Former state representative Joe Negron will face off against Democratic challenger Bill Ramos and a virtually unknown write-in candidate in a special election Aug. 4 to replace retiring Sen. Ken Pruitt.

Negron avoided a potentially nasty GOP contest when his political nemesis Art Argenio suddenly dropped out of the race last week under pressure from Republican leaders to avoid a divisive primary. Argenio had sunk $40,000 of his own money into his ill-fated campaign.

Pruitt, who served as senate president two years ago, stepped down from his senate seat a year before he would have been forced to retire due to term limits. He announced his decision on the last day of the legislative session and has already been hired by a Boca Raton law firm specializing in land use and zoning issues.

Pruitt and former Gov. Jeb Bush have both endorsed Negron, adding to Argenio’s decision not to seek the post.

It would have been the second special election show-down for Negron and Argenio, who both served in the state House.

Argenio beat Negron in a bitter 1999 special election runoff to win state House District 82 seat. Negron ousted Argenio in another rough-and-tumble primary the following year.

Instead, he’ll face Ramos, a Jensen Beach mortgage broker and former Marine who’s raised about $7,200 so far, in the general election. Ramos qualified for the election by gathering more than the 880 signatures required to get on the ballot instead of paying the $1,915.92 qualifying fee, as Negron did.

Negron, a Stuart attorney, has more than $63,000 in his campaign account.

Write-in candidate Josue Larose also qualified before today’s noon deadline. He’s got no money in his campaign account so far.

Tags: 2010 campaigns, elections, resignations, State Senate

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 5:22 pm and is filed under 2010 campaigns, elections, Ken Pruitt, State Senate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.