The race to replace Pam Bondi as Florida’s next Attorney General just became a two-person race as GOP State Representative Jay Fant is exiting the race to apply for commissioner of Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation.
With Commissioner Drew Breakspear resigning effective June 30th, Fant is setting his sights to replace Breakspear in hopes of renewing the confidence that CFO Jimmy Patronis had lost in Breakspear.
In a statement, Jay Fant explained that “I first decided to pursue elected office because I experienced first hand what wayward government policy does to business. I was running a small community bank during the Great Recession and Florida real estate crisis. Our company, like all banks and financial firms, suffered tremendously. The federal government intervened by passing a massive bank bailout that helped the largest banks and left the small community banks out in the cold. 64 banks in Florida alone, including ours, went out of business. Wall Street won. Main Street lost.”
Fant also detailed that “Businesses in Florida must operate on a level playing field, and our willingness to fight for that is vital to the success of free enterprise. These beliefs led me to run for the Florida House, and then last year to run for Attorney General. The recent opening for Commissioner of the Office of Financial Regulation, however, is the position most in line with my experience in banking, law and policymaking; I will seek that appointment.”
