The representative of the republican state tears Lesantis in the dispute of the candidacy

Tallahassee – The Republican State representative Debbie Mayfield of Melbourne was unleashed Wednesday against Governor Ron Desantis after his administration prevented him from qualifying to appear in a special election to replace the outgoing Senator Randy Fine .

On Wednesday, state elections officials informed Mayfield, a legislator who seeks to return to the Senate after being elected to the House in November, that his “name cannot appear” on the ballot for an election Special primary on April 1, citing part of the Florida Constitution which imposes mandate limits on legislators and elected officials on the level of the State.

The Constitution indicates that “no one may appear on the ballot for re-election” as a state representative, state senator, lieutenant-governor or any seat of the cabinet “if, at the end of the current mandate, the person will have served (or, for the resignation, would have served) in this office for eight consecutive years. »»

Mayfield served eight years in the Senate before leaving in November due to the mandate limits. She was elected in district 32 of the Chamber but decided to return to the Senate in the District of the Senate of the County of Brevard 19 after Fine announced her resignation to present herself for a siege of the Congress.

In a memo note in Mayfield on Wednesday, the director of the state elections, Maria Matthews, underlined the term-limited language.

“During the examination and consultation with advice concerning your candidacy for the district of the State Senate 19, the election division determined that your name cannot appear on the ballot of the special elections, because it violates article VI, article 4 of the Florida Constitution, “wrote Matthews.

Mayfield has filed documents to go to the special elections to succeed, a Republican of the County of Brevard who was elected in the Senate in November. Fine is running During a special election of April 1 for a headquarters of the congress which opened when the former American representative Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Was chosen as the national security advisor by President Donald Trump.

Mayfield accused of the orchestration of his disqualification of the race for the State Senate as reprisals because she supported Trump – not the Governor – during the presidential election of the GOP from last year .

“Today, Governor Desantis has used the executive branch to punish me for approving Donald J Trump to the presidency. He armed the Ministry of State, as was Joe Biden armed the Ministry of Justice against President Trump, “Mayfield said in a statement. “The law is on my side. We will fight for the inhabitants of Brevard on this subject as I have always done. »»

Mayfield told Florida news service that she intended to file a legal dispute at the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday. She underlined a previous legal dispute on the eligibility of a candidate who had served eight years at home.

The Secretary of State at the time of the previous case said that his role was limited to the examination of the candidate’s documents for accuracy, said Mayfield.

“The Secretary of State therefore does not have the power to disqualify me according to his opinion on the limits of the term. It is strictly if I have properly submitted the documents, if they were signed properly, if they were submitted in time. This is all her role, ”she told the information department.

Three other Republicans – Marcie Atkins, Mark Lightner III and Tim Thomas – and the Democrat Vance Ahrens qualified to stand in the Senate District Senate elections, according to the State Elections Division website. The qualification period for the race took place from 8 a.m. Monday to noon on Tuesday.

The dispute on Mayfield’s qualification has developed as Desantis is displayed against Chamber of Chamber Daniel Perez, R-Miami, and the president of the Senate, Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, for legislation aimed at carrying out Trump’s repression against illegal immigration.

Desantis last week threatened “Huge sums of money” to legislative candidates and governor in the republican primaries who slowed down with him in the immigration dispute, which led to a one -week confrontation between the governor and the legislative leaders.

In anticipation of the candidacy in the Senate District 19, Mayfield submitted his resignation in District 32 of the Chamber in June. Desantis has planned special primary elections in the Senate District 19 and the Chamber 32 District on April 1 and the special general elections on June 10.

Mayfield seemed to rely on a trial contesting the former representative of the State James Grant on Wednesday to re -election in 2018. Grant was elected for the first time in the House in 2010 and was re -elected by the following. But the legislators canceled the results of a 2014 election, resulting in a five -month interruption of the Chamber for subsidy. He won the chamber’s headquarters during a special election in 2015, but faced a question of whether the mandate limits should apply in 2018.

In the 2018 trial, the lawyers of the Secretary of State of the time, Ken Detzner, wrote that the constitutional amendment “is clear and without ambiguity” on the limits of the term.

“For an office holder to be called under article 4, it must be that the office holder will have served for eight consecutive years. Where, as here, there is a five -month vacancy during the office of the office holder, it cannot be said that the office holder will have served for eight consecutive years, “the lawyers of Detzner wrote. “The expression” for eight consecutive years “designates the service for all consecutive years. If the Constitution had been written differently, so that it imposed mandate limits where an office holder will have served “in eight consecutive years”, “the sense of the provision would be different”.

By Dara Kam, News Service of Florida