Two new candidates have filed this week in what's becoming a crowded field for the Florida House of Representatives seat held by Republican David Santiago.
Democrat Carol Lawrence, a DeBary lawyer, real-estate broker and title company owner, will run in the primary against Tyran Basil and Neil Henrichsen.
Lawrence has lived in DeBary for 38 years and worked as a lobbyist for Miami-Dade County in 1979 and 1980. More recently, she has served on Volusia County's Personnel Board, the Volusia Charter Review Commission and the DeBary Economic Development Advisory Committee.
She considers herself a "good government" advocate willing to listen and discuss sensible solutions to problems. In a news release, she pledged to take no contributions from "corporate special interests."
Also, Wesley Wilson Jr., 28, of Edgewater, filed to run as a Libertarian in the district, which stretches across southern Volusia County.
Wilson said he is a "lawn guy" with a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Central Florida. He has lived in Edgewater since 2008 and has volunteered with cleanups after Hurricanes Irma and Matthew and at Civil War veterans graves, and with restoring oyster beds with the Marine Discovery Center in New Smyrna Beach.
"We're sick of seeing our lives eviscerated like with Senate Bill 7026," the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, he said, adding also he wants to do away with "victimless crimes" such as seat belt and texting while driving laws.
Santiago, the incumbent, is in his third two-year term. Under state law, he is eligible to seek a fourth and final term in 2018, which he says he will do.