Keith Fitzgerald enters race to take on Florida Rep. Buchanan

Former Florida state Rep. Keith Fitzgerald (D) on Thursday entered the race to take on U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), who announced in September he would run for reelection instead of trying for the Senate.

Fitzgerald, 54, teaches political science at New College of Florida, a liberal arts school in Sarasota. He served two terms as a state representative before being ousted by Republican Ray Pilon in 2010.

In an interview with The Hill, Fitzgerald said he felt he had to run for the House, explaining that the political system is so dysfunctional that he felt compelled to do what he could to fix it.

“I always tell students that citizenship is central to the way political institutions are supposed to work, and it’s supposed to come with a sense of obligation,” he said. “I can’t really sit by and watch the country suffer the way it is.”

To win the seat, Fitzgerald will have to overtake Buchanan, a three-term congressman with a war chest of more than $800,000 as of the end of June. But Buchanan’s political life has been fraught with various allegations of ethics and campaign finance violations.

Buchanan’s name had frequently been floated as a possible candidate to take on Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in 2012, but he declined to join that already crowded GOP primary.

With voters angry at Democratic leadership in Washington and clamoring for politicians with business acumen, 2012 will be a difficult year for Democrats with academic backgrounds. But Fitzgerald said he considered his experience as a professor an advantage.

“I’m not going to run away from the fact that I spent my life studying politics, taking it seriously,” he said. “I think we need more people who want to know how we can use government to make people’s lives better, and fewer people who are in a professional political class who simply want to climb the ladder of power.”

Fitzgerald also said the contrast with Buchanan would be clear for voters.

“I drive a beat-up old professor car with the handles falling off because that’s what I can afford, and he’s having trouble unloading his yacht,” he said.

Fitzgerald said he did not expect to outdo Buchanan in fundraising, but that he has the prowess and experience to pull in what is necessary to be competitive. He said his campaign understands that an incumbent can’t be beat with a grassroots campaign alone and that “if it takes playing the game a little bit and being successful at it to get there, I’m willing to do that.”

The newly announced House candidate also weighed in on the controversy surrounding Florida’s decision to hold its presidential primary Jan. 31, which set off a scramble by other early states to move their primary contests even earlier. Fitzgerald said the kerfuffle between the state GOP and the national Republican Party seemed likely to backfire for Republicans, but that he had no problem with it in principle.

“Florida is a big state and it has every right to want to be at the center of the process,” he said.