Rooney, Sawyer III going after 17th U.S. seat
John W. Sawyer III and four-time incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney will square off in the GOP primary on Aug. 30 for Florida’s District 17 seat in Washington. The winner will go against Democrat April Freeman on Nov. 8.
Tom Rooney
Age: 45
Occupation: incumbent
Residence: Okeechobee
Tom Rooney has served U.S. Rep. 17 since 2009 and has a public service record that goes much earlier, serving under Connie Mack and as a prosecutor under former Gov. Charlie Crist, among other things.
Rooney said he has a sense of duty to the community that makes him want to serve.
“When the Mark Foley situation came up and Tim Mahoney won the seat, I felt a calling to run for office and make a difference,” Rooney said. “I still have that feeling.”
Rooney said his terms of office has given him the expertise in national security, and his knowledge of agriculture has helped feed the people in this country.
Rooney said he believes in limited government and strong national security, which is the backbone of his platform. He also believes the debt has to be addressed and that regulations are strangling business growth.
“We also have a divided government, so you’re not going to get what you want. You try to do the best you can with what you have, and many people don’t like that,” Rooney said. “I’m not one of those who wants to burn Washington down.”
As far as water quality, Rooney said the manmade problems in Lake Okeechobee will require lots of time and money to solve. But unless the government restores earmarks for public projects and the Everglades restoration plan gets fully funded, not much is going to happen.
“I think dropping earmarks for public purposes is a mistake. We lost the ability to bring dollars back to the community and tell the Army Corps to get these projects done when we lost earmarks,” Rooney said. “It’s so cumbersome to find the solution to problems that we need.”
John W. Sawyer III
Age: 74
Occupation: retired
Residence: Punta Gorda
John W. Sawyer III is no stranger to running for office or politics, having run for Lee County Commissioner in 2012, as well as serving on the Republican Executive Committee in Charlotte County and as chairman of the local Ted Cruz campaign.
He said he is tired of the way things are being run in this country by either party and believes he can do it better because of his business and military experience.
“Nobody is doing anything. I figure I can do more with my military and union background and I have honest solutions to problems,” Sawyer said. “We have three parties, Republicans, Democrats and Incumbents and the incumbents are the only ones who do anything, and that’s campaigning. Nobody governs anymore.”
Sawyer said his platform is basically to throw everyone out and start over, adding he can’t support either presidential candidate.
His three-point plan is to bring back jobs to this country and that race relations in this country need to improve before matters get even worse.
“If you drop the corporation income tax, businesses will flock back here. They did that in Ireland and it was very successful,” Sawyer said.
Regarding water, Sawyer said agriculture is the No. 2 business behind tourism, and that Big Sugar is the problem regarding the dirty water, not farming, and that too many people take big money from the sugar industry.
“We need to take the tariff off imported sugar and put Big Sugar out of business so they don’t dump crap in the water anymore,” Sawyer said. “Also, no farmer should farm within 1,000 feet of an estuary and the state should compensate farmers for land and take it.”