What I’ve Learned
Steve Crisafulli 53, Merritt Island Former Florida Speaker of the House, Now focused on business, family and ‘making connections’ As told to Rosanne Dunkelberger
WITH A COUSIN WHO WAS FLORIDA’S GOVERNOR AND A GRANDFATHER NAMED CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT, YOU WERE HEIR TO A DISTINGUISHED POLITICAL HISTORY. DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE A POLITICIAN? Honestly, I never really thought I would ever want to be in politics because I’ve always enjoyed the family business and the business side of things. In fact, I found myself on the opposite side of government on a lot of things, spending more time sitting in agency and local government offices than (on) my own working through family projects. The seat I ran for originally was held by an individual that resigned early. It was then picked up in a Special Election by a Democrat in January of 2008. … Obviously Special Elections can bring out a different voting bloc; the seat was a heavy leaning Republican seat on paper. The RPOF and House Campaigns came to the area and started looking for somebody to run for the seat. They visited with several people at the county government and different businesspeople and my name came up on several occasions. So they reached out and asked if I would be interested in running when the seat was back up, which was 10 months later. I still didn’t have an interest in running, but … the timing of their conversation with me along with some different things I was working on for the family business, provided enough frustration for me to say: “You know what? Stop complaining about
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INFLUENCE Spring 2025