- Willie Logan
Infobox Mayor
name=Willie Logan
order=
office= Mayor ofOpa-locka, Florida
birth_date = 1980
birth_place =
term_start = 1980
term_end = 1982
predecessor =
successor =
party =
website =Willie Logan (born
February 16 ,1957 ) is an American politician from theU.S. state ofFlorida . A former member of theFlorida House of Representatives , he campaigned for theUnited States Senate as an Independent in 2000.Biograhy
Born in Northern
Miami-Dade County , Logan graduated fromhigh school in 1975, Logan attendedMiami-Dade Community College , from which he earned anassociate's degree , before graduating with aBachelor of Science degree from theUniversity of Miami in 1977.After working for three years in the
insurance industry , and volunteering for several political campaigns, Logan made his first run for public office in 1980, being electedmayor ofOpa-locka, Florida at age 23, making him the youngest mayor of any American city at that time.fact|date=May 2008 That same year, he founded theOpa-locka Community Development Corporation , a non-profit that he eventually built into a multi-million dollar organization with five subsidiaries.In 1982, while still serving as mayor, Logan ran as a Democrat for the Florida House of Representatives and won. He served in the House for 18 years, during which time he was consistently rated as one of the most effective Democratic legislators in the heavily-Republican Chamber.
In 1998, Logan touched off a firestorm of controversy when, after serving for 16 years and becoming one of the caucus' senior legislators, he was ousted as the first
African American Speaker-designate in the Chamber's history by his fellow Democratic legislators and defeated for the post ofminority leader . Logan's detractors claimed that this was because of Logan's apparent disinterest in caucus affairs, while his supporters charged that it was the result ofracism , as Logan had been defeated by a white candidate.Whatever the reason, the results of the caucus election formed a rift between Logan and his party. That year, he endorsed Republican nominee
Jeb Bush in his campaign for Governor. He also formed anexploratory committee and began to test the waters for an Independent campaign for the U.S. Senate.On
September 29 ,1999 , Logan officially announced his candidacy as an Independent. Under the slogan "Think Independent," he embarked on amotorcycle tour of the state, which ended with a rally at the state capitol in Tallahassee. HiringBill Hillsman , the adman credited with the upset victories of SenatorPaul Wellstone and GovernorJesse Ventura inMinnesota , Logan aired one television ad, entitled "Shades," in which, in anhomage to the film "Patton", thesunglasses -clad Logan stood onstage before a blown-up $1 million-bill and inveighed against "Big Money politics."In addition to his position in favor of strict
campaign finance reform , which was the central issue of his campaign, Logan also campaigned on promises to enact strong environmental protection and gun control laws, slashcorporate welfare , reduce spending on military programs that he deemed unnecessary, enact the Patients' Bill of Rights, cut theincome tax for couples making $70,000 a year or less, protect theSocial Security Trust Fund , and open uptrade withChina .Although
opinion poll s generally showed Logan's support to be in the double digits, sufficient to gain him entry into a series of televiseddebate s between the "major" candidates (which Logan was widely believed to have won), this support proved ephemeral on Election Day, as Logan received just 17,270 votes, or about 1%.After the election, Logan, who had not run for re-election to the House, returned to Opa-locka to operate the Opa-locka Community Development Corporation and the Logan Consulting Group.
ee also
*
List of the youngest mayors in the United States
*Youth politics External links
* [http://www.wlogan.org/Logan2000/ Willie Logan for U.S. Senate]
* [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/results/index.html Results of the 2000 Florida Senate Election]
* [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/09/01/logan/index.html "Big Willie Style" by Jake Tapper]
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