@PatriciaMazzei
TALLAHASSEE -- State Sen. Gary Farmer was sent to the back of the Florida Senate chamber for a brief timeout Thursday -- because of his shoes.
The Broward Democrat's apparent faux pas: He was wearing sneakers.
In the middle of legislative debate, Senate President Pro Tempore Anitere Flores, a Miami Republican, interrupted the proceedings to point out Farmer's choice of footwear. She called on Rules Chairwoman Lizbeth Benacquisto of Fort Myers to take up the attire matter and instructed the sergeant to keep Farmer near the chamber's back wall.
"I'm not kidding," a straight-faced Flores said, amid grins and chuckles around her.
Farmer, too, was laughing -- clad in his black sneakers with white soles.
Flores later clarified that she was, in fact, joking. "Senator Farmer has been exonerated," she said.
The Senate Rules Manual requires "all persons on the main floor of the Senate Chamber and in the gallery (with the exception of visitors in that portion of the gallery set aside for the general public) shall wear appropriate business attire at all times while the Senate is sitting."
Farmer, a trial attorney and former lobbyist from Lighthouse Point, is known as one of the chamber's nattier dressers, though he faces competition from Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, and Democratic Leader Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens.
For the record the shoes are wingtip oxfords!! #dressshoes #soflastyle
— Senator Gary Farmer (@FarmerForFLSen) May 4, 2017
Photo credit: Scott Keeler, Tampa Bay Times
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