La Gaceta Endorsements for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Election

U.S. Senate
Incumbent U.S. Senator Ashley Moody is running for this office for the first time, having been appointed by Governor DeSantis to the seat to replace Marco Rubio, who wanted to ruin the office of Secretary of State. Moody got the appointment after she turned a blind eye to the Hope Florida steal as Florida’s attorney general. Loyalty has its rewards. As a U.S. senator, she has supported Donald Trump’s agenda and his appointments, with one notable exception. She voted for an amendment that would have prevented the president from paying January 6 rioters who were convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers from the Anti-Weaponization Fund.
We want a Senate that will function as our founding fathers intended, as a check and balance against the Executive Branch and to ensure appointed judges are well qualified. Moody and the Republicans have proven they cannot do that.
Democrat Angie Nixon has been a state representative since 2020. She is a union organizer and is married. Between her and her husband, they have five children. She will push for Medicare for all, free childcare, ending mass incarcerations and deportations, and fighting global warming. She will definitely offer resistance to Donald Trump’s agenda and his appointments.
La Gaceta endorses Angie Nixon for U.S. Senate.

Governor
But you can’t guess who we will endorse for governor. We will cut through the suspense. We are backing Democrat David Jolly and his running mate Gwen Graham.
Florida has been completely controlled by Republicans for too long. This total control has led to corruption that will only be addressed with a two-party government. Having a Democrat governor and a Republican House and Senate will create the checks and balances that are needed to stop the stealing – unscrupulous land deals, no bid contracts, using our university presidency and other positions as payoff for Republican politicians, and of course, there is Hope Florida.
David Jolly is a smart, thoughtful, decent individual who wants the best for this state.
He’s got our vote.

State Senate
District 14
This is a rematch from earlier this year, except this time there is an incumbent. Democratic State Senator Brian Nathan is being challenged by Republican State Representative Josie Tomkow, who is serving as state representative for a district in Polk County. Senate District 14 covers much of South Tampa, West Hillsborough and New Tampa. We know Tomkow is the wrong choice because her ads are not about her voting record. In fact, it’s the opposite. She advertises that she wants to invest in transportation and rein in development, but she voted to cut local funds to pay for transportation investment and she supports preempting local controls over development and sprawl for state control, which is just a green light to developers to build, build, build.
Nathan is a union leader and a Navy vet who understands the pressure working families are feeling. He wants to lower your electric and insurance bills. He wants to stop shifting the tax burden from big corporations to working families, expand healthcare and fund our public schools.
La Gaceta endorses Brian Nathan.

District 20
Republican State Senator Jim Boyd is the incumbent. He’s been in the Legislature since 2010. He is the current majority leader in the Senate. If you like the way things are going in Florida, vote for Boyd because he’s been in a position to do something about it. If you think it’s time for a change, vote for the Democrat, Gerald Baldi. He’s got a background in financial services, banking, advertising and real estate. He is now a community organizer who wants the State Government to stop preempting home rule so developers can have their way. Bad development is ruining Southeast Hillsborough County and Manatee, which is covered by the district.
La Gaceta endorses Gerald Baldi.

State Representative
District 64

Easy pick. We are a big fan of Democrat Luis Salazar. He is ready to fight the insurance companies and electric utilities. He wants to cap price increases and make the State do its job regulating these regulated industries instead of backing their evil plan to fleece Floridians of all of their money. The Republican, Dan Weldon, will be just another yes vote for Republican leadership that is ruining this beautiful state and hurting the middle class.
La Gaceta endorses Luis Salazar.

District 65
Incumbent Republican State Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman has broken ranks with Governor Ronald DeSantis. She tried to hold the governor accountable for the HOPE Florida steal, she opposed him on his poorly thought-out property tax reform and voted against the six-week abortion ban.
The governor doesn’t like her. That means we do. She’s got backbone and wants what’s right for her South Tampa district. She also wants to make health insurance more responsive to the consumer and to strengthen public schools instead of robbing them to fund private schools. That’s why the teachers union supports her.
Her opponent is Democrat Ben Braver. He is very progressive and to the far left, which is a little out of step with South Tampa. We appreciate many of his positions, but Pittman is the stronger candidate.
La Gaceta endorses Karen Gonzalez Pittman.

District 66
Republican State Representative Traci Koster is being challenged by Democrat Jose “Dante” Sanchez Sanchez. We like Koster and believe she has good intentions, but she doesn’t show the independence of Gonzalez Pittman, although she did challenge DeSantis over the six-week abortion ban.
Sanchez Sanchez is promising change that we need, expanding Medicaid, raising teacher pay and addressing affordability problems. He is an Air Force vet and owns an electrical contracting company.
Once again, we are voting for change.
La Gaceta endorses Jose “Dante” Sanchez Sanchez.

District 67
Democrat Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera is running for this New Tampa, North Tampa seat, hoping to replace Fentrice Driskell, who is now a state senator.
His opponent, Republican Lisette Bonano, has at the top of her agenda to keep boys in boys’ locker rooms and girls and girls’ locker rooms. She is for fewer vaccines, more data centers and no residential property taxes.
Viera is a tested elected official who cares about his community and supports improving our infrastructure, improving public schools and increasing public safety revenue sources. He is especially passionate about helping those with intellectual disabilities.
La Gaceta endorses Luis Viera.

District 68
Republican Ryan Gil is an East Hillsborough County farmer whose family has been in the area for over 100 years. Democrat Tony Smith us a former firefighter/paramedic, teacher and worked for the Department of Children and Family Services.
Gil offers the typical GOP lines. Cut taxes but more investment in farms and transportation. He is for weakening vaccination schedules and cutting regulations.
Cutting regulations on development is one guaranteed way to lose our farms to development.
Smith offers experience we need in Tallahassee. Teachers need a champion, children need vaccines and healthcare, electric and insurance companies need more regulation, not less.
La Gaceta endorses Tony Smith.

District 70
Republican incumbent Michael Owen is being challenged by Luther Keith Wilkins. The district centers around Sun City Center and includes parts of Manatee and Apollo Beach. It’s a very conservative district, and while Owen and I disagree on many issues, he is approachable and listens. Owen is an attorney.
Wilkins wants change in Tallahassee. He wants to expand Medicare, protect our environment and defend home rule. He served in the Army and National Guard and is an insurance agent.
Owen is a better fit for the conservative district.
La Gaceta endorses Michael Owen

School Board
District 2 – Nonpartisan
This district covers South Tampa and parts of East Hillsborough County. Brittany Lyssy is a young mother, an attorney and the former chair of the Hillsborough County Young Republicans. She is sharp, presents well, but in the past, she supported vouchers and charter schools. We want a School Board member focused on making public schools great, not expanding alternatives to public schools.
Daniela Simic is our pick. She has a long resume in education. She knows the district’s strengths and more importantly, its weaknesses. She also worked in other districts and in private business, which helps her to bring in new and different ideas. She has the skills to work well with fellow board members and she has the confidence of the teachers’ union. She also has a child in a local public school. She is passionate about education, a good listener and smart.

District 6 – Nonpartisan
Incumbent Karen Perez is being challenged by Kenneth “Ken” Gay While the race is nonpartisan, party affiliation sometimes provides more clarity. Perez is a Democrat being challenged by Gay, a Republican.
Gay has been a teacher for close to four decades and is now retired. He ran for School Board before. He sees one of the challenges is creating an environment where teachers can enjoy their job, feel safe and feel appreciated. Low pay isn’t the only reason people are leaving the profession.
We endorse Karen Perez. She is a strong advocate for underserved children in the district. She is fiscally responsible. As a clinical social worker, she knows the importance of addressing mental health issues of students. She was first elected in 2018 and provides a unique perspective on the Board.

Hillsborough County Referendums
No. 1 Providing For An Elected, Rather Than Appointed Superintendent Of Schools.
Currently, our School Board hires a superintendent of schools. We have seen the process several times. The board either hires someone currently working for the school district or there is a search where several candidates are selected to be interviewed and there is a public process to narrow down the candidates until one is chosen. The result is that the superintendent is always an education professional with many years of service and has been well vetted by the School Board and different groups that take interest in public education.
This referendum changes this process to one where the superintendent would be elected, starting in the 2028 presidential general election cycle. The race would be partisan. The term would be four years.
We are opposed to this. We don’t need more partisanship in our schools. We don’t need a political hack as superintendent. We don’t need big money political donations and hard-to-identify PAC-funded candidates.
La Gaceta endorses a NO vote on No. 1.

No. 2 Amending The County Charter To Increase The Number Of County Commissioners, All Elected From Single Member Districts.
This increases the number of county commissioners from seven to nine and changes their makeup from three countywide and four from single-member districts to all nine being elected in from single-member districts. Once the county population tops 2.5 million, the number of commissioners would increase from nine to 11.
We have advocated for more county commissioners for three decades. American democracy was designed to grow and change as our populations grew. Territories became states. States carved up their real estate into counties. Counties split up into more counties as populations grew. Areas of dense population became cities.
In Florida, every county starts off with five districts of equal population. A county commissioner must reside in a specific district but is elected countywide.
The default kept minorities from being elected and was often changed as population became more diverse. There are 40 Florida counties that still maintain this original design and 27 have modified over time. The 40 are mostly less-populated counties with the exceptions of Polk, Lee and Osceola (Polk has only had one Black county commissioner in 165 years). Hillsborough went with its current seven-member system in 1985 after a corruption scandal sent a majority of the Commission to prison. Hillsborough County’s population in 1985 was 756,424. Today, our population is 1,577,032.
Today, an at-large county commissioner represents a larger population than the governors of 12 states. A single-member county commissioner represents around 400,000 people.
Hillsborough County is unique in the nation because we stopped forming cities in May of 1925 when Temple Terrace was incorporated. Brandon, Ruskin and Carrollwood should have become cities but did not. Because of this lack of cities, Hillsborough County has the highest population of people with only a county government, approximately 1.05 million.
In Tampa, a resident has a single-member City Council person to go to and three at-large council members. They also have a mayor and a single-member county commissioner and three countywide county commissioners. They have elected officials who live close by and are intimate with the areas they serve because the areas and populations are smaller. For the 1.05 million in the unincorporated county, the closest elected official to them is the single-member commissioner who represents 400,000. A single-member district can be 30 miles across and take over an hour to navigate by car from one side to the other.
We support growing the County Commission. It lowers the population per district, promotes more diversity, makes a district election more open to grassroots efforts and promotes diversity of race and ethnicity and gives more geographic balance to the county’s decisions and spending.
Local governments should be close to the people and this change accomplishes this.
The argument against the change is that since all are single-member districts, a voter or a community cannot elect a majority to the County Commission. This is true, but we have other forms of government that operate under this design – Florida Legislature and the U.S. Congress.
Some argue that government will be hyper parochial and that no one will have a countywide vision. We would argue back that the commissioners would have to work together or no one would get funding for their local projects. Also, the vote for chairman would create a forum for selecting a leader who does have a vision for the other districts. We also have a county administrator whose job is to have a countywide vision.
Former County Commissioner Mariella Smith came to us and said that in her role as a community activist, she felt the leverage of having four commissioners needing votes from her district made them more prone to listen than if only one needed their vote.
While we understand the concept, commissioners more often than not ignore community activists, even when they live in the district.
La Gaceta encourages a YES vote on No. 2.

No. 3 One-half-cent Sales Surtax For Public School Air Conditioning And Capital Improvements
This was first approved by the public a decade ago when there were several schools suffering with broken HVAC systems. The district had not kept up with maintenance due to lack of funding. The tax helped the situation and our kids didn’t have to go to non-air-conditioned schools.
Funding is still a problem. HVAC systems cost a fortune as do new roofs, upgraded electrical service and a host of other things that go wrong as facilities age.
We support our public schools and La Gaceta votes YES on No. 3

Amendments
No. 1 Constitutional Amendment
Budget Stabilization Fund
The amendment would increase the money retained in the Budget Stabilization Fund from 10 percent to 25 percent of general revenue collections.
The fund has been used twice since it was set up in 1992 when State revenues drastically declined during bad economic times.
The question is, do we need an emergency backup fund of 10 percent of the budget or 25 percent of the budget? We believe 10 percent is enough. We also think this is the wrong economy to expand our savings account. Floridians are facing tough economic times. Using their tax money for a savings account instead of needs is tone deaf to people’s struggles.
To get to the 25 percent, there would be mandatory annual deposits of $750 million until the cap is reached. Withdrawals from the fund would require two-thirds legislative approval. We like the two-thirds part, but the amount of money is too much at the wrong time.
La Gaceta recommends a NO vote.

No. 2 Constitutional Amendment
The Exemption of Tangible Personal Property on Agricultural Land from Taxation
This amendment would exempt tangible personal property habitually located or typically present on land classified as agricultural, used in the production of agricultural products or for agritourism activities.
Farmers already receive tax breaks and some receive subsidies, low interest rates and price supports. Greenbelt exempts qualified farms from much of their property taxes. This would further reduce their contribution to paying for government. We are not convinced that this is needed. Much of Florida’s agriculture production is from big corporations. Sugar is a big business, as is tree farming for pulp. Both are very destructive to our environment and have cost taxpayers millions to repair past damages. Big Sugar and Big Pulp have plenty of money to pay lobbyists and lawyers to manipulate the system in their favor.
If the amendment were limited to family farmers, as we have here in East Hillsborough County where strawberries are king, we would have an easier time supporting the amendment, but that is not the case.
We are also troubled by the exemption for agritourism tangible personal property. Agritourism includes wedding and event venues on agricultural property. Also, wine tastings are part of agritourism. This type of use is already shielded from many local zoning rules, so they are already getting a competitive advantage.
Some of the tangible personal property that would be exempt includes tractors, implements, irrigation equipment, milking machines, washing and cooling machinery, and unlicensed vehicles.
La Gaceta will vote NO on Amendment 2.

No. 3 Constitutional Amendment
Increased Homestead Exemption, Lower Cap on Increase in Non-Homestead Property Assessments
The amendment increases the homestead exemption, for all non-school taxes, to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 and adjusts for inflation thereafter.
The amendment reduces the annual cap on assessments increases for non-homestead properties from 10 percent to 5 percent.
New Florida residents buying a house and homesteading it will receive the existing homestead exemption when they qualify for it, with the increased homestead exemption beginning with the fifth year of exemption.
There are a lot of things wrong with this amendment.
It changes the fundamental way that we have funded local governments since 1830, which was even before Florida was a state.
It eliminates a huge portion of local government revenue with no replacement, and we promise you that local governments will find ways to replace those losses. Whether it is more fees, more sales taxes or increased cost of utilities, this will eventually make Florida’s taxation system more regressive. The poor and middle class will eventually pay more. The rich will pay less.
The Legislature put this on the ballot with no discussion, no public input, no studies or research and no thought on how to help people with the greatest needs.
Personally, this will make me exempt from most property taxes except for schools, but I am also paying far less in property taxes than most because I’ve been in my home since 1998. I am taxed on about half of my market value. I don’t need this break. Renters need to break, but they won’t get much help. Instead of the potential increase in taxable value being capped at 10 percent, it will be 5 percent. This might be a small savings for a renter, but it isn’t much.
There are also some unintended consequences if this passes. Government could end up zoning far more multifamily properties over single-family homes. Since rentals will pay more property taxes than homesteaded homes, government would benefit by getting rid of its single-family home neighborhoods. We already see this in Tampa, which is currently half-renters/half-owners. This amendment could speed up and expand the conversion of properties to rentals.
Fees to use fields for little leagues will likely drastically increase. Parking rates will go up. Impact fees will increase. Charges for inspections will be inflated. Permits will cost more. Some services could be cut. Will the capacity of animal shelters be capped, causing no-kill policies to change?
There are more questions than answers with this amendment.
Even with all the negatives, we are tempted to vote yes. The Rays deal is a slap in the face to taxpayers. The City of Tampa wastes money on no-bid contractors, higher pay rates than other governments and a bloated bureaucracy filled with communication personnel who spend their time spinning the mayor’s bad policies.
Mayor Castor is campaigning against the amendment by threatening more and new fees, but under the current revenue stream, she has increased water rates every year, plus increased parking fees and charges huge stormwater fees to commercial properties.
In some ways the amendment could rein in wasteful spending, but sometimes the wasteful spending remains and the true needs are cut.
La Gaceta will vote NO on amendment 3

Judge/Justice Retension

Shall Justice Carlos G. Muñiz of the Supreme Court be retained in office?
Our answer is a big NO.
Muñiz was appointed to the state’s highest court by Governor DeSantis, even though he has never served as a judge in a lower court. He is a political hack who knows more about Republican playbook than the Judicial Conduct and Ethics book. His former bosses were Betsy DeVos, Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio and Jim Greer. He learned the worst from each of these bad actors. We are going to vote HELL NO.

Shall Judge Drew Atkinson of the Second District Court of Appeal be retained in office?
Atkinson is certainly conservative but is low key and has avoided scandal or controversy. We have endorsed a yes vote on him in the past even though we disagree with many of his positions. But it’s time for a change. Florida is broke and its higher courts are becoming part of the problem. In much of his early career, he served in some positions pushing partisan issues.
La Gaceta will vote NO on his retention.

Shall Judge Morris Silberman of the Second District Court of Appeal be retained in office?
He is well respected by his peers. He received a 90 percent retain vote in Bar polling compared to a 76 percent retain vote for his peer, Judge Atkinson. We have voted yes on Silberman in the past and will vote YES again.

Shall Judge Daniel H. Sleet of the Second District Court of Appeal be retained in office?
Sleet served as a Circuit Judge in Hillsborough County before being elevated to the higher court. His background isn’t as political as some mentioned above, but he is conservative. He received high marks from lawyers and seems to be a professional judge.
We will vote YES on retention.

Shall Judge Andrea Teves Smith of the Second District Court of Appeal be retained in office?
She received an 82 percent retain vote in the Bar poll, has broad experience, good judicial temperament and has worked to improve the justice system. Her heritage is Filipino and is the first Asian Pacific Islander to serve on the appellate court.
We will vote YES on retention.