Overby Addresses Jolly Reversal on Marriage Equality Ban
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pinellas County, FL: July 22, 2014 – In his ongoing commitment to promote dialogue about the issues that have been identified as a concern to the community, Lucas Overby addressed the recent reversal of his opponent’s support during the Special Election of the 2008 Florida Amendment that defined marriage as a union only between one man and one woman and that thus banned the creation of similar unions, such as civil unions or same-sex marriage.
In response to the revelation that Congressman Jolly now supports the equal treatment of same sex couples in the State of Florida, Lucas Overby stated, “Today, we learned that my opponent has come out in support of marriage equality in the State of Florida. I would like to personally thank him for making such an about-face on such an important issue in just a few months and welcome the Congressman to the conversation.”
Overby continued to address the surprising reversal of his opponent in the campaign to elect a U.S. House Representative in Florida’s 13th District to his extensive list of followers on social media, “As a life long equality advocate, I do not feel that the equal treatment of all people is an issue to be politicized, so I welcome the Congressman to the conversation. I look forward to debating the ways Pinellas County can lead the fight nationally for not only equal protection under the law for marriage rights, but also for adoption, employment, medical care, and the rest of the many battles along the way to true equality for all.”
Overby followed his invitation by stating, “At the end of the day, if the Religious Right, which supports my opponent, can put politics aside and join in the fight for equality it will be a massive win for the entire nation. So thank you to the district Republicans for joining with the Libertarians and the Democrats on this important issue.”
For further statements about this important issue, contact the Lucas Overby for Congress campaign.
Lucas Overby for Congress
1910 Drew Street
Clearwater, FL 33755
202-688-5549
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1910 Drew Street
Clearwater, FL 33755
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Probably not, but it is worth a try. They may consider it to be in their interests to reduce the Republican US House count by one.
It would clearly be more in their interest to run against Overby in 2016 with him as a freshman incumbent and the only Libertarian, as opposed to running against Jolly again. Once incumbents have a re-election under their belt they are a lot harder to knock off, and their winning percentage tends to become hard to surmount. See the wikipedia link above for what happens once the incumbents have been in there for a while.
Absolutely true. But a visit to the Democrats is probably a good idea also.
The Democratic Party apparatus will not do a damn thing for Overby. What Overby should focus on is winning over Democrats who are not hardcore Democrats (hardcore Democrats will not vote for him, even if there is no Democrat in the race), and also winning over registered voters from other minor parties (Green, Constitution, etc…), and, most importantly, winning over independents and non-voters. Libertarians do well among people who are registered as independents, and there are also a lot of people out there who are not registered to vote who would vote Libertarian if they bothered to register, and bothered to vote.
Lucas Overby seems like a good candidate as far as I can tell, and this is a great opportunity, since there is no other candidate in the race besides the Republican, so I’d like to see Libertarians around the country pour money into this race.
I would think he already has, but if not, yes, he should.
Given the relatively high number of Democrat voters, and the fact no Democrat is in the race, the first thing Overby should do is get his rear end over to Democrat headquarters and explore the possibility of them getting out their voters for him.
Exactly!
Good way to spend some of it could be to hire a ground team to register voters, get out the vote, talk to people one on one and in groups. Pair it up with the marijuana initiative and it could be a winning combination.
Paul said: “While it is still an uphill race, it certainly looks less impossible than almost any other US House race the LP has ever been in (that I know of).”
This is why libertarians around the country ought to pour money into this race.
It’s a fairly evenly split district:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida%27s_13th_congressional_district
2000 President George W. Bush 55% – Al Gore 46%[3]
2004 President George W. Bush 56% – John Kerry 44%[3]
2008 President John McCain 52% – Barack Obama 47%[3]
2012 President Barack Obama 50% – Mitt Romney 49%[4]
It’s been held by a succession of Republicans since 1983, but their winning percentages are not always huge. For example, in the special election:
Republican David Jolly 89,095 48.52%
Democratic Alex Sink 85,639 46.64%
Libertarian Lucas Overby 8,893 4.84%
And there is no Democrat running, while Jolly is a brand new member of Congress (only in office since this March). Incumbents are most vulnerable in their first re-election attempt.
While it is still an uphill race, it certainly looks less impossible than almost any other US House race the LP has ever been in (that I know of).
“Jed Ziggler
July 22, 2014 at 9:31 pm
Jolly’s getting desperate, and Overby slyly called him on it. Congressman Overby will be a wonderful representative of the people of Florida’s 13th district.”
I’d love to see this happen, but it is probably going to take some money, some hard work, and some smart political strategy to make it a reality.
I think it was a good press release, also. I expect big things from Lucas.
Jolly’s getting desperate, and Overby slyly called him on it. Congressman Overby will be a wonderful representative of the people of Florida’s 13th district.