Jiulio Margalli, Sonny McCoy and Sullins Stewart want to take Shirley Freeman's place as the next County Commissioner for District 3. Only one of them will win the Republican Primary race on September 5.
"I've been thinking about a County Commission seat since I managed Mark Jones' campaign in 1998", said Margalli, an attorney in private practice with his wife Andrea.
"When I learned who the opposition would be for District 3, I decided now is the time; this is the place to make a stand for New Politics vs. Old."
Margalli has lived and worked in all sections of the Keys throughout the last six years. While he managed the Public Defenders office in Marathon, he lived in Tavernier, and these days, he lives and practices law in Key West. "I've been in touch with all areas of the Keys at one time or another, and I think I offer a good contrast between my opponents," he said. "In particular, the Republican candidates I'm running against were part of the system in the 1970s and '80s that we're paying for now because of their lack of foresight.
"I don't think residents want to go through, again, the Key West Politics of Old."
Some of Margalli's commitments to "new politics" are as follows: He is a property rights advocate: "I'm a property owner who has personally had incidents with Code Enforcement, and I have represented many clients who have had trouble with the county's permitting process. The county is not being run like a business or the professional entity it should be."
On incorporation: "If individual communities want incorporation, that's what should happen. One of the major problems with the County Commission is that it has fostered tension because some commissioners oppose incorporation. Incorporation takes away some of the commission's power.
"The good news is that citizens in the Keys take an interest in their community and they're dissatisfied with how some commissioners are running it."
On downstairs enclosures: "The county needs to make another proposal to FEMA because we are loosing affordable housing. These downstairs enclosures are not structurally attached to the main home, and during a storm, the whole house probably won't fall down.
"All FEMA has to do is refuse to insure the lower apartment and let the homeowner take that risk. The owner will have to fix it if it's flooded."
On transient rentals: "In unincorporated areas, the current restrictions are appropriate. Each community has its own rules, and if they say business and residential areas don't mix, then don't put smokestacks in suburbia."
Jiulio Margalli was a social worker in New York City for two years. Then after law school in New Orleans he became a Florida Keys Public Defender for six years. He says he wants to make some changes here.
"This is not a retirement job for me; I have a viable attorney practice," he said. "Special interests won't have any sway with me."