Watson announces run for Florida House Seat 23

Supporters congratulate Clovis Watson, Jr., after his announcement Tuesday that he would be running for Florida House Seat 23.

 It didn't take Clovis Watson, Jr., long to confirm what had been rumored for some time about whether he'd make a run for the Florida House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon.

Alachua’s former deputy chief of police and city manager walked into Gainesville’s Sun Center atrium as supporters and reporters stood by awaiting his address.

“I put myself before you as a candidate for the office of State Representative District-23, and I do so, with a 30 year history of public service and with a successful record of providing jobs and opportunities for thousands of people,” he said.

A longtime Democrat, in 2006 Watson changed his party affiliation to Republican and prior to the 2008 general election switched back to Democrat. After making the announcement, Watson told the audience that regardless of party affiliation, it would take working together to strengthen Florida’s economic climate, saying “It is time to energize, not just criticize… leadership of reasoned collaboration with all groups, all parties, all interests for the greater good of all, not for the few or the powerful.”

His campaign and term in office, if elected, would include reaching across the aisle to get things done, he said. “I am not here to promise you everything you want…but I am here to pledge that I will put all of my energy and resources into getting everything we need, within the framework of the charge given to our governments,” said Watson.

If elected, Watson said he would be a champion for the people and for governmental responsibility, where the State provides the tools for success, not just for survival.

“I will be a champion for personal responsibility. With a “responsible government” supporting a “responsible citizenry” there is no challenge we cannot meet and no goal we cannot achieve,” Watson said.

Watson said he decided to run for the seat, which is currently held by incumbent Charles S. “Chuck” Chestnut, in order to provide the type of leadership in Tallahassee that brings opportunity and results. Although Chestnut has not formally announced, it has been reported that he will run for the Alachua County Commission seat being vacated by retiring Commissioner Rodney Long.

Watson, the fourth of six children, lived in Alachua’s Merrillwood Housing Projects during his childhood.  As a teenager he worked at a packing shed off County Road 235, packing fruit during the school year to help his father who had two jobs, and during the summer he was cropping tobacco and picking squash until dark for $10 a day to help pay for school clothes.

After graduating from high school in 1976, Watson stayed in his hometown of Alachua to work at the Copeland Sausage Company, at times working on the “hog hair crew,” scraping hair off hogs going to slaughter and dumping the debris in barrels.

“Those things really teach you discipline,” Watson said. “Working in the sun all day is tough.”

Watson became the first African-American police sergeant in Alachua and later held the same distinction as Deputy Chief of Police. He was appointed Alachua City Manager in 2002, and during his seven years at that post, he saw the city’s tax base grow from $12 million to $40 million, bringing in corporate business partners that created over a thousand new jobs, fulfillment of a long awaited community center for seniors, and the creation of Santa Fe College’s $6.8 million Charles R. and Nancy V. Perry Center for Emerging Technologies in Alachua.  Watson retired from the City of Alachua in 2009.