Elect Lucian Randolph, FL House D28
Donation protected
My name is Lucian Randolph. I've lived in Central Florida for going on 3 decades. For two of those decades, I've lived in rural Seminole County, which is in the Florida State House of Representatives District 28. During that time, I've seen a dramatic increase in pollution and over-development. I've seen corporate bullies blatantly abuse our natural resources for their own profit, and personally witnessed the systematic destruction of our wildlife and their habitat. Over that same period, I've seen Florida politicians sell out to big money donators and special interest funding. Most recently, I've seen the Florida Governor and Legislature blatantly ignore the will of the people when they refused to fully enact the medical marijuana amendment which was overwhelmingly passed by Florida voters. And finally, I've watched in pure shock and horror as the state has been dragged into the swamp that has taken over Washington, DC.
Well, I've had enough of it and now I'm doing something about it. I've decided to run for the Florida State House of Representatives for District 28, my home.
I'm not a politician. I'm a scientist, inventor, and author. I know how to solve problems and I'm a recognized innovator. For instance, I hold the first U.S. Patent ever issued for an exo-skeletal robot, which I designed for NASA in the 80s when I was in my 20s. It was one of the first things I did when I moved to Florida. Since then, I've continued to come up with unique and creative solutions to hard and vexing problems for various government groups from the FCC, to NASA, to the U.S. Military. And most recently, I worked in cyber warfare for the U.S. Army Cyber Command from 2014 to 2016. That was a seminal event for me because I was there when the U.S. Intelligence Community discovered that we were being attacked by Russia with the intent of interfering in our election. And that was the final straw for me. I'm an expert in cyber warfare. I know how dangerous cyber warfare can be because I was the man tasked by the Joint Electronic Warfare Center to build a tactical military cyber warfare system to defend against the type of attack the Russians committed against the Ukrainians in the spring of 2014. Then in the summer of 2016, the Russians committed an act of war against us by cyber-attacking the election systems in our country, and we are all living with the consequences of that historic and unprovoked attack. Worse yet, the Russians are gearing up for another attack against us in the upcoming mid-term election and no one is doing anything to stop it.
And this time, Florida will be one of the fighting grounds for this attack.
For this reason and a hundred others, I've decided I must do something. That's why I'm running for a political office for the first time in my life.
Here are the things I want to accomplish by running:
1) I want to help Florida turn Blue. The Republicans got us into this mess and only the Democrats will be able to get us out. Republicans have run Florida for too long and the decline of our state is proof that they need to be voted out.
2) I want to convince Florida to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Women deserve equal rights... period. Women are not second-class citizens and it's time we added that fact to the Constitution of the United States.
3) I want to fight climate change. Florida will be one of the hardest hit states from climate change. Miami is already flooding. Hurricanes are getting worse and they're coming earlier and later in the season. I am a scientist and I know that climate change is real. Anyone who says otherwise has an agenda that will be deadly for Floridians. Florida has more coastline than any other state. Climate change could devastate our tourist industry and economy.
4) I want to increase green energy. Florida is called the sunshine state. We should lead the nation in solar energy. We don't. In fact, we have some of the most arcane rules and regulations regarding solar energy in the entire nation. Solar power on rooftops can help keep homes and businesses with electricity when hurricanes destroy power-lines. Floridians should be able to power their homes and businesses any way they want to without interference from power companies, including going completely off-grid. Right now Floridians can't legally do that. The power companies and their lobbyists are holding us back and they need to be stopped. Solar power is good for Florida.
5) I want to preserve and protect our natural habitats and the wildlife that depend on them by putting a stop to unchecked growth and over-development. I don't have a problem with progress and development. But development at the expense of the environment and without proper development of infrastructure is a plan for disaster. In my district, developers are trying to get permission to gut the Black Hammock wilderness refuge, one of the most important wildlife habitats outside of the Everglades. I will fight to stop this from happening.
6) I want to harden and protect our election process and systems against future attack from cyber-criminals and foreign adversaries. Florida has been and will continue to be a key state in our national political scene. But we've also been a laughing stock of ineptitude and corruption. I never want to see another debacle like the "hanging chad" embarrassment of the 2000 election.
7) I want to stop Florida from supporting a Constitutional Convention. Corrupt Republicans and oligarchs like the Koch brothers are trying to rewrite the U.S. Constitution by calling for a Constitutional Convention. This idea is appropriately called a ConCon because it may sound good, but they will use it to take away safety net programs like Medicare and even Social Security. This effort can only be initiated at the state legislative level and that means it can only be stopped at the state legislative level. I will fight to prevent this massive con-job from destroying the hard-fought and rightfully earned social programs that so many Floridians rely on.
Here are the key issues I support:
1) Medicare for all. Health care is a human right and the only thing the American medical system leads the world in is cost. I come from a family of engineers on one side and doctors on the other. They taught me about the Hippocratic Oath. If you got into medicine to become rich, you are in the wrong profession. No one should have to go without medical care because they can't afford it and no family should have to worry about losing everything from a devastating illness. Our system is broken and the only way to fix it is with universal healthcare.
2) Common sense gun reform. I'm a gun owner and a supporter of the right to bear arms. But the NRA has perverted the idea of responsible gun ownership and has fought against every single common sense gun reform measure that most gun owners support. It's time to get the NRA out of politics and to put common sense into responsible gun reform. It's possible to do both. I will fight to make it happen.
3) Compassionate immigration policies. Our country depends on immigration and the farmers of Florida know this. Without migrant labor, our food supply will be hobbled and prices will skyrocket. Immigrants are not taking jobs from Floridians and they are not criminals because they want to come to our country. We need immigrants and they want to be here legally. Racism is the only thing standing in the way of fair and compassionate immigration policy.
4) Elimination of our dependence on fossil fuels. These outdated fuels have not only caused the climate change our children and grandchildren will have to suffer through, but they are a direct threat to our natural habitats and way of life. Oil companies are pushing to increase drilling off our shores in both the Gulf and the Atlantic. This must be stopped. Our beaches and our tourist industry cannot be endangered by this irresponsible madness just to maintain the profits of the fossil fuel giants.
5) Provide free tuition to all state colleges and community colleges for Florida students. When I started college in the 70s, a student could work part-time and pay for full-time tuition. Those days are long gone. Kids and parents today are forced to take on a staggering amount of debt to attend a college. And the economy is so bad, many of them will spend decades trying to pay it off.
6) Replacing Common Core in public education with real science and math curriculums. Public education has been decimated by the government and the result is an uneducated populace with little or no chance to keep up with the changes to our economy. A smart workforce starts with a good education. Florida is in the bottom tier of the country and this needs to change.
7) Increasing teacher pay by taxing and fulling implementing Florida's legally passed medical cannabis law. Florida overwhelmingly said yes to allowing those who can benefit from medical cannabis to have legal access. But the corrupt governor and the complicit legislature have fought against this every step of the way. That's not how the government is supposed to work. The will of the people is being thwarted.
8) Investing in the rebuilding of our infrastructure by forcing the richest 1% of our citizens to pay their fair share of taxes. During Eisenhower's administration, the top 1% paid 90% in taxes. And we used that money to build bridges, hospitals, roads, and the Interstate system. Since then, we've let them all go to hell because politicians have refused to spend the money needed to maintain these vital resources. Florida needs to invest in public transportation and in renovating our crumbling roads. And more toll roads are not the answer.
9) And speaking of rebuilding, gross negligence from the White House led to the deaths of over 4,600 Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria. Because of that, Florida is now home to the largest population of Puerto Ricans in the country. These are American citizens and PR is as close to a "sister state" as Florida has. We need to help ensure that the humanitarian disaster that occurred there because of government malfeasance never happens again. My wife is from Puerto Rico which means my children are Puerto Rican. Her family still lives there and I helped sponsor a team of ex-military heroes who are still on the island helping to rebuild. This is personal to me. And it should be personal to every person living in Florida.
Here are the key planks in my platform:
1) Equal pay regardless of sex.
2) Provide asylum for refugees.
3) Extend the minimum wage.
4) Improve unemployment benefits to cover more people.
5) Strengthen labor laws so workers can join unions.
6) Protect Social Security.
7) Improve assistance to low-income communities.
8) Complete separation of church and state.
9) Reform law enforcement & demilitarize civilian police.
10) Expand research in basic science.
By the way, the first 7 of these are the same planks that were in the 1956 Republican platform that Dwight D. Eisenhower, the man who led and won the fight against the Nazis of World War II, ran on. They were the right things to do then, and they still are.
The amount of money I'm looking to raise is the amount of the filing fee needed to get my name on the ballot for the November 6, 2018 election. The fee is $1,781.82. This amount is 6% of the salary for a Florida State Representative, which is $29,697 per year. This salary amount is less than a teacher at a public school makes and I think that's about right. Teachers should make more than politicians because their work is more important and significantly harder. I'm not getting into politics to get rich. I'm doing it to make a difference and to leave a better world and state for my children. We need to turn in our application and fee by June 22, 2018, to be eligible to be on the ballot. That's what this GoFundMe page is for.
If you would like to assist me in this endeavor, please donate and help me get on the ballot.
Thank you,
Lucian Randolph
Well, I've had enough of it and now I'm doing something about it. I've decided to run for the Florida State House of Representatives for District 28, my home.
I'm not a politician. I'm a scientist, inventor, and author. I know how to solve problems and I'm a recognized innovator. For instance, I hold the first U.S. Patent ever issued for an exo-skeletal robot, which I designed for NASA in the 80s when I was in my 20s. It was one of the first things I did when I moved to Florida. Since then, I've continued to come up with unique and creative solutions to hard and vexing problems for various government groups from the FCC, to NASA, to the U.S. Military. And most recently, I worked in cyber warfare for the U.S. Army Cyber Command from 2014 to 2016. That was a seminal event for me because I was there when the U.S. Intelligence Community discovered that we were being attacked by Russia with the intent of interfering in our election. And that was the final straw for me. I'm an expert in cyber warfare. I know how dangerous cyber warfare can be because I was the man tasked by the Joint Electronic Warfare Center to build a tactical military cyber warfare system to defend against the type of attack the Russians committed against the Ukrainians in the spring of 2014. Then in the summer of 2016, the Russians committed an act of war against us by cyber-attacking the election systems in our country, and we are all living with the consequences of that historic and unprovoked attack. Worse yet, the Russians are gearing up for another attack against us in the upcoming mid-term election and no one is doing anything to stop it.
And this time, Florida will be one of the fighting grounds for this attack.
For this reason and a hundred others, I've decided I must do something. That's why I'm running for a political office for the first time in my life.
Here are the things I want to accomplish by running:
1) I want to help Florida turn Blue. The Republicans got us into this mess and only the Democrats will be able to get us out. Republicans have run Florida for too long and the decline of our state is proof that they need to be voted out.
2) I want to convince Florida to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Women deserve equal rights... period. Women are not second-class citizens and it's time we added that fact to the Constitution of the United States.
3) I want to fight climate change. Florida will be one of the hardest hit states from climate change. Miami is already flooding. Hurricanes are getting worse and they're coming earlier and later in the season. I am a scientist and I know that climate change is real. Anyone who says otherwise has an agenda that will be deadly for Floridians. Florida has more coastline than any other state. Climate change could devastate our tourist industry and economy.
4) I want to increase green energy. Florida is called the sunshine state. We should lead the nation in solar energy. We don't. In fact, we have some of the most arcane rules and regulations regarding solar energy in the entire nation. Solar power on rooftops can help keep homes and businesses with electricity when hurricanes destroy power-lines. Floridians should be able to power their homes and businesses any way they want to without interference from power companies, including going completely off-grid. Right now Floridians can't legally do that. The power companies and their lobbyists are holding us back and they need to be stopped. Solar power is good for Florida.
5) I want to preserve and protect our natural habitats and the wildlife that depend on them by putting a stop to unchecked growth and over-development. I don't have a problem with progress and development. But development at the expense of the environment and without proper development of infrastructure is a plan for disaster. In my district, developers are trying to get permission to gut the Black Hammock wilderness refuge, one of the most important wildlife habitats outside of the Everglades. I will fight to stop this from happening.
6) I want to harden and protect our election process and systems against future attack from cyber-criminals and foreign adversaries. Florida has been and will continue to be a key state in our national political scene. But we've also been a laughing stock of ineptitude and corruption. I never want to see another debacle like the "hanging chad" embarrassment of the 2000 election.
7) I want to stop Florida from supporting a Constitutional Convention. Corrupt Republicans and oligarchs like the Koch brothers are trying to rewrite the U.S. Constitution by calling for a Constitutional Convention. This idea is appropriately called a ConCon because it may sound good, but they will use it to take away safety net programs like Medicare and even Social Security. This effort can only be initiated at the state legislative level and that means it can only be stopped at the state legislative level. I will fight to prevent this massive con-job from destroying the hard-fought and rightfully earned social programs that so many Floridians rely on.
Here are the key issues I support:
1) Medicare for all. Health care is a human right and the only thing the American medical system leads the world in is cost. I come from a family of engineers on one side and doctors on the other. They taught me about the Hippocratic Oath. If you got into medicine to become rich, you are in the wrong profession. No one should have to go without medical care because they can't afford it and no family should have to worry about losing everything from a devastating illness. Our system is broken and the only way to fix it is with universal healthcare.
2) Common sense gun reform. I'm a gun owner and a supporter of the right to bear arms. But the NRA has perverted the idea of responsible gun ownership and has fought against every single common sense gun reform measure that most gun owners support. It's time to get the NRA out of politics and to put common sense into responsible gun reform. It's possible to do both. I will fight to make it happen.
3) Compassionate immigration policies. Our country depends on immigration and the farmers of Florida know this. Without migrant labor, our food supply will be hobbled and prices will skyrocket. Immigrants are not taking jobs from Floridians and they are not criminals because they want to come to our country. We need immigrants and they want to be here legally. Racism is the only thing standing in the way of fair and compassionate immigration policy.
4) Elimination of our dependence on fossil fuels. These outdated fuels have not only caused the climate change our children and grandchildren will have to suffer through, but they are a direct threat to our natural habitats and way of life. Oil companies are pushing to increase drilling off our shores in both the Gulf and the Atlantic. This must be stopped. Our beaches and our tourist industry cannot be endangered by this irresponsible madness just to maintain the profits of the fossil fuel giants.
5) Provide free tuition to all state colleges and community colleges for Florida students. When I started college in the 70s, a student could work part-time and pay for full-time tuition. Those days are long gone. Kids and parents today are forced to take on a staggering amount of debt to attend a college. And the economy is so bad, many of them will spend decades trying to pay it off.
6) Replacing Common Core in public education with real science and math curriculums. Public education has been decimated by the government and the result is an uneducated populace with little or no chance to keep up with the changes to our economy. A smart workforce starts with a good education. Florida is in the bottom tier of the country and this needs to change.
7) Increasing teacher pay by taxing and fulling implementing Florida's legally passed medical cannabis law. Florida overwhelmingly said yes to allowing those who can benefit from medical cannabis to have legal access. But the corrupt governor and the complicit legislature have fought against this every step of the way. That's not how the government is supposed to work. The will of the people is being thwarted.
8) Investing in the rebuilding of our infrastructure by forcing the richest 1% of our citizens to pay their fair share of taxes. During Eisenhower's administration, the top 1% paid 90% in taxes. And we used that money to build bridges, hospitals, roads, and the Interstate system. Since then, we've let them all go to hell because politicians have refused to spend the money needed to maintain these vital resources. Florida needs to invest in public transportation and in renovating our crumbling roads. And more toll roads are not the answer.
9) And speaking of rebuilding, gross negligence from the White House led to the deaths of over 4,600 Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria. Because of that, Florida is now home to the largest population of Puerto Ricans in the country. These are American citizens and PR is as close to a "sister state" as Florida has. We need to help ensure that the humanitarian disaster that occurred there because of government malfeasance never happens again. My wife is from Puerto Rico which means my children are Puerto Rican. Her family still lives there and I helped sponsor a team of ex-military heroes who are still on the island helping to rebuild. This is personal to me. And it should be personal to every person living in Florida.
Here are the key planks in my platform:
1) Equal pay regardless of sex.
2) Provide asylum for refugees.
3) Extend the minimum wage.
4) Improve unemployment benefits to cover more people.
5) Strengthen labor laws so workers can join unions.
6) Protect Social Security.
7) Improve assistance to low-income communities.
8) Complete separation of church and state.
9) Reform law enforcement & demilitarize civilian police.
10) Expand research in basic science.
By the way, the first 7 of these are the same planks that were in the 1956 Republican platform that Dwight D. Eisenhower, the man who led and won the fight against the Nazis of World War II, ran on. They were the right things to do then, and they still are.
The amount of money I'm looking to raise is the amount of the filing fee needed to get my name on the ballot for the November 6, 2018 election. The fee is $1,781.82. This amount is 6% of the salary for a Florida State Representative, which is $29,697 per year. This salary amount is less than a teacher at a public school makes and I think that's about right. Teachers should make more than politicians because their work is more important and significantly harder. I'm not getting into politics to get rich. I'm doing it to make a difference and to leave a better world and state for my children. We need to turn in our application and fee by June 22, 2018, to be eligible to be on the ballot. That's what this GoFundMe page is for.
If you would like to assist me in this endeavor, please donate and help me get on the ballot.
Thank you,
Lucian Randolph
Organizer
Lucian Randolph
Organizer
Oviedo, FL
