As Democratic legislative candidate Ashley Brundage campaigns door to door, one issue keeps coming up: the property insurance crisis.
Property insurance is becoming unaffordable for many Florida homeowners, Brundage says, and most of the blame for that goes to the Florida Legislature. When the legislators held a special session last year to address the crisis, they didn’t fix the problem, they made it worse, Brundage said Tuesday (9/10) on WMNF WaveMakers with Janet & Tom.
Instead, lawmakers passed a $1 billion bailout of the insurance industry with no transparency or accountability, said Brudage. Her opponent, incumbent Republican Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman, voted for the legislation. “Our prices shouldn’t be as out of control as they are,” Brundage said.
Brundage, a former Republican who won the Democratic nomination for House District 65 last month with 81 percent of the vote, said the Legislature needs to reform Florida’s property insurance laws to require companies to spread the risks throughout the country.
As a former investment adviser, Brundage said, she would help clients mitigate risks and she would put those same skills to work as a lawmakers. Pittman, she says, is in the pocket of insurance companies that fund her campaign.
Brundage, former national vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion for PNC Bank, would be the first transgender person ever elected to the Florida Legislature. That alone would have a big impact on legislative debates on some of the big culture war issues in Tallahassee. But how she identifies, she says, has nothing to do with the skills she brings to the job.
Brundage finds it ironic that Gov. Ron DeSantis has attacked and marginalized DEI initiatives yet gave her an award for her work helping private companies develop sound DEI policies. Companies understand that diversity, equity and inclusion is important because it helps their own bottom line, Brundage said.
Now, Brundage says, DeSantis has said he would never have given her the award if he knew she was transgender and he wants to remove the award it from the state’s website. “If he really wants to remove me as a winner he needs to pry that (award) from my dead, cold hands,” Brundage said.
Hear the entire conversation by clicking the link below, going to the WaveMakers archives or by searching for WMNF WaveMakers wherever you listen to podcasts.
