State House, District 74: Robert Kaplan

Name: Robert Samuel Kaplan (NPA)

Age: 63

Occupation: Retired.

Family: Son of Samuel E. Kaplan M.D. and Sarah G. Kaplan R.N. one of the co-founders of Venice Community Hospital.

If elected to the Legislature, what will be your top three priorities? My top three priorities if elected to the Legislature will be health care, education, water regulation and fracking and gun control.

Are you in favor of raising Florida’s minimum wage? Yes but do not think there is any money left to support this bill.

Regarding red tide, what steps do you think the Legislature should take, if any, to address it?  Fix the Dam first and quit using Medicaid expansion as a pond.

Which government body should regulate vacation rentals — the state or cities and counties? Another made up lemon law. No government body should regulate vacation rentals, just like moving to a district after winning an election.

What is your position on whether to increase more school choice options, specifically, the Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which allows families to receive 90 percent of the state's per-pupil dollars to be used for tuition at private schools and other educational needs? The Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account program should not even dictate Florida's Scholarship funds.  Personally, I feel the funds are in politician's pockets which determine the dismantling of a university program to either make an institution public or private.  In other words, privatization and imminent domain dictates to the taxpayers to non for profit institutions.

What is your position on legalizing recreational marijuana? I am for the legalization of recreational marijuana and medical marijuana. Reason being, Gov. Rick Scott appealed the marijuana law.  He feels that the Affordable Care Act is a Lemon Law, and therefore medical and recreational marijuana are also lemon laws.  Also, if he signs No Free Speech Zones at a university not only students will have a muzzle over their mouths, they will not vote for the House seats anymore.This is why I was not invited to the SSN News Debate or ABC7 Sun Coast Debates.  Moral of the story:  When a Republican promises to support another Republican and changes their mind to support a Democrat, one should worry whether or not that Amendment 1 free speech is in danger and that the voters do not have a clear choice of who they voted for in the primaries.