By CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY, NewsSun.com
SEBRING — Loranne Ausley, Democratic candidate for Florida Chief Financial Officer, spoke at a fundraiser held by the Democratic Women’s Club Sunday night at the Quality Inn in Sebring.
Ausley, who is a sixth-generation Floridian and former member of the state House of Representatives who served from 2000-2008 representing Leon and Jefferson counties, said she is excited about the race.
She said she is running because she believes in a life of public service.
After graduating from Randolph-Macon Women’s College and law school at Washington & Lee University in Virginia, she first practiced law in Miami, then worked for a time at the Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development in Washington.
Returning to Florida, Ausley worked in the administrations of Bob Graham, Lawton Chiles and Buddy McKay, for whom she was chief-of-staff.
According to campaign literature, as a State Representative Ausley was the lead sponsor of legislation that created the Children and Youth Cabinet and was appointed by two successive Republican Speakers of the House to serve on the cabinet. She has also served as the chair of Whole Child Leon since 2004.
In 2009, Ausley was selected by Alex Sink, the current CFO who is a Democratic candidate for governor, to serve as chair of the Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, a $300 million public/private institution providing health insurance for children in Florida.
“I feel blessed to live in Florida,” she said. “That’s what drives me, and finding a way solve problems practically.”
Ausley said the basic American dream — a home, a job, health care and education — “is slipping away. People are staying in dead-end jobs just for the health care.
“It is our homes in foreclosure, our kids in over-crowded classrooms. How did this happen?”
Looking out over the small but attentive audience Ausley said, “It was a failure to invest in the long-term, and spending too much in the short run.”
For example, she cited the legislature for spending $6 million on a plane hanger, and $100 million on a private prison.
“The legislature doesn’t recognize problems and operates with smoke and mirrors,” she said. “They use non-recurring money to pay recurring debts, which is like using your VISA card to pay off your Master Card.
“(Federal) stimulus dollars are the only reason the budget was balanced. Stimulus dollars the Republican members protested. Trust funds have been raided and fiscal conservatives have doubled fees for drivers’ licenses and new car registrations, impacting the people who can least afford it.
“It is time to fight back,” she said as the audience applauded.
“Jeff Atwater (the Republican candidate for CFO), is the ultimate political insider,” Ausley said. “He was the architect of Senate Bill 6 (a proposed educational reform which targeted teachers and was vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist) and the proposed legislation to mandate women considering abortion to have a sonogram at their own cost.
“He is looking out for the banking and insurance industries, and meanwhile the Republican Party implodes.
“There is palpable anger and frustration out there, and how can we blame (the public)?”
Ausley said she has a special reason to understand the terror of having no health insurance.
Her son Will, now 7, was born after only 22 weeks of gestation weighing less than two pounds.
“It was touch and go, a long hard road managed with the power of prayer and fine medical help,” she said. “But we had good insurance, (access to) good medical (facilities) and even we had to fight and scream and crawl to get what we needed. We were blessed, very blessed. It’s a maze out there.”
This is one of the reasons, Ausley said, that she is driven to public service, “to leave behind something better than we found it.”
