Skip Bafalis

Louis Arthur "Skip" Bafalis (September 28, 1929 – March 10, 2023) was an American businessman and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 10th congressional district from 1973 to 1983. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 1982 Florida gubernatorial election, and previously represented district 33 in the Florida Senate from 1966 to 1970.

Early life
Bafalis was born in Boston, Massachusetts, his father was an immigrant from Greece, and his maternal grandparents came from Sweden. He graduated in 1948 from Manchester Central High School in Manchester, New Hampshire, then attended until 1952 Saint Anselm College in neighboring Goffstown, New Hampshire. He was in the United States Army from 1953 to 1956, having reached the rank of captain. After military service, he moved to Florida in 1955 to work as an investment banker.

Florida legislature
Bafalis was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1964 and then to the Florida Senate in 1966 and 1968. In 1970, he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor, having lost his party's nomination to Claude R. Kirk, Jr., the controversial incumbent. Kirk was subsequently unseated by the Democrat Reubin Askew of Pensacola. In that same election, U.S. Representative William C. Cramer of St. Petersburg lost the U.S. Senate race to Democrat Lawton Chiles of Lakeland. The intraparty divisions stemming from the defeats of both Kirk and Cramer set back the projected growth of the Florida Republican Party.

While in the state legislature, he was one of the leaders in the legislative work necessary to bring Walt Disney World to Florida.

Congress
In 1972, Bafalis was elected to the ninety-third United States Congress (1973–1975) from a newly created district stretching from the Palm Beaches to Fort Myers. He was also elected to the four succeeding congresses and served from January 3, 1975, to January 3, 1983. During his time in Congress, Bafalis resided in Fort Myers Beach and Palm Beach.

As a member of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, he played a key role in several road and highway projects in Florida, including Interstate 95 and new bridges to the Florida Keys and connections from Ft. Myers.

Later career
Bafalis was not a candidate for re-election to the Ninety-eighth Congress in 1982, but was an unsuccessful gubernatorial nominee, having been defeated by the then incumbent Bob Graham, a Democrat from Miami. According to GovTrack, Bafalis missed 8 percent of the roll call votes during his years of service in Congress, but the percent of missed votes reached 80 percent in the second quarter of 1982 when he was campaigning for governor. After his congressional tenure, he worked as a lobbyist and governmental affairs consultant. He tried to make a comeback in 1988 when he ran in the Republican primary for Florida's 13th congressional district when incumbent Connie Mack III gave it up to run for Senate. Bafalis had represented much of this district, including Fort Myers, during his initial stint in Congress. He lost in the primary runoff, however, to Lee County Commissioner Porter Goss.

Personal life and death
As of 2011, Bafalis resided outside Washington, D.C., in Fairfax, Virginia. He was a partner at the Arlington-based government affairs firm Alcalde & Fay. Bafalis had three children, Renee Louise Bafalis, Gregory Louis Bafalis, and Joshua Evan Bafalis. His wife was Charlotte Maria Bafalis.

Bafalis died in Fairfax Station, Virginia, March 10, 2023, at the age of 93.