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Nov 3, 2009 8:13 am US/Eastern
Fl. Senator Dockery To Run For Governor
Challenging Attorney General Bill Mccollum For The Republican Nomination
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) ―
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Senator Paula Dockery
FlSenate.Gov
The race for Florida governor is about to get interesting. Florida State Sen. Paula Dockery says she will run for governor, challenging Attorney General Bill McCollum for the Republican nomination. The Republican Party of Florida had hoped to avoid a primary in the race to fill the seat Republican Gov. Crist is giving up after to run for U.S. Senate. Dockery says she plans to file paperwork Tuesday to enter the race.
Earlier this year, Republican leaders convinced Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson to stay out of the race after initially saying he would run. But the 48-year-old Dockery of Lakeland has said she's been encouraged to get into the race.
This past session, Dockery successfully fought a proposal to have the state buy 61 miles of rail from CSX Transportation Inc. for about a half-billion dollars to build an Orlando area commuter rail system. She said the proposal, which Crist supported, was a bad deal for the state and for the communities that would have had to deal with rerouted freight traffic.
Dockery has said she could use some of her personal wealth to get her campaign rolling. She is little known outside her district, but has said she's received encouragement to run from people around the state. She has been making appearances around Florida throughout the summer.
She is challenging one of the state's most prominent Republicans. McCollum served in the U.S. House for 20 years and twice ran unsuccessfully for Senate before winning his current seat in 2006. The state GOP pressured Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson to stay out of the race after he initially said he would run.
Dockery didn't comment further about the run as she prepares a formal announcement, but her Facebook page lists her favorite quotation as Winston Churchill's "Never, never, never give up."
She was elected to the Senate in 2002. She recently sat on a commission formed by Crist to study open government issues. Among legislation she's sponsored was a bill to ban touchscreen voting machines and replace them with machines that could provide a paper trail. The House version of the bill became law.
Should Dockery win the primary, it could ensure that Florida elects its first woman governor. Alex Sink, the state's chief financial officer, is currently the only major Democrat running for the seat.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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