.State House Representative Ralph Massullo filed his papers to run for the Florida Senate recently. He claims he “stands up for conservative values” and “there is a new frontier to fight to defend those values.” Further, he states that “Florida’s success is the result of conservative principles in action and bold, decisive leadership.” He thinks “the massive federal overreach by the Biden Administration and the dysfunction of Washington D.C. threatens the progress we’ve made” so “that is why the Florida Senate should stand up for our conservative beliefs and push back against unconstitutional edicts.” What a mouthful of nothing burger—no facts, figures or legislative achievements are mentioned.
To determine what Massullo truly stands for, we simply need to review his voting record and recent public statements.
Let’s start with government overreach. Massullo complains about federal government overreach (the vaccination mandates), and yet he supports expanding the State's legislative authority to override decisions made by our local government officials: from County commissioners, city councilmen, to school boards. An authoritarian dictatorial leadership of this kind in our Senate is NOT grounded in constitutionally democratic values. We didn't vote for our local representatives to have their decisions simply overridden by the State Legislature.
Massullo's values about the sanctity and protection of life are equally disappointing. Massullo voted FOR militarizing schools with more guns to stop massacres rather than proposing common sense laws for gun safety and control.
And Massullo's stance on the response to the Covid19 pandemic is simply pandering to his base. It's not a 'rights' issue, as Massullo claims, it's a public health issue. His position has not only cost the lives of over 62,000 Floridians (837 in Citrus County), but it also threatens to hamper Florida's economic growth by discouraging people from entering the workforce.
Massullo has yet to show us that he has the courage to lead by voting principles over Party, humanity and service over self-interest, and constitutionally democratic values over his so called “conservative” authoritarian values.
As our State House Representative, he has NOT earned the privilege of serving as our State Senator. The edicts that his “conservative values and principles” offer are not the Constitutional values needed in our State Senate.
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