The congressman from the 15th District is Bill Posey, a Republican who succeeded seven-term GOP Rep. Dave Weldon in 2008. Posey was born in Washington, D.C., but moved several times due to his father’s work in the aircraft business. His family landed in Brevard County in 1956, and after graduating from high school, Posey took a job with McDonnell Douglas Astronautics at the Kennedy Space Center. He worked on the Apollo 11 Launch Team and attended Brevard Community College at night. After Apollo 11 successfully put men on the moon, Posey received a congratulatory letter from the director of NASA, and a month later, was laid off. Posey changed careers and went into real estate. He founded Posey & Co. Realtors in 1974 and is still president of the company. Posey is also an accomplished stock car racer, although since an accident at an Orlando speedway in 2004 left him with spinal fractures he has taken a break from racing. Read More

The congressman from the 15th District is Bill Posey, a Republican who succeeded seven-term GOP Rep. Dave Weldon in 2008. Posey was born in Washington, D.C., but moved several times due to his father’s work in the aircraft business. His family landed in Brevard County in 1956, and after graduating from high school, Posey took a job with McDonnell Douglas Astronautics at the Kennedy Space Center. He worked on the Apollo 11 Launch Team and attended Brevard Community College at night. After Apollo 11 successfully put men on the moon, Posey received a congratulatory letter from the director of NASA, and a month later, was laid off. Posey changed careers and went into real estate. He founded Posey & Co. Realtors in 1974 and is still president of the company. Posey is also an accomplished stock car racer, although since an accident at an Orlando speedway in 2004 left him with spinal fractures he has taken a break from racing.

Posey was the first member of his family to register as a Republican, a decision inadvertently inspired by a college professor who lauded the Democratic Party’s championing of inflation and deficit spending. “He literally was trying to convince the class that inflation was good because you could buy the things you wanted now and finance them later with cheaper money,” Posey recalls. He was elected to the Rockledge City Council in 1976 and served until 1986. Four years later, he won a seat in the Florida House of Representatives, where he authored legislation that set new standards for state government accountability. He also wrote a book entitled Activity Based Total Accountability detailing his work on the issue. He served in the state House until 2000, when term limits forced him to resign. He then won a close state Senate race.

After Weldon announced his retirement in January 2008, Posey decided to run for the seat. He got Weldon’s endorsement and that of Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer, who called for the party to unite behind Posey. Veteran state Rep. Stan Mayfield, who had also announced his candidacy, fell in line, withdrew from the race and endorsed Posey.

Florida Democrats were unable to find a strong candidate, and Posey became the clear favorite to win the general election. He won the GOP primary with 77% of the vote, and faced Democrat Stephen Blythe, a Melbourne family physician, in the general election.

Posey made government accountability and reform of the immigration system the central themes of his campaign. It was an amiable contest. The candidates expressed mutual admiration and said that they would vote for each other if they could not vote for themselves. Posey outspent Blythe by almost 9-to-1 and won 53% to 42%.

Once in Washington, Posey almost instantly became controversial for introducing a bill requiring future presidential candidates to provide birth certificates proving they are natural born U.S. citizens. The move came at the height of the 2009 “birther” flap on the far right over whether President Obama was born overseas, and made Posey the target of considerable venom in the liberal blogosphere. He contended his bill had nothing to do with Obama, but even some of his GOP colleagues publicly expressed their distaste with his proposal.

He subsequently joined Republicans in opposing Obama’s major legislative initiatives, but showed a willingness to occasionally break with his party. He voted with Democrats on extending unemployment benefits, and joined Florida Democrat Suzanne Kosmas on her bill to double the one-year waiting period before members who leave their seats can lobby ex-colleagues. As a member of the Financial Services Committee, he continued his quest for more accountability in government. He succeeded in getting the committee to post the results of every committee vote on its website within two days. He also introduced bills to require a 72-hour waiting period before legislation could be brought to the House floor and to require state governments to submit fiscal accounting reports as a condition of getting federal money.

Posey coasted to re-election in 2010, receiving 65% in facing Democrat Carolyn “Shannon” Roberts.