>>Welcome to "Facing South Florida".
I'm Jim DeFede, and we have seen how important
the state legislature has become in our day to day lives.
Former Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief
is running against state Senator Lauren Book
in a hotly contested primary battle
to represent the newly redrawn State Senate seat.
Sharief has been deeply critical of Book,
the Democratic Leader in the Senate,
arguing she has not done enough
to stop governor Ron DeSantis.
>>I'm running for this seat because I have been a resident
of this district for 21 years and had the opportunity
to represent it for 13 years in elected office.
I live in the City of Miramar and this seat that I'm running
for right now is currently held
by state Senator Shevrin Jones.
And so I was kind of shocked that he wasn't going
to run again and that he chosen to move to another seat.
So this is an open seat.
It has by history have been the opportunity
to have a minority access, which you know
is really waning in terms of Tallahassee.
We've not had very many seats this year.
And so I thought it was a perfect fit for me to continue
to move forward in my community and to continue
to represent them on a higher level.
So, that's why I chose this seat and that's why I'm running.
>>I know that you're running against
State Senator Lauren Book.
Her campaign tells me
that she currently represents 54% of the district
and so this was a natural fit for her.
>>Yeah, so currently, I don't know
where they got their numbers from,
but I represented 71% of this district
as the County Commissioner.
I represented Weston, Southwest Ranches, Pembroke Pines,
and Miramar,
which represents the lion share of the district.
Secondly, I've been on the ballot multiple times
in this district and my community's elected me.
And so Lauren's never been on the ballot down here.
She's never been on a ballot period.
And so, she's new to this district.
As far as seats that she could have run in,
Gary Farmer gave up a seat
that Lauren represented the majority of,
more along the lines of that 54%.
And it was an open seat
and so I didn't really see the need for this challenge.
And I would have to say, I'm not really running
against Lauren Book, Lauren Book's running against me.
This is my district, my home territory.
You know, I can't tell you how much money
that they've spent only based on what the reports are
but they've spent over a million dollars in my district
and she's still losing in our internal polls by over 13.8%.
So why would I want to be out of this district?
>>So let's talk about some of the issues.
What do you see as the major issues in this campaign?
>>So the first thing is that people,
our economic downturn has hurt people in many, many ways.
First of all, rent.
People can't afford to pay their rent.
They've been looking to us for rental assistant
yet the state has $385 million left over from money
that was allocated to us by the federal government.
And it's just being held up there by Ron DeSantis.
Why is that?
Why can't we be more of a vocal advocate
to get people the help that they're needing.
Homelessness, rental assistant, we need rent caps,
a statewide standardized renters,
a renter's rights policy,
where if you're gonna increase the rent,
you have to give proper notice.
And if people are behind in their rent,
we have to expedite them getting help.
That's number one, that's one of the biggest issues.
The second issue is seniors and healthcare.
Our healthcare system has been broken
for a very, very long time.
As a doctor of nursing practice
and for 30 years in the healthcare profession,
seniors on fixed incomes complain about one,
getting long term care outside of a hospital.
Number two, paying for medication and food.
So, they have to make a choice.
We, as state representatives and as state legislators,
we have an opportunity to fix the managed care
program system where people can know
that they have an opportunity to get long term care.
They don't have to be bankrupted in order to get care
for Alzheimer's disease.
I think that's ridiculous and we have to change that.
We also have to put in place safety nets
for seniors who can't afford their medication
so that they're not having to make that choice
about food and medicine.
I think that that could be done across the aisles.
That's something that affects Democrats, Republicans,
Independents, NPAs.
I don't see where the issues that I see as issues,
I don't see where they have to be partisan
because as soon as we make those issues partisan,
it affects the people and it hurts the people the most
that need help.
>>So let's talk about abortion.
The, obviously, the legislature lowered to 15 week period.
There's every likelihood that in the next session
they will attempt to lower that even further,
given the new Supreme Court ruling.
What can you do if you're elected to the State Senate
to prevent Republicans from continuing
to go after reproductive rights for women?
>>So, first of all, let me just say
that they did a voice vote on a bill that would allow rape
and incest,
that would make mandatory rape and incest victims
not able to have abortions after that 15 week period.
I think that that's sick, but they were allowed to do that
and not be held accountable.
I think if you're gonna vote against women
and you're gonna vote for things like incest
and rape victims to not be able to have abortions,
then you should be made to be on the record saying that
and you should be held accountable for that.
We didn't do that this legislative period.
And I don't really know why,
but if I was there and I was in charge,
I would've got together with my Democratic friends.
And even if it meant that we lost,
make them accountable so that people would know
in the community who's voting against us.
And I think that that's something that hasn't been done
on a consistent basis.
>>Are those issues that you're specifically blaming
on Lauren Book?
>>Those are issues she was specifically in charge of, yes.
>>So elaborate on that.
Tell me where you find fault with what she's done.
>>So, the first was when we had the opportunity
to hold them accountable on the floor, she refused to call
for a hand vote, which would've made Republicans accountable
for saying that they were okay with not allowing a amendment
or an exception for victims of rape and incest
to have abortions.
So that was number one.
>>And just stay on that for just a second.
>>Sure.
>>It's a, 'cause it's an arcane process in Tallahassee.
I know you're familiar with it but my viewers may not be.
What happens is there is a voice vote on whether or not
to allow exceptions for rape and incest.
It sounded like it may have actually won
but the Senate President at the time ruled that it had lost
and under the parliamentary procedures that occur
at the time, any Senator on the quote unquote losing side
can raise their hand and ask
for four of his or her colleagues.
And if there's five hands that are raised,
then it goes to a named roll call vote.
>>Roll call.
>>Lauren Book did not raise her hand
but neither did any other Democrat for that matter.
>>She told them not to.
And so I wanted an answer for that.
I think that that's something you absolutely have
to die on the sword for.
You cannot allow people to push through bills
that take away any type of rights.
Women's rights, human rights.
It's just fundamental.
It's something that we cannot compromise on that.
And when they do attack it,
we have to be prepared to stand up against that.
And you know, my second issue for us as a community
and as a whole, when we vote on something,
it is up to our state legislatures, state representatives,
and state senators to make sure
that that stuff gets carried through.
One of them is restoration of voting rights.
We have such a difficult time with people getting
their rights restored.
They have to go through so many hoops.
When we voted as a state overwhelmingly to have that done
and it hasn't been.
And we have somebody there that voted,
one of the few people that voted against,
to make it harder for automatic rights restoration to occur.
That's Lauren Book, she's running in this district.
I mean, we have an issue with substance abuse
in our community yet we have somebody that voted
to penalize opioid users even worse
and give them more time in jail.
Look, we have an issue with mental health
and substance abuse.
We need to be getting people help
and treatment versus penalizing them with jail time, Jim.
>>You own a business?
I just want to double check,
South Florida Pediatric Home Care.
>>Yes.
>>And in 2000, in May of 2013,
you settled a case with the with the state
for overbilling of Medicaid.
I think you paid in some $540,000
that you had allegedly overbilled Medicaid for.
And then a few months later, you settled another case
for about $109,000.
So, that's almost $650,000 in overbilling
that you settled with the state on on Medicaid.
Address that for me.
>>I'm gonna address it because it comes up every time.
So, first of all, only honest agencies respond
to Medicaid audits.
That Medicaid audit department runs off of the fact
that they can collect money against agencies
that don't owe it.
I did not owe that money.
I had paid payroll on that money
and I didn't over bill anything.
What occurred was on some of those patients
we had dual offs in the same home.
You're not allowed to provide services
by two home health agencies in the same home.
I was providing skilled care, paid skilled nurses,
and the other person or agency
was providing home health aid services.
Their off was first, my off was second.
So by default, I had to pay back.
I fought it.
It was spending a tremendous amount of my resources
on legal fees and my lawyer said, by the time I got
to the end, I would owe him just as much
as they said I owed.
So, I held my nose and I signed it
because I was in a fight with a giant and I couldn't win.
I'm focusing on what I love to do,
which is take care of kids
and provide the highest quality of care that I can.
And you know, that paperwork in there says
that I chose to settle.
It doesn't say that I did anything wrong.
And I love the way that people like to bring that up
and make a big deal out of it every campaign cycle.
So I'm ready for them.
>>When we come back, another State Senate candidate,
Raquel Pacheco, who is hoping to unseat the controversial
Republican State Senator in Dade, Ileana Garcia.