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A Panhandle physician’s election to the Florida House of Representatives has resulted in the creation of an alter ego, a doctor of rock ‘n’ roll.
On a recent Wednesday, dressed in a white smock over shiny black faux leather pants and wearing four-inch platform boots, Dr. Joel Rudman, M.D., nonchalantly tossed prescription forms to the audience at a Tallahassee nightclub while his band broke into Motley Crue’s “Dr. Feelgood.”
Later, standing at the microphone in full Dr. Rock mode, Rudman with guitar in hand and one eye blackened with mascara – as if a Zombie was interrupted while putting on makeup – surveyed the audience and spotted a crew of legislators, staff, and lobbyists.
“I know a lot of you have experience in making the law, but what about breaking the law,” he sneered.
“Well, let’s break the (expletive) law,” yelled Dr. Rock as the power trio behind him assaulted the audience with the opening chords of Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law.”
The antics of first-term Rep. Joel Rudman, R-Navarre, as a heavy metal rocker animated a Halloween party/concert for about 100 legislators, staff and lobbyists in town for a week of committee meetings as lawmakers prepare for the 2024 legislative session.
Fire Betty’s was decorated with inflatable ghouls. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling. A row of lights above the bar blinked in sequence to the beat of the music, and a strobe light bathed the band in hues of red, green and blue.
Between songs, singer Jeff Ivanhoff incited the crowd to party and Rudman donned hats and accessories as props to introduce songs.
The band is called the Freedom Fighters, an homage to Rudman’s often hard right political agenda. The band grew tight as a unit with a series of gigs over the summer. It became a sing along when the band broke into KISS’s “Rock and Roll All Night,” with the audience also fist pumping the air and pounding the table.”
From hard right to hard rock?
In July and August, while Rudman and the Freedom Fighters were rocking across House District 3, more than $43,000 in contributions flowed into Rudman’s campaign account.
He’s found a way to run for reelection without alienating constituents with talk about his policy positions or issues the Legislature must decide.
“I think the American public is sick of politics as usual. They are sick of politics infecting their dinner table, infecting their movie theaters, their professional lives,” said Rudman about the strategy.
Music, he found cuts across all boundaries, political, cultural, and socio-economic status.
“There is no Democrat. There is no Republican in a mosh pit. When you’re head banging to Judas Priest or KISS, you know, it never enters the equation,” said Rudman.
Dr. Rock and the Freedom Fighters pay tribute to the anti-establishment ethos of heavy metal rock and roll but Rep. Joel Rudman’s political career is deeply rooted in Ron DeSantis’ Republican and ultra-conservative ideological agenda.
In 2020, upset about mask mandates and other government COVID-related edicts, Rudman, a family physician, broadcast a series of commentaries on Facebook Live railing against what he called “heavy-handed” tactics of the government.
The response encouraged him to seek a Florida House seat in 2022, under the slogan, “I didn’t go into politics, politics went into medicine.”
He ran as a pro-life Catholic. When asked if he supported a ban on abortion once a heartbeat is detected, he said, “I would support any legislation that protects the unborn.”
Rudman also pledged “100% support” for DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education/Don’t Say Gay bill, and the open carry of firearms.
He won 61% of the Republican primary vote and secured the seat with 99% of the general election vote against a write-in candidate.
The 2024 legislative agenda of Dr. Rock
In Tallahassee, though Rudman quickly established himself as a different kind of lawmaker.
A self-described ‘child of the 1980s, Rudman decorated his Capitol office with a digitally enhanced poster of Gene Simmons reaching out, artwork from John Lennon’s Power to the People CD, and autographed guitars from Rick Springfield and Ted Nugent.
The office refrigerator is a miniature Marshall amplifier, a tribute to the golden era of metal.
He had notable success in his first session, when two of his ideas became law and he was a co-sponsor of a third measure, which Gov. DeSantis signed into law.
All three were health care bills.
Rudman was House sponsor of a Senate bill that allowed doctors and nurses to cite conscience-based objections when refusing to provide patient services.
The bill was one of more than a dozen bills closely watched by LGBTQ advocates who were concerned health care providers and insurers would use it to deny health care or coverage of health care to transgender people.
Rudman, however, argued that he sponsored the bill because society has gone to “Dr. Google,” with patients checking their computer for symptoms and then coming to their doctors with their own recommendation for treatment.
On the less controversial side, he also sponsored a bill to enable military combat medic training to count toward a nursing degree.
And he teamed up with another freshman, the Democratic sponsor of HB 783, which authorizes the emergency injection of NARCAN or other antagonists by caregivers in suspected opioid overdose cases.
Rep. Jervonte Edmonds, D-West Palm, wrote the measure in response to a 22% increase in opioid overdose deaths in three years to 6,442 in 2021.
Recently, Rudman also broke with the Republican establishment when he told the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida that he supports the expansion of Medicaid – an Obama-era proposal still fiercely opposed by Florida Republicans.
“The politics does get involved. But as a physician, I don’t believe health care should be partisan,” said Rudman.
Parking and strange political bedfellows
That is why he said he was glad to help Edmonds with the NARCAN bill, and the sponsorship has led to an across-the-aisle friendship.
The two met in the House parking garage.
“The poor guy got the space next to me and now has to be my friend,” said Rudman.
It’s an odd political pairing. One is an election-denying North Florida Republican and the other is a South Florida Democrat, who accepts the 2020 presidential election as a valid vote count.
The Democrat said he was inspired to enter politics after seeing how government can impacts people lives. The Republican sought office after the government told him to wear a mask.
The two operate mostly on different legislative tracks.
Rudman’s legislative proposals for the 2024 session caters to the professional class, sometimes touching off skirmishes in the broader culture wars.
His Right to Rock Act is a free speech bill for entertainers. It prohibits the cancellation of performances because of an artist’s social media comments or political affiliation.
The measure was inspired by the cancellation of Ted Nugent’s Farewell Tour Birmingham, Alabama, stop after the 73-year-old rocker spoke against same sex bathrooms.
“If you don’t like something, don’t buy a ticket. Better yet, go outside and protest. But to cancel Ted Nugent? That’s not how we do things in America,” said Rudman.
Rudman also filed a bill to prohibit non-compete provisions in labor contracts for doctors. And he would outlaw non-cash only transactions to allow consumers the choice when making a purchase, and limit the waiting period for firearms purchase to three days whether or not a mandatory background check has been completed – theoretically allowing the buyer to acquire the weapon without one.
“Every bill that I’m running out has a motif of freedom,” said Rudman.
His Democratic parking garage neighbor seeks to represent the working class.
Edmonds’ legislative package for 2024 includes better pay for teachers, grants for home mortgages, expanding access to Bright Futures scholarships, and a landlord/tenants bill expanding renters’ rights.
Lawmaker seeks to restore Florida rental rights, require landlords to provide AC
Yet earlier this month when Rudman visited his son at Florida International University, he and Edmonds got together for dinner.
“We just kind of hit if off,” said Edmonds. “The one thing special about him, I think, is we are able to exchange ideas and meet in the middle.”
‘Not a politician’
Edmonds showed up that Wednesday night at Fire Betty’s to see what kind of guitar player Rudman is.
“I think he wants to show that there’s many sides to being a Republican, and this is the avenue that he is using,” said Edmonds.
Edmonds is hoping he and Rudman will team up once again in a bipartisan effort to expand eligibility for Bright Futures scholarships.
Rudman said he loves the idea, but the conversation would have to take place at another time.
Wednesday was not a night for politics but for rock ‘n’ roll, he said.
“He will probably end up co-sponsoring it,” said Edmonds. “I think we have more of the same interest than people think.
Meanwhile, Dr. Rock concluded his performance with an earsplitting rendition of W.A.S.P.’s “Animal ((Expletive) Like a Beast).”
As the final note hung in the air, Rudman stood at the microphone.
“I think that’s probably the first time in American history that a politician has sung that song in public,” said Rudman, who had stripped down to a fishnet top.
“You know what? I’m not a politician,” said the honorable member of the Florida House of Representatives District 3.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee
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