Tallahassee, FL - Rick Minor, Chair of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee, announced today that he has resigned his Chairmanship in order to run for the District 9 seat in the Florida House of Representatives. 

"Last fall, the voters of Florida asked for strong, progressive leadership.  After speaking with many Tallahassee residents, I have come to believe they did not get the type of leadership and expertise they deserve here in District 9" said Minor. 

"Voters want a State Representative who reflects their principles and will fight for the issues they care about.  I believe many residents of District 9 want a strong leader to represent them in the Capitol.   By launching my campaign, I'm giving them a choice in 2010" said Minor.

Minor also announced that his campaign would be the first carbon-neutral political campaign in the Tallahassee-Leon County area.  Minor and his staff will track their campaign activities, calculate their carbon footprint, and purchase offsets to negate the carbon dioxide gases generated by the campaign.

A typical legislative campaign can generate more than 55 metric tons of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.  With a carbon offset cost of $15 per metric ton, a campaign might spend about $825 to negate the greenhouse gases generated.

"A candidate's commitment to environmental stewardship should start on Day One, and so I'm proud to launch the first campaign in the Tallahassee area to be carbon neutral" said Minor.

 "I intend to make this campaign an example of good environmental policy," said Minor. "Not only are we going to track our carbon footprint, but we will seek to reduce it with sensible, environmentally-friendly campaign practices such as recycling and using eco-friendly products."

Rick Minor has developed public policy for state and local governments, as well as three Florida gubernatorial campaigns and a presidential campaign.   Prior to that, he was a business/information technology consultant for nine years.

In addition to serving as the Chairman of the Leon County Democratic Party, Minor was also one of Florida's 27 presidential electors for Barack Obama in 2008.

Minor is a native Floridian with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business from the University of Florida and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University.