Annette Taddeo, a Democrat and former state senator, is running for Florida chief financial officer in the Nov. 3 general election against incumbent Republican Blaise Ingoglia.

Asked why she is running, Taddeo said in our candidate questionnaire: "Florida families are paying more for everything while Tallahassee looks the other way. As a small business owner and a mother, I pay Florida's rising costs too. Homeowners are being crushed by the highest insurance rates in the nation, while insiders get billion-dollar no-bid contracts that have never been audited."

She added: "Florida needs a CFO who is a watchdog, not a lapdog."

Candidate information

Party: Democrat

Family: "When I was 17, my father, an American fighter pilot, was kidnapped by FARC guerrillas in Colombia. That experience brought me to the United States. I moved to Florida in 1992, built my business here, and raised my family. My husband, Eric, and I live in Miami with my mom, Elizabeth, and our dogs, Snow and Mocha. Our daughter, Sofia, is away at university in Boston."

Education: "I worked as a waitress to put myself through the University of North Alabama, where I earned a Bachelor's Degree in Commercial Spanish/Business Administration. I later earned two executive education scholarships to the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, where I completed an Executive Education program and an Advanced Executive Education program."

Occupation: "I am a small business owner. For more than 30 years, I have run LanguageSpeak, a Florida language services company, creating jobs and meeting a payroll."

Experience and public service

Taddeo said in our questionnaire: "I was elected to the Florida Senate in a 2017 special election, flipping a Republican-held seat, and was reelected to a full four-year term in 2018 by six points. I was the first Latina Democrat ever elected to the Florida Senate."

She said she "served five years on the Banking and Insurance Committee, where I fought for the state to fund a study of the 'affiliate' companies insurers use to move profits, and fought the insurance bailout bills."

Taddeo also served as chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party in 2012 and was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014, according to Wikipedia.

On the issues

What sets her apart: Taddeo said in our questionnaire: "My opponent was appointed and has never been elected to this office. He has taken a quarter million dollars from insurance interests and voted for a $3 billion tax handout to insurance companies while Floridians pay the highest rates in the nation." She said she brings "30 years running a Florida small business, five years on the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, and independence."

Property insurance: Asked what she would do about insurance costs, Taddeo said: "I will publish a report card grading every insurance company within my first 100 days: how fast it pays claims, how often it delays or denies, how much of your premium goes to its own affiliates, and how financially sound it is. Every company, by name." She said she would send strike teams after hurricanes, deploying "from my department into hit communities within 3 to 5 days to help families push stalled claims."

Government transparency: Taddeo said: "Every state contract posted in the public FACTS database, as Florida law already requires. No exceptions, no hiding." She said "hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency contracts, including no-bid deals, are still missing from it." She pledged to "audit emergency spending starting with the $1.2 billion spent on Alligator Alcatraz, publish what I find in plain language, and refer fraud or abuse for prosecution."

Accomplishments: Taddeo said in our questionnaire she worked on a major homeowners association fraud case: "I helped bring to justice one of the largest HOA frauds in American history, at the Hammocks in my district … People were threatened. I did not back down. The result: guilty pleas in an $11 million theft and a new state law for homeowners."

Taddeo has received endorsements from the Teamsters Joint Council 75 and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, according to Florida Politics, and from the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association and AFSCME Florida, according to BallotReady data.