Ric Keller

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Ric Keller

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 8th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2001–
Preceded by	Bill McCollum
Succeeded by	Incumbent

Born	September 05, 1964 (age 42) Johnson City, Tennessee
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Dee Dee Keller
Religion	Methodist

Richard "Ric" Keller (born September 5, 1964) is an American politician, and has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 2001, representing Florida's 8th congressional district (map). He was born in Johnson City, Tennessee, was educated at East Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University, and was a lawyer before entering the House.

On October 18, 2005, Keller was hospitalized in Orlando, Florida, after suffering a cardiac arrhythmia. He was driving his car and blacked out and hit another car in a parking lot. He has been told by his doctor not to drive for 6 months.

1 Campaign history
2 Views on the Iraq War
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Campaign history

Main article: Florida U.S. House election, 2006

Richard Keller has successfully campaigned for and held his seat for 3 terms.

2000 was a very competitive race. Early on Keller came in second place during the primary with 31% of the vote vs. fellow Republican Bill Sublette's 43% but he went on to capture the Republican nomination with 52% during the run-off election. Largely due to his public signing of a terms limits pledge that Mr. Sublette refused to sign. Keller conducted a major advertising effort to inform voters of the candidates' term limits positions. Keller signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge committing to serving no more than eight years in the U.S. House. In the 2000 General Election he won with 51% of the vote against Democrat Linda Chapin.

After the 2001 Congressional Re-apportionment, Florida's 8th District was redistricted from a near equal representation to one that includes 7% more Republicans than Democrats.

Ric Keller readily won the 2002 Congressional election against Democrat Eddie Diaz with 65% of the vote.

In 2004 Keller held his seat with 60% of the vote against Democrat challenger Stephen Murray.

Keller defeated Democrat challenger Charlie Stuart in 2006, the first strong and well-funded candidate to face Keller since his election in 2000.

Todd Long, an Orlando personal injury attorney and radio talkshow host announced his candidacy to replace Ric Keller’s vacant seat due to Mr. Keller’s term limits pledge.

Shortly after Mr. Long’s announcement Rep. Keller announced he would not be honoring his term limits pledge.

The race is off to an early start for 2008 and is already grabbing the attention of the national media including the New York Times.

[edit] Views on the Iraq War

Although he is a supporter of President Bush's plans with regard to the Iraq War, Rep. Keller announced during a speech that he was in favor of the Democratic plan for withdrawing from Iraq. He stated "Let me give you an analogy. Imagine your next door neighbor refuses to mow his lawn and the weeds are all the way up to his waist. You decide you’re going to mow his lawn for him every single week. The neighbor never says thank you. He hates you and sometimes he takes out a gun and shoots at you. Under these circumstances, do you keep mowing his lawn forever? Do you send even more of your family members over to mow his lawn? Or do you say to that neighbor, ‘You better step it up and mow your own lawn or there’s going to be serious consequences for you’?"[1]