Jersey Girl by blood wins a statewide primary in Florida

In Florida, former State Sen. Annette Taddeo easily won the Democratic nomination for Chief Financial Officer in Tuesday’s primary.

Taddeo is a Jersey Girl by blood.  Her father, Anthony, was born and raised in Orange and served in World War II and the Korean War.  He later moved to Colombia, where his daughter was born.  Taddeo’s aunt was the school secretary at the West Orange school when Mark Kelly, now a U.S. Senator from Arizona, was a student.

She defeated Earle Ford with 65.6% of the vote.  She will face Republican incumbent Blaise Ingoglia, who grew up in Queens.  A former state senator, Ingoglia was appointed to Florida CFO last year when Jimmy Patronis resigned to run for Congress; Florida has a resign-to-run law that required him to give up his current post to seek another office.

Democrats have not won the Florida CFO post since 2006.  The last Democrat to win statewide in Florida was Nikki Fried, who was elected Commissioner of Agriculture in 2018.