Blake Forced Out of Florida State House Election
By SpaceCoastDaily // August 14, 2012
POLITICS
BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – Embattled Cocoa Mayor Michael Blake has withdrawn his bid for the Florida State House District 51 seat currently held by Republican Steven Crisafulli of Merritt Island.
Blake qualified for the Florida State House District 51 race last June, but then did not submit the proper documentation detailing his resignation as the current mayor of the city of Cocoa, which he must do under Florida’s “resign-to-run” law.
Blake has been mayor of Cocoa since 2004, and thus will term out at the end of this year.
Florida’s “resign-to-run” law was put in place to prevent politicians from perennially aiming for higher office without resigning their current elected positions. The statute says, in part, “No officer may qualify as a candidate for another state, district, county, or municipal public office if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other without resigning from the office he or she presently holds.”
“Voters deserve fair elections,” said Lenny Curry, Republican Party of Florida Chairman, in a a press release. “Mayor Blake did not properly qualify for office, and, as such, he should remove his name from the ballot to preserve the integrity of the electoral process,” said Curry.
The Florida State House District 51 encompasses the northern tip of Brevard County through part of Cocoa Beach and Rockledge.
