Gaetz Presidential Designation Will Feature Northwest Floridians

When Senator Don Gaetz is designated as Florida’s next Senate President next Monday the focus of the ceremony and many of the participants will be from Northwest Florida

Gaetz will be named as the 2012-2014 Senate President at Florida’s Capitol on September 19.  He is unopposed for the office, a rarity in state politics.  He will be the first Senate President from Okaloosa County since 1949, when Newman Brackin, Sr. was chosen to lead the upper chamber.

The day will begin with a private Senate prayer breakfast in the old Senate chamber in Florida’s Historic Capitol.  The homily speaker at the prayer breakfast will be Fort Walton Beach attorney Don Anchors, a longtime friend and counselor to the Gaetz family.  Niceville High School’s nationally-honored Opus One, under the direction of Michael Dye, will perform  at the breakfast and will sing both the National Anthem and America the Beautiful, accompanied by Pensacola’s Perdido Brass, later in the day at the designation ceremony in the Senate Chamber.

Senator Gaetz’s pastor, Reverend John Underdahl of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Niceville, will offer the invocation and benediction at the prayer breakfast and will open the designation ceremony with prayer.

Niceville resident Colonel Howard Hill, Vietnam War POW, will lead the Senate, Governor, Cabinet and visitors in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Hill and Gaetz served together on the Okaloosa School Board for ten years.  The national and state colors will be presented on the Senate floor by the Air Force Special Operations Color Guard from Hurlburt Field, which is one of five military bases in Senator Gaetz’s district.

Nominating Gaetz for President will be Senator John Thrasher of Jacksonville and Senator Joe Negron of Stuart.

According to a historic tradition, senators will one by one call out Gaetz’s name to elect him their next leader.  Gaetz will be joined on the Senate floor by his wife, Vicky, and son, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fort Walton Beach) and daughter, Erin.  Don and Matt Gaetz are the first father/son, senator/representative team to serve concurrently in the state’s history.