Better Know Chris Chiari - Live Chat

On Wednesday August 15th at 7:30 PM, Florida Netroots will be holding a live chat with Chris Chiari, candidate for State Representive in District 91.

District 91 compromises of parts of Broward and Palm Beach Counties running from Palmetto Park Road in Southeast Boca to Dania Beach Blvd. in Broward County, and includes the following cities: Boca Raton, Hillsborough Beach, Deerfield Beach, Lighthouse Point, Pompano Beach, Sea Ranch Lakes, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Oakland Park, Fort Lauderdale and includes both Port Everglades and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.

Chris Chiari will be facing incumbent Republican Ellyn Bogdanoff, who also has a challenger in the primary by the name of Darin Lentner.


Mrs. Bogdanoff has a degree in Insurance/Risk Management, ran an independent insurance agency, was a columnist for a national insurance magazine, and then obtained a law degree and worked for a law firm that has several insurance companies as clients. She's one of the lead negotiators on legislation to replace PIP. If it isn't already obvious, one of the criticisms of the incumbent is that she's in the pocket of the insurance industry.

I'm going to assume Mr. Lentner's campaign website is still under construction (psst, fix the errors in the meta tags) given the lack of any information and that he just filed for the office in July. A further search reveals that he's a trial lawyer from Fort Lauderdale who specializes in personal injury protection (PIP) cases. I take it he doesn't agree with Bogdanoff's position on PIP.

The no-fault law, which requires Florida drivers to carry $10,000 worth of personal injury protection or "PIP" in their insurance coverage, expires Oct. 1. The legislature is convening a special session beginning September 18. Whether PIP will be addressed or not is up in the air.

It's certainly an issue that has gotten some interesting attention at places like the Miami Herald's Naked Politics and the Orlando Sentinel recently.

Chris Chiari has his own point of view on PIP, namely, that the legislature should preserve and protect the integrity of medical coverage and current treatment options for those injured in accidents and institute new reforms to protect against fraudulent claims. Feel free to listen to his podcast on the end of No Fault and PIP.

Of course, it isn't the only reason Chiari is running against Bogdanoff, as his site lists several reasons why We're Better Off Without Bogdanoff You can also learn more about the candidate by listening to his July 29th appearance on Florida Progressive Radio.

If you live in district 91 or you're just concerned about the issues, please stop by on Wednesday August 15th at 7:30 PM - there will be a link posted where you can access the live chat.