it's now time for the weekly with new
sickest anchor Justin warmoth this is
the weekly on click Orlando dot-com with
Justin warmoth good morning and happy
Mother's Day I'm Justin warmoth well
election season is ramping up in Florida
and there are several key races that
could change the landscape of politics
in the Sunshine State right now for
Democrats and two Republicans are
running to be our state's next governor
but there is still some time for others
to throw their names in the hats one of
them is my guest this morning former
congressman Patrick Murphy so I'd like
to first ask you about the rumblings
about running for governor fairly new
when did this start taking shape I was
pretty recently you know enough
supporters have been reaching out
through the last several months and and
finally a few said Patrick please we
know we really want to do this poll see
what the numbers are at so I said you
know what check it out I'm not going to
say no to that but but I certainly
haven't agreed to running for governor
yet the poll as far as my understanding
of it also floats the idea of former
representative david jolly being on that
ticket as well as lieutenant governor
you're a Democrat he's a Republican how
would that work well we haven't got you
know to far down this road again I was
just people reaching out talking about
it and to be honest I think people
probably got the idea because of these
town halls that congressman jolly and I
have been doing around the state of
Florida around the country talking about
why politics is broken why DC is broken
why Tallahassee is broken and there are
some structural problems that have to be
fixed you know people are easy to blame
the individual that the Congress person
or the president whomever it is but
there are structural problems ripping
our country apart we got to solve that
so I think people saw us working
together trying to solve these problems
and said wait a minute maybe that same
notion would work in you know government
as governor redistricting is something
that is on the forefront though it's
coming in Florida and I think that's why
yes the governor's race is always
important but it's especially important
because of the redistricting your
thoughts on that yes this is a critical
race and in redistricting is one of the
most important outcome
perhaps of that because that sets the
structure for how the next decade will
evolve and you know the way I look at
things is everybody should have their
fair voice and their fair say but right
now the system's being rigged right
there isn't a fair say there is about an
even amount of Republicans Democrats and
independents in the state of Florida
independents don't even have a vote in a
primary so you take about 30% of the
state and they have no sense that
changeable though do you think I think
it is you know you see states that are
that are allowing independents to vote
in a primary you were seeing states that
are having a top two system like
California were the top two candidates
and the primary move on to the general
election that could be two Democrats two
Republicans one of each I mean who knows
but you were seeing different movements
across the country to allow that come
November not only will voters in Florida
be voting for a governor but there's a
big Senate race as well between Governor
Scott and Senator Bill Nelson your
thoughts on that showdown and what the
outcome could possibly be yeah it'll be
a slugfest there's no doubt about it
would be very expensive race you know my
Senate race against senator Rubio was
80-some million dollars I mean it's a
ridiculous amount of money I bet this
Senate race will be even more money
that's unfortunate for the voters that
have to witness all these negative and
slanderous attacks but that's what it
will be is sort of a race to the bottom
I feel very strong about senator
Nelson's chances of winning though I
think he's been a good senator for the
state of Florida and I think they're
both gonna be you know talking about
their records but net-net
it's a democratic year right we've seen
the special elections around the country
Democrats are over performing you know
basically every single case so I think
Sugar Nelson will be able to ride that
wave I want to go back to your Senate
race against Marco Rubio what if
anything would you have done differently
some of you changed the outcome yeah
great question you know so much of our
race was dependent on the top of the
ticket right so there's only so much
flexibility you have when your nominee
doesn't win the state you know that was
a big part of it I was never going to
get the same name ID as senator Rubio so
knowing that looking back in hindsight I
wish I would have taken more risks right
done more to try to break through with
earned media
and and and try to talk more in unique
ways perhaps about the issues that I
cared most about and draw really a clear
difference between myself and Secretary
Clinton and myself and senator Rubio and
talk to you about who I really am
the attacks that were you know lobbed at
us were you know ruled of pants on fire
liar liar you know by basically every
single newspaper
we got the endorsement of every major
newspaper in the state of Fort I was
proud of what we were able to do I wish
we could have got that message out
better and you saw what happened during
the Florida legislative session this
past session with the momentum from the
Parkland shooting making some changes
when it comes to school safety and gun
legislation overall is that enough the
school safety bill that was passed is
that enough yeah you know it was a baby
step I don't see that as legislation
that will prevent another mass shooting
unfortunately if it you know helped some
folks you know talk in their campaign
trail about what they did you know
unfortunately I think that's why they
did it I think it was more political in
nature maybe that's the cynic in me I'm
usually an optimist but I've been around
politics enough now to see the maneuvers
that happen and this was just enough
that the NRA would allow the Republicans
to get away with and this has
successfully allowed Rick Scott to muddy
the waters in some ways he has no
interest and you know really taking
dramatic steps I think that are
necessary to prevent these tragedies
from happening what do you think needs
to be done to prevent these tragedies
from happening is there anything that
can be done oh absolutely I mean you
look at what's happened with certain
states and countries for that matter
that have taken dramatic steps to reduce
the ease in which people can buy weapons
right whether that's a buyback program
we're not infringing on the Second
Amendment right we all respect that
Democrats you know the Republicans try
to scare people say Democrats are taking
your weapons no they're not but let's
make sure that there are steps along the
way so for assault weapons you know
these are weapons for war they're not
designed to kill deer or elk or hunt
right they're designed to go humans that
ammunition itself so why are we allowing
18 year olds to go to Kmart and buy them
it doesn't make sense to me we should at
least have some sort of training when
maybe it's a six month process maybe
it's a license and why should folks be
allowed to own 20
these without any basic training right
what are we doing around the mental
screening these bump stocks that are
basically allowing these weapons to
become automatic I think there's so many
things that we can do to rein in the
amount of weapons that are out there and
how easily accessible they are and if
you look at case study after case study
where states have done that and
countries have done that violence is
dramatically reduced do you think some
teachers should be able to carry do you
think there should be more school
resource officers what do you feel needs
to happen from a school security
standpoint of course I'm for school
security but I think you get into a very
interesting area because any time
there's going to be a public gathering a
park a mall a place of worship
can we really put metal detectors and
lockdowns in all of these places I don't
think that's realistic yes we should
have better protection in schools and
make sure there is at least a basic
perimeter and make sure we can't have
the ease of which is has happened
however the hundreds of millions of
dollars that are being spent to do that
verse the relatively small amount of
money to have better background checks
all right one of the bills and the
Congress for example said that if you re
on the terrorist watchlist right and
there's no fly list you shouldn't be
allowed to own a weapon right to me that
makes sense right if you're a domestic
abuser you shouldn't be allowed to have
a weapon I these are just common sense
things however we didn't get a vote on
that right that that is still allowed
you can be on the no-fly you know list
but you can still go buy an assault
weapon that that is just it's so
irresponsible to me so there are easy
things that can be done in the state
level and the federal level to prevent
the scariest and the worst offenders and
our you know country and our state from
getting those weapons and I think you
can start there right go for the bigger
picture and if are some schools and some
areas you want to do some school safety
I think there's some great technology
I've read about it some new ideas out
there to do and by the way I think that
four or five hundred million dollars
should be going to the teachers
I mean teachers haven't had a raise by
and large teachers are spending a
thousand two thousand dollars out of
their own pocket books for supplies for
our students right you go to these these
schools and students don't have pens
paper they don't have computers in this
day and age and teachers are trying to
come up with the money out of the small
paycheck they're getting to fund that
that's sickening to me right that's
sickening it all comes down to education
in our country right whatever you care
about whatever the you know you're
worried about the future of work you're
worried about you know how things are
changing in our economy it all comes
back to education so we have to focus
there we have to put more into education
so I hope that that's really where the
focus is and again at this point mr.
Murphy has not filed the paperwork to
run for governor but speculation
continues to grow coming up new six
political expert and UCF history
professor Jim Clark will talk about the
governor's race and other key elections
as we get closer to the August primaries
keep it here