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Florida hasn’t had a lieutenant governor for well over nine months, and the pressure is on Gov. Rick Scott to finally get around to picking a replacement. After several candidates on a leaked short list publicly removed themselves from consideration, Scott seems to have expanded the search and according to the Miami Herald, Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Carlos Lopez-Cantera is now under consideration.
Lopez-Cantera has served as property appraiser since 2012, but also has a long history in the state legislature. He served as House Majority Leader from 2010 and 2012.
The Herald says that Scott and Lopez-Cantera met up over the weekend while Scott was in town attending the Three Kings parade and hit it off. Lopez-Cantera tellings hadn’t replied to any inquires about the possible consideration.
Lopez-Centera, born in Spain to Cuban parents and raised in Miami, would be Florida’s first Hispanic lieutenant governor, and might help Scott in Miami-Dade County. He lost Florida’s biggest county in 2010 to Democrat Alex Sink by a notable 14-point margin, and did about 3 percent worse that Charlie Crist, then running as a Republican, had in Miami-Dade in 2006.
Back in 2006, Lopez-Cantera publicly supported Crist’s primary opponent Tom Gallagher.
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