In January, Brevard County dermatologist Terry Cronin filed his initial paperwork to run for Rep. Debbie Mayfield’s state house seat on the presumption that she would be running to fill State Sen. Randy Fine’s state senate seat due to his candidacy for the Congressional special election. It is a classic Florida case of political musical chairs.
Cronin has certainly been a fixture in the world of dermatology, but this is a fairly new foray into the world of politics. Political observers have already noticed he’s making mistakes and breaking faith with the voters in a demonstrable way.
At the end of last week, information obtained by Florida Daily shows that the residency Dr. Cronin claims he resides in isn’t actually a residency at all.
After reviewing certain documents, Cronin, at best, is leaving us with just more questions, and none of the potential answers are good.
For years, Cronin has lived at his residence, 150 Riverside Drive, in Melbourne Beach, Florida. His wife is registered to vote there and has been at least since 2010. There’s only one problem. It is located in House District 33, not House District 32, the district in which Cronin is a candidate.
Within days of filing to run for Florida State House, Cronin changed his voter registration to 1399 South Harbor City Boulevard, effectively stating that he now lives in the district. However, the address where Cronin claims that he lives has been confirmed as his medical office, and there is absolutely no indication that it is a residence.
Technically, Cronin has some time to fix this because a candidate does not have to actually move into the district he represents until the day of the election. But there seems to be a key problem. On the voter registration form that Cronin used to change his registration to his office, the person who fills it out must acknowledge that it is a 3rd Degree felony to falsely swear, affirm, or otherwise submit false information.
Based on the data gathered by Florida Daily, it seems Cronin is claiming to live in his medical office. One of the pieces of information obtained by Florida Daily is that a code enforcement officer went to Dr. Cronin’s office in the city of Melbourne, and his report confirmed that there was no evidence of any residential activity at the office. Did Cronin give a false statement?
“Cronin would have been better off to just admit that he does not live in the district but say that he is planning to move to the district,” one political consultant familiar with the story told Florida Daily. “Now, he’s having to explain and explain and explain, and there’s an old saying in politics that when you’re explaining, you’re losing.”
