Just a week after his best showing in any of the polls to date, and a day after outlining a progressive criminal justice reform plan that that calls for the end to the death penalty and the legalization of marijuana, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris King launched his first campaign ad (see below) Wednesday morning.
The ad is called “New Direction” and highlights King’s pledge not to accept campaign money from the sugar industry — which King has been highly critical of.
In the spot, King also mentions his proposals to expand Medicaid, protect funding for affordable housing and make community college and public trade school free to attend.
The :30 spot will begin airing Wednesday in the Gainesville, Jacksonville, Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Panama City and West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce television markets.
The ad opens with a waiter asking a politician, “More sugar, sir?” The politician replies, “Yes, of course.”
King then says, “It’s the same old politics. Big Sugar buys influence in Tallahassee and pollutes our environment. I’m Chris King and I won’t take a dime from them.
He goes on to mention his other priorities.
“I’ll take Florida in a new direction by expanding Medicaid to cover the uninsured, protecting funding for affordable housing, and expanding community college and trade school programs that lead to good jobs,” King says.
Since getting into the race over a year ago, King has pledged not to accept money from Big Sugar — a pledge that his other three Democratic opponents have since taken.
The Orlando-area businessman received a boost last week in his bid to win the Democratic primary. King has consistently ended up in fourth place in the polls in the four person race, in single digits. But a poll released last week by Florida Atlantic University showed him receiving support from 10 percent of the voters surveyed, placing him ahead of Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum who received 6 percent. King still trails former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, who received 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
On Tuesday afternoon, King released a six-point criminal justice reform plan during a round-table discussion in St. Petersburg that he says would help fix Florida’s “broken” criminal justice system. In addition to ending the death penalty and legalizing marijuana, King called for the population of the state’s prison system to be cut in half in 10 years. He called for the automatic restoration of voting rights for ex-felons and putting an end to private prisons in Florida.
