Election 2018: Harrell, Levy battle for State Senate District 25

Oct. 16--STUART

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As Florida faces algae blooms, red tide, rising sea levels and intensifying hurricanes, the environment has become a major focus of the race for State Senate District 25, the seat from which Senate President Joe Negron is retiring.

Longtime Republican State Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, CEO of a health information technology advisory firm, and Stuart physician Robert Levy, a Democrat, each say they have the better approach to safeguard the rivers, estuaries and coastline of the district, which includes Martin and St. Lucie counties and a large swath of northern Palm Beach County.

In Levy's view, the GOP-controlled Legislature "has done nothing but destroy the environment." The state needs full funding for long-term efforts to clean up the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon and needs a Legislature that prevents the governor from shifting money to other priorities, and that makes sure competent people are appointed to water management districts.

What undercuts Harrell's professed environmental commitment, Levy said, is that in 16 years in the Legislature, she was never on an environmental committee and took contributions from the sugar industry.

On other issues, Levy would support a living wage for all Floridians, and "common-sense gun safety laws," such as banning bump stocks, barring gun sales to people under 21, and taking guns from people with a history of domestic abuse. He opposes arming teachers. "The answer is, there are too many guns. We need to ban weapons of war," he said.

Levy, 64, who sold one of the largest medical groups in St. Lucie County 20 years ago and practices at Volunteers in Medicine, also lists healthcare as a top priority. He would expand Medicaid and preserve Obamacare to ensure access to healthcare and he'd protect abortion rights. "We need someone to act on behalf of patients, not lobbyists and businesses," he said.

He wants to initiate a roundtable discussion on healthcare reform with small business owners, practicing physicians and insurance providers to find common ground, in a state whose leadership has worked to stifle the Affordable Care Act, he said.

Harrell, 75, served as a state representative from 2000 to 2008, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008 and was elected a state representative again in 2010. Prior to being CEO of her current company, Health IT Strategies, she was business manager for her husband's medical practice and CEO of Breast Imaging Center, Inc. She previously served as a high school Spanish teacher and a community college Latin American History instructor.

She is on the boards of Education Foundation of Martin County and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.

Harrell opposes expanding Medicaid. She says that would move it beyond being a traditional safety net for the disadvantaged and turn it into an entitlement program. "For able-bodied adults, the best way to provide quality health care is through quality employment, high-paying jobs and a great economy," she said.

On gun control, she says weapons should be taken from the mentally ill, but says people under 21 shouldn't be barred from owning guns. She supports arming teachers and opposes banning assault weapons.

The top issue confronting the district is how to control "the devastating releases from Lake Okeechobee and the impact they have on our environment and our economy," she said. She points to "significant success" in passing Legacy Florida, a bill she sponsored and which passed in 2016, which will put billions of dollars into reducing the releases, restoring the river and estuaries and building a reservoir south of the lake. A second bill, Legacy 2.0, would take more action toward lagoon restoration, monitoring, research and building infrastructure to limit the flow of nutrients into the watershed, she said.

In response to Levy's comments, she said committee selections are up to the Speaker of the House. At one point she requested to be on environment-related committees but was not named to them, Harrell said.

Nonetheless, she has been involved since 2000 in environmental issues, she said, including working with the St. Lucie Issues Team to identify and rank needed environmental projects and seek funding. The only sugar industry contributions she took were from companies such as citrus farmers or transportation firms, which she did not realize were owned by big sugar companies, she said.

"I have tried to be extremely careful not to take money from sugar," she said. "I have never taken it knowingly or directly."

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