Longtime Florida Keys commissioner not seeking reelection
Sylvia Murphy, a longtime Florida Keys county commissioner, will not seek reelection when her fourth term ends in November 2020.
Murphy, 83, has served on the five-member Monroe County board for nearly 14 years, first winning a special election in 2006 after Murray Nelson, namesake of the county’s Key Largo government and cultural arts center, died with two years left on his term.
Although Murphy said her health isn’t the only factor in her decision, it played a role.
“Every time I made an appointment or booked a plane, I would wonder how I would feel that particular day,” she said Wednesday.
She’s been battling cancer for several years, but the disease hasn’t stopped her from doing her job, or even slowed her down — though she concedes other health issues have taken their toll.
“Every problem I’ve had in the last four years was not cancer-related,” she said. “I think it’s just all the other crap that comes with being 83 years old.”
But for now, she said she feels great.
“My health at the moment is very, very good,” Murphy said.
Murphy, a Republican, retired as a medic with the Monroe County Emergency Medical Services in 1996. She also served two decades with the Tavernier Volunteer Fire Department.
Her résumé also includes working at Coral Shores High School, for Monroe County translating its Spanish archives into English and for the county Health Department.
Asked to name some of her main achievements during her tenure as an elected official, Murphy responded, “hundreds of little things.”
“All I wanted to do was make Key Largo a smoother place to live,” she said. “I wanted to be in a position to help people — who to talk to, whether it be someone in the county, to an attorney — and I think I’ve done that.”
One big project Murphy says she’s proud of was the purchase of Rowell’s Marina at mile marker 102, bay side, for $5 million in 2013 so the county could have a waterfront park. The 8-acre property is now called Rowell’s Waterfront Park.
But, she said she’s happier to have helped her constituents navigate the complexities of county government.
“I’ve been a very good traffic director, and that’s what I am here for,” Murphy said. “That’s what all county commissioners should be there for, not necessarily for getting big projects built. Big projects cost taxpayers money.”
Two of the five county commission districts are up for election in 2020 —Murphy’s District 5, which covers Key Largo to Islamorada, and District 1 in Key West. Although county commissioners represent specific geographic districts, they are elected into office by voters countywide.
Republican Mike Forster, a longtime Islamorada Village Council member and owner of several popular restaurants, is the only candidate who has filed in the District 5 race now that Murphy has bowed out.
Forster entered the race more than a year ago, he said, after Murphy told him she was retiring from politics after her fourth term.
“As everyone knows, she has had a couple of changes of heart as far as running again, but my resolve and passion for serving countywide had never wavered once I entered the race for the seat, and not against an opponent,” he said Wednesday.
Joyce Griffin, Monroe County supervisor of elections, said the qualifying deadline period to file for the 2020 election is from June 8, starting at noon, to 12 p.m. June 12.
Three people have filed so far in the District 3 race.
They are: former Key West mayor Craig Cates, who is running as a Republican; Monroe County Tax Collector Danise “Dee Dee” Henriquez, a Democrat; and Republican Andy Williams, a Key West resident with a long arrest record who once ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District.
This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 6:22 PM.
