State Rep. Jayer Williamson has announced he will not seek another term. He sent this email to his fellow House members:
Members:
With the 2022 legislative session soon to be underway, I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out and share some news directly with you. After using the holiday break to spend time with my family, reflecting on the past year and pondering the future, I have decided not to seek a fourth and final term as a member of the Florida House.
Most of you know that I’m a very “live in the moment and let’s see what happens†kind of person. I try not to dwell on the past, and I certainly know I can’t predict the future. However, during the last few weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time praying and having serious conversations with my family about the road ahead. While I didn’t make this decision lightly, it was surprisingly easy.
Often forgotten in politics is the fact that we are all humans. We laugh, cry and bleed just like everyone else. I am a grandson, son, father, husband, uncle, nephew and brother. Like many of you, I also have a “real job†and employees that rely on me to support their families. Unfortunately, some of the people we serve forget this, as do many who hold public office.
We’re not celebrities or rockstars, and our goal shouldn’t be getting a blue checkmark on Twitter or likes on a Facebook post. My sole purpose for doing this job is the same now as when I was five years old and told my grandfather why I wanted to be a State Representative – “to help people.†As you continue in the future, I hope you will always stay true to why we are called to serve. I’m looking forward to finishing the 2022 legislative session doing just that – making a difference in the lives of my fellow Floridians.
I want to give a special thanks to Speaker Sprowls for the trust he placed in me over the last year and though I will be gone, I look forward to seeing great things from Speaker Designate Renner next cycle. Thank you for your support and friendship. Thank you for challenging me, lifting me up and working side-by-side with me. I am a better person because God allowed our paths to cross.
Jayer Williamson
State Representative, House District 3
When I heard that Representative Williamson had announced he wasn’t running again, my first thought was “Bad for us; good for him.”
My second thought was “Maybe now he can get out from underneath that horrendous Recall bill.” Mr. Lewis, perhaps you’re not aware that hot mess is fueled by avowed QAnon and self-styled revolutionary Chance Johnmeyer, who runs around cloak and dagger telling people that his life is in danger because he is such a threat to the established power. Guess he hasn’t caught on yet that he has been bait and switched into running a racket for the established power up in Tallahassee, who would like nothing better than to continue to inject havoc on a local level, strip away home rule, wouldn’t dare to run a recall bill with that low a threshold on constitutional officers such as sheriffs and clerks of court, and certainly have no idea that they themselves should be held to recall. It made me sad to see somebody with Mr. Williamson’s integrity mixed up in that mess. Hopefully he’ll feel freed up now from the bonds of having to traffic in that sort of thing in order to please the ravenous higher ups on the food chain. If for no other reason than to guard the checkbooks of the constituents who will have their tax coffers drained by endless recalls roiling the stability and economies of local governments.
I haven’t read anything more sincere and full of common sense in a long time than the post he made explaining why on his Facebook. To me, Mr. Wiliamson’s announcement was an understated message of what integrity really looks like, one that ought to cast at least a ripple in the sea of political “leaders” motivated by narcissistic greed in a state where the ruling party seems hell-bent on carrying us over the cliff of their codependent megalomania.
Hats off, Representative Williamson. It’s sad that the measure of politicians’ ethics these days so often comes down to the question of whether they can stomach the toxicity any more. When the answer is no, that’s a sure sign of a decent person. Maybe this country will make it back to a day where people like you are inspired to continue in your service by the political milieu, rather than being forced out of it by an intact conscience and a heart bent on service rather than self-aggrandizement.
Jayer has been a great representative of Santa Rosa County both as a Commissioner and a Representative. I fully understand and support his decision. However, this will be a loss for NW Florida as he has provided good leadership wherever he has been.
Kudos to Williamson for one piece of legislation that he has proposed. It would give state voters a chance to amend the Florida Constitution to allow for the recall of county constitutional officers and county commissioners. If approved by voters, a new state law would implement the amendment. The new law implementing the amendment would likely be modeled after the state law that now makes members of a municipal “governing body” subject to recall. Williamson’s proposal is great but not enough. It should be expanded to include all elected “county” officials to include school board members and special district members like ECUA board members. It should also be expanded to provide for the recall of “all” municipal elected officials to include mayors who are not members of their city or town councils (four of five mayors in the Pensacola Bay Area are not subject to the state’s recall law), certain town clerks and a few police chiefs (some in Florida are elected).