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Democratic newcomer challenges Republican incumbent in race for Florida House District 65

 
Bernie Fensterwald practiced law for 20 years.
Bernie Fensterwald practiced law for 20 years.
Published Oct. 12, 2016

North Pinellas County voters will choose next month between Republican incumbent Chris Sprowls and Bernie Fensterwald, a Democratic political newcomer, for the District 65 seat in the Florida House of Representatives.

Both say they are the best man to represent the district, which covers parts of Clearwater, Dunedin, Palm Harbor and Tarpon Springs. But with stances that stiffly align with the parties they pledge, their plans for doing so are vastly different.

Sprowls, who was elected to the House for his first term in 2014, takes pride in the fact that he has lived in Pinellas since age 3. The son of a retired New York City homicide detective, he graduated from Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, where he won a number of accolades and later helped start the school's Veterans Advocacy Clinic. Now 32, Sprowls works for a private law firm in Tampa following a seven-year stint as an assistant state attorney for Pasco and Pinellas counties.

This is a first shot at elected office for Fensterwald, 65, who moved to the area in 2009 from his home state of Virginia. His professional experience is varied — he practiced law for nearly 20 years before getting an education degree to become a school counselor, and all the while, has been involved in the management of a Virginia-based self-storage company.

As a strong proponent of the environment, Fensterwald says he decided to run for the spot after Sprowls voted in favor of fracking during the last legislative session. If elected, he says he plans to push toward addressing climate change and for solar power legislation that — unlike Amendment 1 that would give Floridians the right to have solar panels but still requires them to pay utility companies — is not tied to big business.

Fensterwald and Sprowls have gone head-to-head on a long list of other issues, too, one of the most contentious being in the education arena.

During his time in the House, Sprowls filed a successful bill about school choice, or the idealogy that parents should be able to choose from an array of education alternatives, such as charter schools, for their child, rather than be forced to enroll them in the public school they are zoned for.

"There is no one size fits all education model that fits all children," he said.

As someone with a brief time working in the education realm, Fensterwald disagrees and says school choice "ultimately leads to schools becoming winners and losers."

"State resources should be put into all schools to make them equally great, because if all schools are good then there is no need to have a choice," he said.

One thing they do agree on is that Amendment 2 — aimed to make medical marijuana available to a wider range of patients, including those with cancer, epilepsy, post traumatic stress disorder, HIV/AIDS and other debilitating medical conditions — would be better suited as a bill that could make its way through the Legislature, rather than a Constitutional amendment that, if passed, will be harder to change down the line.

Sprowls says he won't support it, for fear that passage in its current form would create a "de-facto recreational marijuana system." Fensterwald says his compassion for the sick is what pushed him to vote in favor.

"There are people out there that can benefit from it," he said. "Yes, it will be harder to amend as part of the Constitution, but to me, it's a trade-off. The benefits of it outweigh the manner in which it is made legal."

As a person who lived in Virginia at the time of the Virginia Tech massacre, Fensterwald has a strong stance against guns on college campuses. But Sprowls says it's important to him to protect the rights of innocent, licensed gun owners.

Under current legislation "an individual can have a firearm in a car or truck while driving by a student … but the (licensed) student walking alone from class to their home cannot be armed," Sprowls said. "That is an inequity that should not exist."

Throughout the race, Fensterwald, who is still somewhat involved in self-storage business but boasts his elevated free time, has fired at Sprowls, saying he fears his professional life may take away from his ability to serve constituents.

"Every time someone asks me who I am running against, the response is usually 'Who's he?' " Fensterwald said of his opponent.

But Sprowls says the criticisms are conjecture.

"For the first two years (in office) I successfully managed being a father, a husband, a lawyer and a successful member of the Florida Legislature," he said. "Nothing has changed."

Contact Megan Reeves at mreeves@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4153. Follow @mreeves_tbt.