David Richardson sets sights on Sen. Gwen Margolis’ seat

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The conversation is said to have started over a year ago, after Rep. David Richardson (D-Miami Beach) won his first election and became Florida’s first openly-gay state legislator. Several sources close to both he and Senator Gwen Margolis (D-North Miami Beach) — who has been in public office for four decades and is rumored on and off to be retiring — say the veteran legislator hand picked Richardson as her heir apparent during a dinner they shared almost two years ago.

Richardson, a sophomore who has moved up to third place in the House Dem leadership, may have announced his plans to file paperwork for the Senate seat Monday on the Gray Zone Miami morning radio show, but the wheels were set in motion in February, 2013.

On Monday, he switched his House re-election account, where he had raised $6,500, to the Senate race.

That’s okay. We all know the money will start coming later. Richardson, who was unopposed this November, said he got more rainmaking experience during this past summer, raising money for Democrats across the state.

But he may have to fight for donors.

Andrew M. Korge, son of Democratic fundraising powerhouse Chris Korge, has apparently told folks he’s interested in that seat as well. His proud papa has apparently been braggin’ about it, too. Late last year, he posted a public figure page on Facebook with photos of his family and Presidents Bill Clinton (with wife Hillary and his own family) and Barack Obama. Korge, wouldn’t talk to Ladra back in November, when I first asked him what his plans were.

“Ladra, I want to build a strong relationship with you. If we could wait to answer those questions until after the holiday, I would sincerely appreciate it,” he said, asking to go off the record. When I said I could only go on background, I never heard back from him. Attempts to reach him since have failed. Maybe he is positioning himself for the state rep seat, but many malas lenguas in the know say the Senate race is his plan.

Stll, don’t count La Gwen out completely. Not yet. The senator told Ladra Monday afternoon that she had not decided whether to retire or not and would not make a decision until later this year, earliest.

‘All my options are open. If I feel as good then as I do now, I’ll just do it again,” Margolis told Ladra in a telephone interview from Tallahassee Monday afternoon.

“I’ve run in this district for years and I know these people, the key issue. I feel very comfortable with it,” she said, adding that she still enjoys the work. “To me, it’s like summer camp. I have a lot of good friends here. I enjoy Tallahassee.

She said Richardson was a “nice guy” but that she wasn’t endorsing anyone. “I’m not going to encourage 50 people to run when I haven’t decided what I want to do when I grow up,” said Margolis, who turned 80 in October and is likely the oldest serving legislator in Florida — maybe the country.

She’s not actively raising money, but she’s got more than Richardson, mind you — just under $20,000. But don’t let that fool you. She spent more than $375,000, including $160,000 of her own money, in 2012 to hold on to her seat.

Richardson won’t likely run against Margolis. He’s too classy a guy who made several high profile Dem phone calls before he announced, reaching out to former State Sen. Dan Gelber and former Miami-Dade Democratic Chairwoman Annette Taddeo and Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson and Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, to see if any of them would be interested in running.

“I certainly wasn’t going to run against Dan Gelber. This is only my second term and I wanted to be respectful to people who have been doing this a lot longer than I have,” said Richardson, who this year will be floor leader and ranking member on the rules and ethics committee.

Richardson, who thinks he can take his ability to work with members of both parties to the more collegial Senate, said he expects to be running in an open seat. “She and I have actually been talking about this for a while,” Richardson told me.

In fact, las malas lenguas say she was going to support him until Korge came up and she has decided not to get involved in any primary — likely out of respect for his dad — but we all know that the heavily blue district is decided in August.

But if Margolis pulls another bait and switch with her retirement, Richardson would probably just shift his focus back to the House seat where he is just starting his second term — to wait another two years.

  Andrew Korge, David Richardson, Florida Senate, Gwen Margolis