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February 28th, 2024 Len’s Political Note #625 Whitney Fox Florida 13
2024 General Election
In October, 2023 Whitney Fox resigned from her job as the Director of Communications and Marketing for the PSTA – the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority. She resigned and announced that she would run for Congress – for Florida’s 13th Congressional District.
The district is nearly coterminous with Pinellas County (though redistricting neatly cut out a heavily Democratic south eastern bulge.) What remains is a congressional district west of Tampa, on the western side of Tampa Bay. It extends along the Gulf Coast north of St. Petersburg past Clearwater to Tarpon Springs.
Whitney Fox knows the district well. PSTA provides its public transportation. And does a good job of it. As a triumph of the good work they do and their effective marketing, PSTA was recognized as the most outstanding public transportation system in the country for a two or three year period ending in 2023. This recognition came at a meeting in New York, which also has public transportation.
Whitney Fox is originally from the Tampa area. She went to school there and then to Central Florida University. After college, she tried a kind of adventure. Stationed on cruise ships as sales and marketing manager, she sold the passengers more cruises. She stopped at a port and stayed for three years in New York City as Director of Business Development for a jewelry business two blocks from Grand Central Station.
Then she went home. She spent more than five years working for PSTA – marketing the idea of car-less living, encouraging tourists and locals alike to rely on public transportation, introducing them to sensible the bus to the beach and to connecting buses to Lyft or Uber. She had become something of an expert on the economic impact of public transportation.
She saw an opportunity in the fall of 2023. National Democrats saw they could flip Florida 13. Even with the gerrymandering, it remained a swing district though Cook called it +6 Republican. And Florida 13’s first term Member of congress was, let’s say, unusual.
Whitney Fox began the announcement of her candidacy saying “As a mother of two young girls and through my work in public transportation, I see the struggles of ……so many families across Florida.” She added: “dangerous politicians like [our Member of Congress] Anna Paulina Luna have left us behind in pursuit of an extreme agenda. [We need] a leader committed to working together to get things done for our children, our families, and our communities.”
Whitney Fox gave every impression of being normal, of addressing the needs of ordinary people, people like herself. The freshman incumbent was, instead, “dangerous.” Whitney Fox had a point. Early in 2023, Anna Paulina Luna was compared to another Member of Congress. For her unusual and conflicting stories about herself, she was compared to George Santos. Less embarrassing, more flagrant in her commitment to extreme right wing politics, by the end of 2023, she was compared to Matt Gaetz. If she is elected again, she will be on the way to becoming South Florida’s Matt Gaetz.
Anna Paulina Luna was born and raised in California. Her mother, Monica Todd, may have taught school a little, but was mostly at home. She has become Anna Paulina Luna’s biggest supporter. Her father, George Mayerhofer was part Mexican-American, part German. Some of his German heritage may have been Ashkenazi Jewish. Notwithstanding that part of his heritage, George’s father was in Hitler’s Wehrmacht – drafted, Anna Paulina Luna and her mother explain.
In the United States after immigrating to Canada, her father may have raised her as a Messianic Jew (Jews who accept Jesus Christ) or he may have converted to Messianic Judaism years later when he was in Florida or none of the story is true. Cousins and others remember him as Catholic, which is how he described himself when he entered Canada. George Mayerhofer never did marry Monica Todd. She married another man, lived in various places in California and elsewhere on the West Coast. Anna Paulina Luna described Santa Monica as her home town. She went to high school in Los Angeles. Her father may have been a drug addict or a drunk. Monica and Anna Paulina claim he was in and out of jail, including a year for a drug-related offense. A Washington Post article found no record of his having been incarcerated
Anna Paulina Luna tells the world that she grew up relying on the welfare system, that her mother had no support system, that Monica’s mother was a drug addict who died of an overdose or from AIDS. A cousin differs. The cousin says the whole family provided Anna Paulina Luna with whatever her mother could not, that Anna Paulina Luna was regularly at family gatherings.
In the teens of the 21s century, Anna Paulina Luna completed a college degree, getting a BA from the University of West Florida in biology in 2017. Earlier, she had thoughts of becoming a doctor. Instead, she had joined the army, She earned an income from the army and married a fellow soldier Andy Gomberzky. She and her mother had each changed their last names to Luna as, Anna Paulina explains to emphasize their bond and her Hispanic roots. Not that she entered the army as Luna or presented herself as poor. Anna Paulina Luna is remembered as being stylishly dressed and having no particular Hispanic connection. To earn additional money, she worked as a cocktail waitress at a strip club.
There is a dispute about a robbery at her apartment. She remembers a home invasion at night from which she was protected by a male friend who was there. Her roommate remembers a day time burglary when no one was home. The same roommate remembered her as fond of Barack Obama. Anna Paulina Luna says he spoke like her as the child of an immigrant.
During her time in the military, she became political, not in the Obama way. She was critical of illegal immigration because, she said, it led to trafficking of children for labor and/or sex. She became committed to the second amendment and took to wearing a rifle-shaped pin to show that support. She described herself as convinced the 2020 election was stolen.
In 2022, she ran for Congress, for Florida 13 and won the Republican five candidate primary with 44% of the vote. She won the general election, defeating the Democratic candidate 53-41. Her confusing life story did not make her a pariah in the way George Santos became.
In Congress, Anna Paulina Luna became part of right-wing society. She attended a celebration and viewing of the film, 2000 Mules, that claimed the 2020 election was stolen. She wrote a children’s book with the same theme. She called herself a pro-life extremist as she opposed abortion. She called for banning the export of oil in order to lower the cost of gasoline in the US. There is more. All of which ingratiated herself to the most extreme right-wing Members of Congress – the group that removed Kevin McCarthy from the Speakership, that installed Michael Johnson, that threatened to reject raising the debt ceiling, that is holding up aid to Ukraine. Having found a home in Congress, she escaped the focus and the consequence of lies that George Santos experienced.
Anna Paulina Luna could be subject to a different kind of ignominy. Whitney Fox could defeat her in 2024. When Whitney Fox announced her candidacy in October 2023, there were two other Democrats in the race – John Liccione and Mark Weinkrantz. There are no polls for this race, only the money poll. At the beginning of 2024, Liccione had $8,000 to campaign with, Weinkrantz had $24,000. Whitney Fox had $150,000. That is not enough, but it is not impossibly behind Anna Paulina Luna, who had $550,000. DONATE TO WHITNEY FOX.
Florida’s Congressional Races
FL 23. The Democratic incumbent is Jared Moskowitz. He is #22 on Len’s list of vulnerable incumbents. He does not make Daily Kos’s List. OATH.vote considers him a 4.7 on their 10 point scale in terms of how effective or necessary your financial support would be. A Likely successful Democrat according to Cook. The former Director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management under Ron DeSantis, as a member of Florida’s House of Representatives, he was able to get passed some gun safety legislation after the Parkland massacre. Jared Moskowitz entered 2024 with less than $300,000 available for his campaign, a much smaller amount than many incumbents. It may not matter. Nurse and Veteran Carla Spalding, the probable Republican opponent raised more than $450,000, but spent almost all of it. She started the year with less than $25,000. DONATE TO JARED MOSKOWITZ. He may need a little help. See Len’s Political Notes #584.
FL 09. The Democratic incumbent is Darren Soto. He is #23 on Len’s list. He does not make Daily Kos.s List either. OATH.vote consideres him a 5.5 on their 10 point scale, making close to being moderately vulnerable. He is also a Likely winner according to Cook. Darren Soto is the only Puerto Rican Congressman from Florida. He has two opponents who had a little money on hand at the beginning of the year – Former County Commissioner John Quinones with $50,000 and Jose Castillo, who calls Darren Soto an anti American liberal, with $50,000. Darren Soto had $550,000 available for his campaign. Not enough, but with help he could sustain hie lead. See Len’s Political Note #585
FL 13. The Democratic challenger is marketing professional Whitney Fox. The incumbent is Anna Paulina Luna — #26 on Len’s list of vulnerable Republican incumbents. She does not make Daily Kos’s 30 most vulnerable Republicans. Dangerously right wing, part of the group making Congress dysfunctional, defeating Anna Paulina Luna would not only flip a Republican seat, it would remove a dangerous figure from Congress. Whitney Fox began 2024 with $150,000 available for the campaign; Anna Paulina Luna had $150,000. DONATE TO WHITNEY FOX
FL 27. The Democratic challenger is Miami school board member Lucia Baez-Geller. Incumbent Republican Maria Elvira Salazar was an anchor for Telemundo before being elected to Congress. She is not on Len’s List of vulnerable Republicans, but she is tied for #24 on Daily Kos’s list. Salazar entered 2024 with $850,000; Lucia Baez-Geller had $85,000. Consider. DONATE TO LUCIA BAEZ-GELLER
Florida Senate Race
Florida – Former Member of Congress Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, came to the US when her mother brought her four daughters from Ecuador. Debbie Mucarsel became a professional fund raiser for non-profits and was elected to a term in Congress. She is running against billionaire incumbent and former governor Rick Scott. She began the year with $1.5 million available; he began the year with $3.2 million in his campaign fund. Her candidacy could be difficult because she has a primary opponent. There are still no useful polls, but the world has changed. Scott’s proposal to vote on Medicare and other programs valued by the electorate will not be forgotten. Florida’s Women’s Freedom Coalition have submitted nearly a million signatures, well more than the requirement, to put protection of the right to an abortion into Florida’s constitution. That proposal could change the electorate in November. DONATE TO DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL. See Len’s Political Note #598
