ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Matt Tito says that when he told Republican officials in Tallahassee earlier this year that he wanted to run in the Florida House District 68 seat currently held by St. Petersburg Democrat Ben Diamond, he was told he wasn’t going to get much if any financial backing from the party. That is because the district, which covers much of northern St. Petersburg, is considered solidly Democratic-leaning.
But Tito, a 33-year-old Long Island native and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, says he’s undaunted, and has now knocked on more than 15,000 doors in the district since June — mostly at homes occupied by Democratic and non-party-affiliated voters.
“After three months of working my butt off and doing some polling in the area, this race is within striking distance and it’s very tight,” he said.
The Republican Party of Florida is now helping him out. The party sent out a mailer to households in the district last week blasting Diamond for allegedly siding with insurance companies because of his opposition to a bill that would protect Floridians’ generic privacy from life insurance companies.
Diamond did oppose that bill during the 2019 session (which passed in the House but was never heard in the Senate), but voted for the legislation during the 2020 session.
While Democrats remain the minority in the state House in Tallahassee, Diamond says there’s a lot of work to be done on the issues he cares about, such as improving “traditional” public schools, providing for more affordable housing in St. Pete, and working on protecting the environment from the impacts of climate change.
On climate change, Diamond said, “We need a statewide strategy and we need to come together in a bipartisan way to address that.”
Tito acknowledged that “there’s something going on with the climate.”
When asked if he supports proposals that cities like St. Petersburg have made to attempt to reach 100 percent renewable energy within the next few decades, Tito said he believes that technology will lead the way and touts his support for electric vehicles.
And he’s not an automatic no when asked about supporting Medicaid expansion (Florida is one of only 12 states that has not adopted expansion as part of getting more people insured under the Affordable Care Act). “I’d like to take a look at it,” he said.
Diamond, who turns 41 on Friday, has been outspoken this summer in criticizing Gov. Ron DeSantis for not only declining Democratic Party calls for a special session to deal with the problems with the state’s unemployment website and the economic fallout from COVID-19, but also for going several months without having a Cabinet meeting in Tallahassee.
“We need to get back to work and get these problems fixed for the constituents that we serve,” he said.
One issue where these two candidates differ dramatically is regarding DeSantis’s recent call for legislation that would crack down on “disorderly” protests.
“I talk to the small businesses down here and tourism is down dramatically,” Tito told Spectrum Bay News on Tuesday across the street from Beach Drive, the site of a much viewed confrontation between protesters and diners last month.
“I talk to voters in the district, and we have this brand new $80 million Pier right behind me and nobody wants to bring their families down here,” Tito said. “They don’t feel safe. They don’t feel secure. And that’s not right, and I’d like for one — just one politician in this area — to speak out against riots.
"But they won’t do it for political gain. I’m for safety and security. I’m the only candidate talking about it.”
Diamond doesn’t think much of the governor’s proposal, which he labeled more like “talking points” than legislation.
“This is election year politics where we’re playing the politics of fear,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time talking to people protesting and listening to people in law enforcement. The people in this community who are doing that (protesting) are doing that peacefully.
"I mean, obviously we’ve had an incident here or there but again, I give tremendous credit to our police Chief Holloway and to our law enforcement officers in our Sheriff’s Department.”
Diamond has raised more than $300,000 in the race, ten times the amount of campaign cash that Tito has. He has plenty of incentive to stick around in Tallahassee, as he was named last year to lead the House Democratic Caucus as their Leader for the 2022-2024 term.
Tito said he’s a “servant leader” who promises to bring positive change to the community.
“I’m going to represent the people of this district in a way that they haven’t been represented in the past,” he said.
In addition to much of northern St. Petersburg, House District 68 also includes parts of Pinellas Park, Lealman and the Feather Sound area. Thirty-eight percent of the voters in the district are registered as Democrats vs. 32 percent registered Republicans and 28 percent non-party-affiliated.