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Rick Scott sets special election for Alex Miller seat

in 2017/Top Headlines by

Gov. Rick Scott on Friday set the dates for the special elections to replace former state Rep. Alex Miller, the Sarasota Republican whose resignation became effective today.

The special primary election for House District 72 will be held on Dec. 5, and a special general election is set for next Feb. 13, Scott’s executive order says. 

Miller

That means the district, which includes Siesta Key and South Sarasota, will be unrepresented for more than half of the 2018 Legislative Session.

As of Friday afternoon, Miller’s information was removed from the House website, with “Representative–Special Election Pending” showing for HD 72.

Miller turned in her resignation from the House last week, citing family and business reasons.

“As a mother with two teenage boys who is the CEO of a rapidly growing business, I have come to the conclusion that I must spend more time at home than my service in the Legislature would allow,” she wrote in her letter.

Miller, who recently turned 44, is CEO of Mercedes Medical, a medical and laboratory supply company in Sarasota.

Less than an hour after her resignation became known, James Buchanan, son of Sarasota-area Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan, said he would run for the seat.

James Buchanan, also a Republican, had previously announced a run in House District 71, now held by term-limited state GOP Rep. Jim Boyd.

Before joining Florida Politics, journalist and attorney James Rosica was state government reporter for The Tampa Tribune. He attended journalism school in Washington, D.C., working at dailies and weekly papers in Philadelphia after graduation. Rosica joined the Tallahassee Democrat in 1997, later moving to the courts beat, where he reported on the 2000 presidential recount. In 2005, Rosica left journalism to attend law school in Philadelphia, afterwards working part time for a public-interest law firm. Returning to writing, he covered three legislative sessions in Tallahassee for The Associated Press, before joining the Tribune’s re-opened Tallahassee bureau in 2013. He can be reached at [email protected]

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