District 3 City Commissioner Robert Stuart attends Come Out With Pride in downtown Orlando Oct. 9. (Photo form Stuart’s Facebook)
ORLANDO | Robert Stuart, the current city commissioner in Orlando’s District 3, announced an early voting kickoff event happening Oct. 18.
The Facebook event page says the event will have food, drinks and yard games, and allow voters a chance to meet and chat with Stuart. The event is happening at 1212 N. Westmoreland Dr. in Orlando from 5-7:30 p.m.
With about three weeks until election day, Stuart and his District 3 challengers, Nicolette Springer and Samuel Chambers, are working to get every vote they can. As voter turnout is typically much lower when there isn’t a presidential election pushing them to the polls every vote is going to carry more weight this year.
Stuart, who is running for his fifth term in District 3, is relying on his record over the last 15 years. Speaking with Watermark over the phone on Oct. 8, Stuart says it’s easy to see his support for the LGBTQ community over the last four terms.
“I think if you look back over the last 15 years you’ll find that I have been a strong supporter of the LGBTQ community,” he says. “I’ve had the opportunity to vote on key issues that I think are important. Issues like domestic partnership, supporting same-sex marriage in the state of Florida, as well as an ordinance to protect gender identity, so I think probably what I would say is I’ve been there … I’ve had the opportunity and the pleasure to help make those decisions and support the LGBTQ community.”
Stuart says he is proud of how inclusive and welcoming Orlando is to its LGBTQ community, pointing to Orlando’s rating of 100 over the last seven years on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index as well as Orlando being named the most LGBTQ-friendly travel destination by travel website ParkSleepFly.
“That doesn’t happen by accident; it happens by leadership and I’ve been honored to be a part of that leadership,” Stuart says.
Stuart has earned the endorsement of LGBTQ rights activist, entertainer and small business owner Martin Fugate, better known in the community as Leigh Shannon. Fugate, who was running against Stuart until last month, said in an interview with Watermark Sept. 16 that he ultimately decided to endorse Stuart after having a conversation with him about the Rosemont Development.
“I have to give Stuart credit for standing up for the district and that’s a good reason for me to endorse him,” Fugate said.
The Rosemont Development was passed in August by a vote of 5-2 with Stuart and fellow commissioner Tony Ortiz being the only ones who voted against it.
“We have to start listening to our neighbors and when I looked at Rosemont that’s what I was doing, I was listening to the neighbors,” Stuart says. “This was just not good for the community and the first time it was brought to us the council agreed, they withdrew it and they came back again and, in my opinion, the developer offered some things to get votes from other commissioners and the long and the short of it is there was essentially no change in the project. So you’re going to put 5,650 units on 128 acres, you’re going to build a downtown in the middle of Rosemont without any business infrastructure at all … I think it’s too much.”
Stuart says that he is running for a fifth term because while he is “proud of where Orlando is as a city,” there is still work to be done including strengthening pedestrian safety, building up community parks and completing several infrastructure improvements in the district.
“One is Edgewater Drive, we’ve just put a million dollars into its redesign to make it a part of the complete streets model,” he says. “Corrine and Virginia is a year behind them, so we’ll do that next year. They are on the cusp of getting some major activity done.”
During our conversation, Stuart also addressed a Facebook post from Brandon Bracale-Llewellyn, owner of the LGBTQ bar Savoy located in District 3. You can read that story here.
As Orlando approaches election day, Stuart says he wants voters to look at his record to see why they vote for him a fifth time.
“I’ve had the pleasure and honor of serving this city for 15 years and Orlando is a great place to live,” he says. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done and I want to continue making it a great place.”
Election day is Nov. 2. #VoteStuart2021 early voting kickoff event is tonight starting at 5 p.m. at 1212 N. Westmoreland Dr.
