by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
After 20 years spent representing Jacksonville in the state capitol, Sen. Jim King seems surprised at the electoral fight he faces to return to Tallahassee.
King is running for his fourth two-year term in the Senate after 14 years in the House of Representatives. The campaign trail brought him Monday to the Meninak Club meeting at the Radisson Hotel where he lamented the competition he faces from his own party. Anti-abortion spokesperson Randall Terry announced last year that he would challenge King in this year’s Republican primary.
“After 20 years of public service, you kind of hope that people would say, ‘Let’s let him ride into his last four years,’” said King. “But this is America and people can choose to run and choose who to vote for, so that’s not going to happen.”
Terry’s campaign seeks to flank King from the party’s right. Last year, King helped block legislation meant to save brain-damaged Terri Schiavo in her right-to-life fight.
That prompted Terry, a Schiavo family spokesperson during the ordeal, to tout his brand of conservatism as the right fit for King’s district, a solidly Republican area that spans parts of Duval, Flagler, Nassau, St. Johns and Volusia counties.
King relies on his record to answer the criticism. He answers questions about the campaign by pointing to his record with a bluntness that seems novel for a stump speech.
“If I’ve pleased you with most of the things I’ve done for this district while I’m in office, then vote for me,” he said. “If not, then vote for someone else.”
The unexpected challenge has taken the 66-year-old King back to shoe-leather politics. Canvassing the precincts takes a greater toll now than it did two decades ago, he said.
“The process is much harder physically,” he said. “Walking the precincts, going back and forth from Tallahassee. It’s difficult and it’s something I’d rather not have to do. But it’s necessary and I can handle it.”
The face-to-face campaigning is the best way to connect with voters, he said. King was prompted to run in 1986. A businessman then, he couldn’t understand “how they keep doing stupid things” in Tallahassee. He knows voters today have the same questions.
“I know they’re scratching their head just like I do,” he said.