Events

Please see the Florida House Schedule for the schedule for the week of December 4. Published no later than the 7th day before the Committee Meeting.

Bills

RLCFL Legislative Action Center

September 27th, 2025, 930am-12 noon for the Manatee County RLC 5th Annual Constitution Day Breakfast!

This will truly be an educational event. There will be two panel discussions. First, we will have what is sure to be an enlightening discussion with Dr. Jason Jewell, Chief Academic Officer and Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives of the State University System of Florida. Prior to that, he taught for more than 20 years at Faulkner University, where he chaired the Department of Humanities and directed the Center for Great Books and Human Flourishing. He serves on the governing boards of the Philadelphia Society and Ivy Classical Academy and the advisory board of the Ciceronian Society. This panel will focus on the history of constitutions dating all the way back to Greco-Roman times and then showing how our Founding Fathers used those forms of government, plus other historical examples, to produce the recipe for our great American Constitution.

The second panel will consist Richard Tatem, Manatee County School Board Member leading a discussion with Berny Jacques, Member of the Florida House, and Manatee County Commissioner Tal Saddique. The three of us will discuss the concept of “Subsidiarity“: “a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate or local level that is consistent with their resolution. The Oxford English Dictionary defines subsidiarity as ‘the principle that a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level.'” The conversation will focus on how federal and state government overreach impinges on good local governance.

YOU ARE INVITED to attend the next Seminole County Republican Liberty Caucus meeting on Monday September 29th at Victorios Restaurant, 300 Dog Track Rd, Longwood. Our guest speaker will be Emily Duda Buckley, 2026 candidate for State House District #38. As you may know, David Smith is term limited for this seat, and the other Republican candidate who has filed is Marcus Hyatt who spoke to our group earlier this year. The primary is less than a year away!

As a reminder, we still do not have candidates for three Seminole County School Board seats up for grabs in the August 2026 primary. Please help us identify qualified conservative candidates. The open positions are Districts 1, 2 and 5. A candidate must reside in their respective district, but the election is countywide. The School Board race is considered non-partisan, but it’s actually a battleground for conservative vs. liberal agendas! Let me know if you have someone in mind.

On September 29th, please arrive at Victorio’s at 6 p.m. if you wish to order food from the menu. The meeting will start promptly at 6:30 p.m. First on the agenda will be RLC chapter business, followed immediately by Emily Buckley’s comments with a Q & A about her campaign. We always have a great social visit after adjournment!

Please RSVP by 9/22 if you plan to attend, either by responding to this email or sending me at text message. It is not necessary to be a Seminole resident. Thank You!

I look forward to seeing you.

Jim O’Brien

Chairman

RLC Seminole County

407-463-9366

Note: the School Board seats are currently occupied by: #1) Kristine Kraus, chair; #2) Kelley Davis; and #5) Autumn Garick. All five existing members are liberals.