa was cruising to re-election.

But when he announced Tuesday that he was dropping out, it left a void for Republicans. If Traviesa had done this before June 21, there would have been time for other registered Republicans to enter the race.

Because he announced after the June 21 qualifying deadline, though, state law says the task of replacing Traviesa on the general election ballot falls to an obscure committee of Republicans. So, instead of 40,000 registered Republicans deciding among an open field, three unelected people unknown to the general public will pick the Republican nominee in a heavily conservative district. Read it here.

Comments

Your headlines are contradictory. Is it 2 or 3?

and are these people members of the REC? then they are not unelected- they are elected

The Times is such a piece of crap paper. You make it sound like this is the worst thing to ever happen. And 10:57 is right, they were elected.

I wish it was going to be Ron or Jaime, but I'm sure they'll just give it to Murman so they don't have to spend any money. Too bad

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The state committeewoman (Carter) and state committeman (Matthews) were elected countywide, on the ballot, by Republicans voting in the 2004 primary. The chairman was elected by members of the Hillsborough REC, and these members were elected from their individual precincts, or by nomination and acceptance at meetings after December 2004. To say they are unelected is wrong.
This has happened before, notably in the Will Weatherford-Ken Littlefield situation in 2006, though that involved Pasco and Hillsborough state executive committee members as that seat contains precincts in both counties.

It's how the law works - for Democrats too, by the way - if you don't like it, run for office and change it.

This is what happened when Crist chose Rep. Kottkamp to be his LG....a small group picked Kottkamp's "replacement," although there was never much mystery about who their choice would be, Rep. Aubuchon.

Traviesa is good friends with Murman it's a set up to give her back the seat ! She did a better job anyway.

[ginger]

Murman was a good Representative and she is very involved in the community. Additionally, she works well with people in Tallahassee, so she can get things done.

Murman is a weak twit who did nothing but follow. She did what she was told and she cant think for herself. There is no one of real substance in the running for this seat. What a shame for that district.

i can't stand the fact that murman bailed on her party.