Former Polk Commissioner Randy Wilkinson becomes 8th candidate in Fla. House-48 race
Randy Wilkinson, a former Polk County School Board member and county commissioner, has joined a crowded race for an open seat in the Florida House of Representatives.
Wilkinson, 70, filed last week to run in District 48. That seat is open as Rep. Sam Killebrew, R-Winter Haven, has served four terms, the maximum allowed.
Wilkinson becomes the eighth candidate in the race, and all are Republicans. He joins Jon Albert, Jerry Carter, Chad Davis, Kenneth Hartpence, Deborah Owens, Amilee Stuckey and Benny Valentin as candidates.
District 48 covers much of eastern Polk County, stretching north to the Poinciana area and west to the Lakeland Highlands area. Wilkinson said he lives in Highland City.
Wilkinson served on the Polk County School Board from 1994 to 1998 before running for the Polk County Commission. Elected in 1998, he held office until 2010.
In that year, Wilkinson ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House as a Tea Party candidate. He attempted a return to the Polk County School Board in 2014, but he lost to incumbent Hazel Sellers. He filed to run for the Lakeland City Commission in 2019 but soon withdrew his candidacy.
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He entered the race for the Florida Senate in District 22 as a Republican in 2022 before withdrawing in recognition of the financial disadvantage he faced against Colleen Burton.
Wilkinson, a graduate of Lakeland High School, holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in education from Carson Newman College. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida.
Wilkinson said he served as a legislative liaison for Virginia Southern Baptists before returning to Florida. He worked as a library director in Hardee County and as a research and reference assistant at the Lakeland Public Library.
He said he served as a probation and parole officer in Tennessee and has taught at South Florida State College in Avon Park.
“I'm the most experienced candidate, for sure,” Wilkinson said. “I got more initiatives passed than any other (county) commissioner.”
Wilkinson cited his support for a significant increase in impact fees on developers, which he said yielded $110 million for the county, and said he led a child safety task force and fought increases in property taxes. On the School Board, Wilkinson said he pushed for an expansion of vocational and technical education programs in Polk County.
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In a platform statement, Wilkinson said he would seek permanent tax cuts for individuals and push for an increase in the homestead exemption on property taxes, seek to reduce home and vehicle insurance rates and contain “runaway development” by requiring road adequacy before new construction begins.
Wilkinson also emphasized the problem of homelessness. He suggested that the government experiment with group living arrangements comparable to the kibbutz concept in Israel. He said he would seek justice reform, based on his belief that Leo Schofield, a Lakeland man convicted of murder in 1988, is a victim of injustice.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Former Polk County Commissioner Wilkinson joins Fla. House-48 race
