Keith Perry
Republican Keith Perry, a local business owner and Gainesville native, is running against Democrat Rod Smith to become the District 8 Florida state senator.
Perry served as a state representative for the past six years. Lowering taxes for small businesses, addressing ineffective government programs and implementing health care reform are key aspects of his platform.
Perry, the founding owner of Perry Roofing Contractors, has been a local business owner for more than 40 years. He said rising taxes and health care costs sparked by provisions in the Affordable Care Act remain his highest concern.
He said it is not the federal government’s job to regulate health care and that the Affordable Care Act has done more harm than good.
Unlike Smith, Perry said he doesn’t believe government programs are an effective way to fix problems on a local level. Providing public housing doesn’t address the rising costs of living, and increased insurance requirements for employers hurt small businesses.
As a local who graduated from Buchholz High School, Perry said he feels himself to be more qualified than Smith to address the concerns of his fellow residents.
“Problems don’t get solved with government programs,” Perry said. “It starts with people.”
Although the two candidates agreed on a few topics at a debate held in the Reitz Union at UF on Oct. 25 — including opposition to Amendment 1 concerning solar power subsidies and approval for the legalization of medical marijuana — they don’t agree on much else. The two sparred about concealed carry of guns on university campuses, and Smith alleged Perry backed a fracking bill during his time as a Florida representative, which he denied.
“I’d encourage you not to listen to sound bites,” Perry said. “Do your research.”
Rod Smith
Ten years removed from state politics, Democrat Rod Smith is running to represent District 8 in the Florida Senate.
Smith is facing off against Keith Perry to represent all of Alachua County and Putnam County, as well as a chunk of Marion County.
A graduate from UF’s Levin College of Law, Smith said he considers educational reform, prison reform and marijuana legalization among his top priorities. He is also an ardent critic of legalizing the concealed carry of guns on campus.
Drawing from his experiences as a state attorney, during which time he helped prosecute mass murderer Danny Rolling, Smith said many of the problems with the overcrowding of jails stem from a flawed education system. He said the state should invest more in education and local colleges as a way to ensure students attain good jobs once they graduate.
As the state attorney, Smith helped implement Project Payback, a program that lets juvenile offenders pay back any owed restitution and learn various job skills. He said it is invaluable to help prisoners turn their lives around after serving time rather than enabling them to return to lives of crime.
“In my life, I’ve convicted people truly guilty of bad things, but most people aren’t like that,” he said. “They’ve just made bad decisions.”
Regarding marijuana legalization, Smith said politicians opposed to allowing doctors to prescribe the drug to patients are simply putting their own agendas over the need for treatments.
“We have doctors who prescribe all sorts of dangerous drugs,” he said. “If we can trust them to do that, then we can trust them to prescribe marijuana.”
After more than 30 years in law and politics, Smith said he is more capable than Perry to help North Central Florida into the future.
“In order to make that happen, we need to be able to step across the aisle,” he said.
Keith Perry
Rod Smith
