(North Miami, Florida) North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns has announced his candidacy for  the US Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Mel Martinez.

Two other Democrats have already announced their candidacy for the party’s nomination – U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and State Sen. Dan Gelber.  U.S. Rep. Ron Klein also may run.

On the GOP side, Gov. Charlie Crist, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan and former House Speaker Marco Rubio are reportedly considering a run for their party’s nomination.

Burns is a North Miami native.  He lives with with his partner of  24 years and their five-year-old daughter. Before entering politics, he was a real estate broker.

He became mayor in 2005, focusing on education.

Martinez was elected to the Senate in 2004 after winning the GOP nomination in a race marked by one of the nastiest anti-gay campaigns in the history of the Sunshine State.

During the primary, Martinez launched a massive attack on fellow Republican Bill McCollum. A Martinez campaign mailer  called McCollum “the new darling of the homosexual extremists” because he supported a hate crime bill that included protection of gays.

Martinez, a former U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary, was forced to pull a television ad criticizing McCollum’s views on the hate crime bill just two days before the primary.

The Martinez attacks became so aggressive that the influential St. Petersburg Times rescinded its endorsement of Martinez the day before voters went to the polls.  The paper in a editorial accused Martinez of “hateful and dishonest attacks” on McCollum.

“The Times is not willing to be associated with bigotry,” the editorial said.

Martinez was encouraged to run by President George W. Bush’s political advisers.

In the Senate, Martinez said he would oppose the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill and ENDA.  He supported amending the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and said he supported “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”