Cape Coral veteran announces candidacy for Florida House
Gillis withdraws from House race; announces City Council bid
Denise McCleary, a 34-year Army veteran and auditor, has announced her campaign for Florida House District 79, which encompasses Cape Coral.
“Cape Coral is an important part of Lee County and residents deserve to have their voices heard. People here are still struggling with claims from insurance companies after Hurricane Ian and are now facing cancellation of insurance and premiums that have been doubled in costs. Veterans and older Floridians are living off their Social Security and with increasing costs they may have to leave the state. It’s clear our representatives in the Florida legislature are not working for us.” said McCleary, a Democrat, in a release announcing her candidacy.
According to the release McCleary served in the Army National Guard and Reserve Commands with tours during Operation Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom. She served as the Chief of Audit Operations with the New Jersey National Guard.
McCleary will “apply her military logistical, operational, and ethical standards to fight for the people in Tallahassee,” the release states.
She is an active member and supporter of her local Veterans of Foreign Wars, has as a post Quartermaster and District Quartermaster and has received awards including State VFW Award for Aide De Camp for helping her local VFW from being closed down.
Her issues include Florida’s insurance crisis, affordable housing, and healthcare, areas where she said she believes she can make a difference.
There are currently two candidates for Florida House District 79, McCleary and incumbent Mike Giallombardo. Larry Gillis, a Libertarian, had announced however he has since announced his withdrawal from the race to run for the District 2 Cape Coral City Council seat currently held by Councilmember Dan Sheppard.
“The recent Council vote to double the Councilors’ salaries with a so-called stipend is an outrageous example of their true mindset. They are contemptuous of the voters and the taxpayers. These salaries are supposed to be subject to approval by the taxpayers. Calling the increase a ‘stipend’ is a fraudulent end-run around the law. Even worse, they fired a bunch of volunteers to create these paid positions,” Gillis said in a prepared statement announcing his intention to run this week.
According to his release, Gillis, a 15-year resident of the Sands neighborhood, is a former director-at-large of the Libertarian Party of Florida. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Boston University School of Law. After a stint as the Concord City prosecutor, he practiced criminal law. He was a State Representative in New Hampshire, serving as chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Justice.
“I was going to run for State Representative here in Cape Coral. The campaign was going to focus on frugal government, with an amendment to the Florida State Constitution that installed a presumption against governmental involvement in our lives,” he said, adding those “same ideas can be implemented with even greater effect here in Cape Coral.