It may be nothing unusual, but it does seem to me to be a clear conflict of interest for government's top election official, whose job it is to see that an election is conducted impartially and according to the law, to have a partisan position of importance in that election.
It was an elected position.
Governor Jeb Bush appointed Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood as Secretary of State effective February 2003. She leads the Department of State as it transitions from an elected constitutional office to an appointed Governor’s agency.
http://oss.dos.state.fl.us/background.html