Joe Carlucci was born in Huntington Beach, New York on January 5, 1929. Upon moving to Florida at age 17, he attended Florida State University and was manager of FSU's first football team in 1947-48. After attending the University of Miami Law School for two years, he began his insurance career with State Farm Insurance Company in 1954. In 1962, he opened his own State Farm office in Jacksonville, Florida. Mr. Carlucci's political career began in 1966 with an unsuccessful bid for the Florida Senate tenth district office. In 1968, he was elected as a Councilman-at-large, Group No. 3 to the Jacksonville City Council, with re-election victories in 1971 and 1975. His campaign for the Florida Senate, District 8 office, in 1978 was successful, a position he held until his death on February 1, 1986. On both the local and state levels, Mr. Carlucci's political career was marked by his aggressive and forceful personality and he was often labeled a "maverick" for his lone but determined approach to confronting issues in which he believed strongly. As a Jacksonville City Council member, two of his more significant contributions were his legislation creating the Consumer Affairs Division of the City and his bill regulating the City's hiring of professional services which later served as a model for the state of Florida. During his seven-year tenure in the Florida Senate, many of his contributions were related to reforms of Florida's criminal justice system and child abuse laws. He also served on the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee and became known as "the taxpayers' watchdog" over questionable state expenditures. On a local level, he was particularly proud of legislation which established a lower division at the University of North Florida. Mr. Carlucci was the recipient of numerous awards during his political career, chief among them being the Distinguished Councilman of the Year Award for 1968-69 and 1971-72. In addition, he was honored by various community service groups for his dedication to Jacksonville causes. He was married to the former Louise Moore of Jacksonville and had two children: Michael and Matthew. In 1987, Matthew Carlucci followed in his father's footsteps as a Jacksonville City Councilman, serving as an at-large Council member to 1994. He rejoined the Council in 1999 as a district representative from San Marco / Southside and was elected City Council President for the 2001-2002 term. In August, 2002, he announced his candidacy for Mayor, but finished fourth in the April 15, 2003 election with 20 percent of the vote.

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