State Rep. Matt Gaetz learned this week that a major obstacle had been removed from his path to the District 1 Florida Senate seat presently held by his father.
But with three years and two election cycles still standing between him and the seat Senate President Don Gaetz has occupied since 2006, the younger Gaetz said he is confident things will change.
“I expect to have an opponent,” he said.
Earlier this week, fellow Republican state Rep. Jimmy Patronis bowed out of the 2016 race for the Senate seat. That left Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, who pre-filed in May to seek the office, alone in the running, at least for now.
Patronis’ move came as a shock.
A popular lawmaker whose Bay County constituency is more centrally located in Senate District 1 than the House district Gaetz occupies in Okaloosa, Patronis pre-filed in December to seek the Senate seat and had raised nearly $100,000 by the time he stepped away.
In a statement issued when he stepped down, he said he wanted to spend more time with family and tending to business interests.
Matt Gaetz still has to win election again in state House District 4 if he wants to remain in the Florida Legislature until the 2016 election.
He said he never would have gotten into the Senate race as early as he did if Patronis had not announced his decision to run.
“I did not expect to be a candidate for the Senate race this early,” he said. “I was put on the spot by Rep. Patronis’ entering the race. I’m sort of left as the last guy standing.”
Late last week, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, appeared to put to rest speculation he might resign from the Senate before his term ended in 2016.
The elder Gaetz said he intends to serve all three years left in his term even though his stint as Senate president will be completed following the 2014 session.
“Anything could happen, but my intent is to try to serve out my term,” Don Gaetz said.
While Patronis appeared adamant about staying in Panama City and spending time with his wife and children, at least one acquaintance wondered if he might have gotten out of the Senate race to position himself for appointment by Gov. Rick Scott to the vacant lieutenant governor post.
“I’ve heard in the past few weeks he’s been strongly considered for lieutenant governor,” said Destin resident and former state Rep. Ray Sansom. “This could be a way to get himself in a position to be considered by Gov. Scott.”
Patronis, a big supporter of the governor who speaks to him on a regular basis, said of a potential lieutenant governor appointment, “that would be news to me.”
“I don’t know if I’m being vetted. I would rather not even speculate, to tell you the truth,” Patronis said. “But I can tell you right now that I can’t be a dad, a businessman and a legislator.”
Matt Gaetz said he’d heard nothing about Patronis being looked at as a candidate for lieutenant governor and questioned the necessity of even filling the position left vacant by the March resignation of Jennifer Carroll.
“I don’t know why the state of Florida needs a lieutenant governor,” Gaetz said. “I don’t know a single Florida resident whose life is markedly different because we don’t have someone currently in that position.
“We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a position, and the person’s only job is checking the pulse of the governor,” he said. “If we as conservatives really believe in limited government, why not start at the top?”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.