Florida House of Representatives District 53 candidate surveys, 2022
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This article shows responses from candidates in the 2022 election for Florida House of Representatives District 53 who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.
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Candidates and election results
General election
General election for Florida House of Representatives District 53
Jeff Holcomb defeated Keith Laufenberg in the general election for Florida House of Representatives District 53 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jeff Holcomb (R) | 70.1 | 50,650 |
 | Keith Laufenberg (D)  | 29.9 | 21,636 | |
| Total votes: 72,286 | |||
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Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses
Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
Survey responses from candidates in this race
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Keith Laufenberg (D)
We must come to terms with the facts about Vladimir Putin and realize he is a dictator, not the: "President of the Democratic Republic of Russia", as he claims. He is a liar, a cheater and a thief and rules as a dictator and Donald Trump, when he was still P.O.T.U.S. said: he had: "fallen in love Putin." Trump wants to become an Autocrat like Putin and we need to be aware of these facts, because we are dangerously walking a tightrope with Trump, who, is still, to this day, April 24, 2022, attempting to demean our present President and "set up" his own coming Autocracy. ?"
Change the discussion concerning the environmental future of America to one that allows the truth & realities of the future horrors of climate change to be discussed if we don't "wake up" and change what we (USA) are not doing and what we must do or die. A wise old Indian once said: "Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice. If you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die. - John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota, 1932. Let this not happen because it will if we continue the path on which we, literally, are on.
We must have the freedom to choose if we will be a member of a union and have the rights that all workers have or be sublimated to the level of a commodity. I will rid the state of this rancid sham known as the "Right to Work law," as well as make a living minimum wage of twenty dollars an hour. The future bodes unwell for us, as the interest rates are rising quickly even as food prices, and almost all other necessities are leading the way brutally making another "unsustainable" market, for just the sustainable necessities we must all have just to survive!
Change the discussion concerning the environmental future of America to one that allows the truth & realities of the future horrors of climate change to be discussed if we don't "wake up" and change what we (USA) are not doing and what we must do or die. A wise old Indian once said: "Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice. If you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die. - John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota, 1932. Let this not happen because it will if we continue the path on which we, literally, are on.
We must have the freedom to choose if we will be a member of a union and have the rights that all workers have or be sublimated to the level of a commodity. I will rid the state of this rancid sham known as the "Right to Work law," as well as make a living minimum wage of twenty dollars an hour. The future bodes unwell for us, as the interest rates are rising quickly even as food prices, and almost all other necessities are leading the way brutally making another "unsustainable" market, for just the sustainable necessities we must all have just to survive!
Keith Laufenberg (D)
I am against the death penalty, the wealthy paying no taxes, Pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies controlling the medical out-comes of almost everything medical, the power of the NRA & many others, simply because of the amount of money they pay out, usually to politicians. This corrupt, capitalist system we presently live under must become more even-handed and fair to all workers & people, not just the wealthy & "influential. Medical Marijuana should be legal, A POTUS declaring he will not provide his tax returns should be illegal. Schools, especially so-called "higher education," schools should be free to any and all human beings wishing to attend them. Mother Earth is alive but very sick and she is yelling, screaming and causing much to do & uproar about her illness because it is, indeed, the people occupying her who have provided the pounding, and bombing and reckless behavior that is very close to killing her. We must acknowledge these facts: that while she is still alive: and we must listen to her and do what she tells us we must do and not listen to anyone else, least of all anyone with no proof of their statements. We must institute a public policy that provides peace over war, love over hate, compassion over confrontation and freedom from any and all forms of tyranny against the freedom of the populations living in all countries, too be recognized as the rights of all human beings.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Many people but none more than Martin Luther King Jr. He was man who took up essential, good, honest, fair & absolutely necessary work and he was a great success, achieving credit for much, much less than he actually achieved. He deserved much, much more than he would ever actually get which was the ability to face harsh beatings, attacks by police dogs and policemen armed with hard, wooden nightsticks, being sprayed with firehoses and being put into jail cells for "causing a disturbance," by marching peacefully through innumerable, racist southern States.
Mlk's first march took place on March 7, 1965, and was organized locally by organizers as well as many well-known members of the civil rights movement, such as James Luther Bevel, Amelia Boynton, and many others. MLK Jr. and his protestors were attacked, physically by State troopers and county police in Selma, Alabama State troopers and county posse-men attacked large numbers of unarmed marchers with Billy clubs and tear gas after they crossed over the county line, and this event became known as Bloody Sunday.
MLK Jr. would continue and fight on, using non-violence to establish civil rights. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and to later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world and inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world, including MLK Jr.'s.
Both men practiced non-violence and both were assassinated for it: Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, Birla House, New Delhi, India, and MLK Jr was assassinated 20 years later, on April 5, 1968, a year in that also saw the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, two months after MLK's, on June 6, 1968.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
A book: Death of a King by Tavis Smiley and a film or documentary on MLK Jr.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Truth, knowledge and the ability to fix the broken problems we have under a broken Capitalist System that has, long ago, stopped working. We must bring peace and love to one another and stop fighting over money.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
I am not an office-holder and never have been. I believe the qualities needed should not be considered along the lines of what (political) degrees do you have. This automatically makes you think that you may be in need of some kind of a college degree which points toward understanding what sort of qualifications you may need, in order to even run for a political office when these very qualities should be not be considered as "successful" when you consider who it was who was the previous officeholder? Was he, or she, well-liked and "successful" because they met often with their constituents or because they were "wealthy?"
Keith Laufenberg (D)
To serve all constituents, equally and fairly and especially those citizens who have problems, both physical and mental and those who, through no fault of their own, are homeless or have money-problems and an inability to pay their rents, leases, hospital bills and/or food costs. We must act now and we must act fast.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
legacy's leave themselves.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
It was in Marine Corps, stationed at Cherry Point, South Carolina. I was just finishing a 5-mile forced march and had a back-pack full of boots and clothes and, as I stumbled past the finishing line I noticed an E-7, Gunny, I knew, leaning against a tree. He was crying and I approached him cautiously. He saw me and wiped at his face with an old tee-shirt. As I looked at him, he said: It just happened, in Texas, Dallas Texas. JFK, he was riding in the back seat of a limo."
"Wha' ... what happened Gunny?" I said, then glanced at my watch. It was a little after 1:30 in the afternoon.
He rubbed his face again. "JFK man, they shot him ... he's ... he's reportedly dead."
"Dead, JFK's dead?" I said, incredulously. It was a chilly day, late in November, in 1963.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
I was 8 years old in the 3rd grade, in San Antonio, Texas and I got my first paper route. I rolled them up and threw them from my bicycle to the homes I served. I kept the job for 5 years. We moved from Texas to Hyattsville, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. , and I was 13 years old, & going into the 7th grade. Being in a military family, we frequently moved.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace is a literary work mixed with chapters on history and philosophy by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It was first published by chapters then was published in its entirety in 1869. It's regarded as Tolstoy's finest literary achievements, by many, and remains an internationally praised classic of world literature.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
I don't think in fictional terms and don't wish to be spiderman or superman.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
"Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head," by B.J. Thomas.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Looking over my shoulder, backwards,
Keith Laufenberg (D)
The "ideal" relationship between a governor and the legislature would first of all be that both the governor and the legislature "understand" that it is the legislative representatives who have the power, indeed, duty to introduce and make laws: laws that their constituents have come to them with and expressed their desire to see it made into a law. The representatives will then discuss this with any committee that has a say in the ultimate decision(s) in such matters and have his (or her) say. If the representative then tells the citizen who proposed it to him that it didn't get enough "attention," the citizen can forget his "idea" or he can continue on to doing it himself. I, as a legislator, will help, honor and respect any citizen who comes to me with an idea, as all laws are born of ideas: ideas which can come from you, as well as me. In this country, the framers of the constitution were, at one time, citizens themselves who did just that: made new laws. Our constitution is, in fact the foundation of these laws: and I, as your district representative, will be there to do such as that: and, among the first laws I will propose are (1.) Universal Health Care (2.)Ban the "right to Work Law" (3.) Submit petitions that uphold bans on drilling and fracking in the Gulf and any other bill that endangers the natural resources of this great State of Florida or anything that endangers our environmental resources and/or assets. I hereby ask for your help, as citizens and voters to bring these "ideas," of mine and yours, to fruition & may peace and love come with them.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
We are stuck in an aberration of political parties; both of which are seemingly blurred beyond recognition and definition, as the Republican party struggles to make any common sense to any sane person when they speak of being Trumpers ....???? I have yet to hear any republican speak clearly of a man, Donald Trump, who so obviously wishes to be an authoritarian ruler and not a democratic one.
The State of Florida desperately needs someone like Al Gore to head up an environmental caucus to straighten out the coming environmental disasters that will naturally come as Mother Earth is attacked again and again, as those who will forever more worship their money and forget any damage to the earth, as long as they make more money.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
The unicameral system is more economical and offers greater responsibility to legislators. Legislators are more accountable to the public and their constituency because their position is a matter of public record. They are not able to urge opposite positions within the other house, however they, politicians, wish not to work themselves out of a job, a job they have not and, obviously, sill not, as Nebraska still, has the only unicameral State legislature in America.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Not in the least. And, hopefully, they will, subsequently, vote with their hearts and souls, at least enough to demand the truth before voting on anything and everything.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Well, I would much rather make a friend than an enemy, but however it goes, I will not purposely lie about anything so I may not make so many political "friends." If you have nothing to live for you have nothiong to die for and we should all have that.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Every 10 years, states redraw their legislative and congressional district lines following the census and as soon as they do communities change, and the Gerrymandering begins as the politicians yell that redistricting is critical for democracy: and that maps must be redrawn to ensure that districts are equally populated, comply with laws such as the Voting Rights Act, and are closely representative of a state’s population. Done right, redistricting is a chance to create maps that, in the words of John Adams, are an “exact portrait, a miniature” of the people as a whole, in any given State. But, wait, reality tells a different story where it becomes a process that is used to make maps that put a heavy hand on the scale to manufacture election outcomes not according to the voters' preferences, because the voters don't choose their representatives, as gerrymandering allows the politicians to choose their voters. This happens when the line-drawing is left to legislatures and it's always the one political party that controls the process, in 2022 a common occurrence that shows partisanship almost invariably take precedence over everything else. That produces maps where electoral results are virtually guaranteed even in years where the party that's drawing the maps did not even have a very good year.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Any committee that has reliable people who will tell the truth and vote before rendering any comments agreed upon by that committee, than yes, maybe.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
John Lewis.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
No.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Too many to count. Far too many have been by women, who filled out a petition of mine to run for the State Legislature. When thy came to address they stopped. The first two or three surprised me but after the third I never get surprised now. They were (are) homeless. I, (we the people) must address this, as well as anything else like this. It can't be too soon. I am writing this to be held to my word. Please let me know if I fail in this task to help these women and, so far, only one man (men have more difficulty admitting they are homeless.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
I don't really do jokes but, for humor's sake, I say this: "If Donald Trump's I.Q. was a couple points higher he'd be a baloney sandwich.
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Yes, especially in today's "insane" times. I have a deep-down "bad" feeling that we are entering far too many "civil wars," with so many communities that it is going too soon "overflow."
Keith Laufenberg (D)
Yes, but because of the political parties being so divided into partisanship these days compromise is something that very few politicians are willing to make. It is a terrible thing to hear about much less experience, as I have, many, many times when politics moves into the conversation, especially when one party is approaching a citizen with a hope in his mind and/or heart that the citizen is a member of his party because he is after a large number of blank petitions he wishes to have filled-in and signed by the registered voters section of the general public. And so, above all things policy-makers must move by their own hearts and souls and not by the political rhetoric that is bandied about, back and forth. We've had our civil wars; most of all, we need peace, at home as well as abroad.
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