State Rep. Chip LaMarca, a leading proponent of changing Broward County’s name to “Lauderdale County,” said Tuesday he is pulling the plug on legislation that would have set a November 2026 referendum for voters to decide the issue.
The LaMarca-sponsored legislation won’t be considered in next year’s Florida legislative session and won’t appear on the ballot next year, he said.
The proposal couldn’t overcome skepticism, and strenuous objections in some cases, from many of his elected-official colleagues, something that clearly frustrated the lawmaker.
“For me, it appears at this time that Broward County’s political leadership is comfortable being in third place in the tri-county area, while continuing to fall further behind Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties,” LaMarca told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
Still, he said he wasn’t sorry he introduced the measure that would have had the county’s voters decide the Broward vs. Lauderdale question. “I’m not sorry I brought it forward, but I’m disappointed in the outcome.”
“What I’ve learned from the County Commission to the state Legislature, when you bring a difficult conversion forward you learn a lot about the issue and you also learn a lot about the people you are debating and discussing it with,” LaMarca said.
LaMarca, a former Lighthouse Point city commissioner, has supported a name change since 2011, his first full year on the Broward County Commission. As he prepares for his final legislative session — he leaves office after next year’s election because of term limits — he had hoped it would be a chance to get the referendum before voters.
He said he still thinks it’s a good idea, and will continue to support future efforts to change the name. He said his research into the 1997 addition of Miami to Dade County’s name showed it took 40 years and six failed referendums before voters approved the seventh attempt.
LaMarca said he hopes renaming Broward will come to pass — and won’t take four decades. “Ultimately it’ll be a decision for the voters, and that was my intent from the beginning.
“As a citizen of the county, I would like to see my elected officials work to make our community more attractive to high-paying jobs with America’s top companies,” he said.
The Broward Workshop, the influential organization of the county’s top business executives, recently took up the mantle and began pushing the name change. “The idea will continue with the support of the business community,” LaMarca said.
He said other elected officials and opinion writers “who have come out against this have said that the idea is half baked or will have a large fiscal impact.” LaMarca said they ignored provisions of the legislation that provided a two-year grace period for the name change. He said an even longer period, seven to 10 years, would have been allowed for things like changing signs and labels.
“We have elected officials questioning the cost of vinyl stickers on school buses when they should be counting the hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impacts of a name change,” LaMarca said.
When the Broward Legislative Delegation discussed the proposal last week, colleagues asked about the cost to the School District, including the county name on the sides of buses.
A majority of LaMarca’s colleagues who attended the legislative delegation said they were opposed or wanted a delay so they could get input from the County Commission.
Hours later, County Commissioner Michael Udine withdrew his resolution declaring the County Commission’s support for the legislation when it became clear a majority of his colleagues opposed it.
A public opinion poll released Tuesday morning found overwhelming public opposition to the proposed name change. The survey, from MDW Communications, found that 80% of Broward likely voters opposed the idea and just 7% supported it.
Feelings were intense, with 68% of county voters surveyed said they were “strongly” opposed while only 4% strongly support the idea.
The survey also found large majorities had concerns about the cost of a name change and didn’t buy the argument from proponents that a name change would lead to increased economic growth in the county.
Support and opposition was not defined by political affiliation. In the poll, Republicans and Democrats were equally opposed. Proponent LaMarca is a Republican and proponent Udine is a Democrat. And at the Legislative Delegation, Democrats were split and the county’s two Republican lawmakers were on opposite sides.
State Rep. Robin Bartleman, the delegation chair, said last week she would schedule another hearing at which LaMarca could make another pitch for the referendum bill. LaMarca agreed, but that was before the County Commission discussion.
Bartleman said by text Tuesday that the sponsor’s decision to withdraw the measure means there will not be another hearing.
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.