It’s extraordinary just how wide the gap in qualifications and know-how is that separates the candidates vying for the vitally important post of Florida commissioner of agriculture and consumer services. Indeed, voters might find it jarring, if not insulting, that one of the candidates, representing one of the state’s major political parties no less, could so dramatically fail to measure up to the job.
The commissioner, lording over a $376 million department budget, oversees Florida’s largest industry after tourism. He guards against egregious business practices aimed at consumers. And as a member of the Cabinet that also includes the governor, attorney general and chief financial officer, he votes regularly on land-development issues.
The Republican candidate and incumbent, Charles Bronson, more or less appears up to the job. That’s something we couldn’t say four years ago, when we chose not to endorse him. Mr. Bronson then appeared little more than a cheerleader for farmers and ranchers, failing to also focus on regulating their business practices and protecting consumers.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bronson still doesn’t see the need to require certain standards of those working the land, such as setting specific limits for fertilizer runoff. “I favor voluntary programs,” he says. But Mr. Bronson, raised in a ranching family and formerly chairman of the agriculture and natural resources committees in the state Senate, has become more sophisticated in his approach to a breadth of issues. He shows a strong understanding of the challenges posed by international markets and crop viruses. He says there’s a pressing need for greater food inspections.
And Mr. Bronson challenges voters to hold him accountable. Four years from now, he says, judge him on whether he helps boost agricultural sales to $100 billion and on whether the state is heavily involved in developing and using new technologies like making ethanol from crop residues.
Judging his opponent’s candidacy as anything but awkward would be a stretch. Democrat Eric Copeland, a South Florida attorney and tax consultant who says his growing up 10 minutes from corn fields somehow helps qualify him for the job, dropped plans to run for the state’s chief financial officer to contest Mr. Bronson. But Mr. Copeland, who’s never held public office, little appreciates the statewide office he says he covets.
He shows little to no knowledge of the threat factory farms can pose to the environment, for example, and says he’s “not sure [he’s] done enough research regarding regulation of the agriculture industry.” Mr. Copeland says the department should do more on consumer affairs — an area he accuses Mr. Bronson of neglecting. But Mr. Copeland says he doesn’t know how many staffers the department employs on consumer affairs.
That says a lot.
The Sentinel endorses Charles Bronson for commissioner of agriculture and consumer services.
