The race for Florida’s House District 47 now includes a lawsuit as Anna Eskamani, a former Planned Parenthood official, is suing her Democratic primary opponent Lou Forges, a real estate agent from Ocoee.
The reason for the lawsuit is that Forges’ qualifying paperwork was notarized by his wife, and Eskamani also questions Forges’ work with Corridor Consulting Group, which has worked with Republicans that include District 47’s own outgoing representative Mike Miller.
In a statement, Eskamani commented that “All signs indicate that Lou Forges was recruited by the Republican Party to run against me, creating a fake primary.”
She added that “Republicans know they can’t win this seat legitimately, so they’ve resorted to what they know best: Dirty tricks and corrupt tactics. I have committed my life’s work to fighting for what is right, and voters can count on me to always fight for them, whether it be in the streets, in the legislature, or in a courthouse.”
In response to the lawsuit, Mikaela Nix, a lawyer and Republican that’s also running for the seat, argued that it’s “very ‘establishment’ of Anna Eskamani to sue to kick a fellow Democrat and African-American off the ballot. It looks like her political playbook is the same one that Hillary Clinton used against Bernie Sanders.” Instead, Nix argues that she’s gonna win fair and square by “knocking on doors and winning over voters, not using legal loopholes to deny voters a choice or citizens access to the ballot.”
