Last night, in an effort to ward off an expected effort to sacrifice the seats of three Central Florida state legislators, the Orange County Republican Executive Committee, during their monthly meeting, voted unanimously to establish an independent campaign account to protect these three from perceived form of retaliation in an ongoing feud over the Florida House Speakership for the 2021 legislative term.
The three legislators are Rep. Bob Cortes (R-Longwood), district 30; Rep.WMike Miller (R-winter Park), District 47 and Rep. Rene Plasencia (R-Orlando), District 49. These three seats are expected battlegrounds, and members of OCREC voted to establish the account that is now untouchable by the RPOF. The dollar amount going into this fund has not yet been disclosed.
Lines were drawn earlier this year after support for expected Speaker Eric Eisnaugle (R-Gotha) started to wane after Rep. Blaise Ignolia (R-Spring Hill), and new elected RPOF Chairman, and a group of reformer freshman legislators began questioning the process of selecting the House Speaker. These actions should set the stage for a very interesting RPOF Quarterly meeting, starting today, in Tampa. Expect to hear much more regarding this matter in the days and weeks ahead.
